Politics matters: Seeking asylum, selling pot, building pi

It was a week of strategizing by all three main federal parties, with the Liberal caucus talk-festing in Kelowna, B.C., the Conservatives meeting in Winnipeg, and the NDP leadership candidates thumping their chests with new endorsements.
But against the backdrop of record-breaking hurricanes, a massive earthquake and a tsunami warning touching places where so many Canadians have spent happy days, the machinations of Canadian politics seemed small indeed.
The devastating weather events seeped int