He always looks as if.....

.....he is delivering a eulogy.  I'm talking about Mark Carney.  There he is, shoulders stooped, mouth drooping and speech dull and monotonous.  He has absolutely no enthusiasm whatsoever in the positions he iterates.

That guy needs a course in dealing with the public and the media.  Mr. McL, are you listening?  Watching his many gaffes shows I was absolutely correct when I said he will not be able to cast off his 'Sun King' cloak and don that of a dirty, scrappy politician.  How off-side can you be when you actually defend Paul Chiang as a candidate?!  The guy suggested that his opponent be kidnapped and taken to Beijing for prosecution and maybe death. 

That was insane, but there was the hapless Carney, calling it a "teachable moment"!  I mean seriously!  His team must have finally convinced him to drop the candidate, which he finally did today -- not admitting he was wrong to defend him, however, just saying Chiang had tendered his resignation and Carney had accepted it.

Carney demonstrated a complete lack of leadership and that does not cut it.  The problem is, Canadians are so desperate for a change from Trudeau that they are overlooking all Carney's faults, weaknesses and missteps.  For the moment, he remains a "Davos Darling Saviour". 

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Had an interesting encounter yesterday with B's doctor.  Asking him about his background and speciality, I learned he was a child psychiatrist filling in for B's regular physician.  "How can children need a psychiatrist?" I inquired.  "It's really the parents who need one," he replied.  Then we got onto children's atrocious diets.  He told me that many of his little patients are served only chocolate milk and noodles.  "What?!!" I exclaimed.  "The parents tell me that's all they will eat," he replied.

Insane, I replied.  I agree, he said.  "When I was a kid, I ate what was put in front of me.  I remember once sitting in front of a plate of liver 'til 11 o'clock at night," I said.  "I finally ate it and it only had to happen once.  If it got too late, it came out cold for breakfast," I explained.

His eyes widened and he replied -- quite seriously, "I am going to encorporate that into my practice."  So there you have it.  I may have saved many children from mental illness by changing their parents' eating habits.  Made me quite proud, actually.

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Trump's flauting and ignoring of the American Constitution has gone too far.  But no one will impeach him because they are scared sh-tless of him.  Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was impeached for having consensual sort-of sex with a White House intern.  How does that make any sense!?

If you think Clinton was the only powerful politician to have had sex with an underling you are sadly mistaken.  Frankly, it's one of the reasons men run for office:  So they can get away from their wives and live the Life of Riley in Ottawa.  I worked for one of Trudeau senior's ministers and I was regularly propositioned and pressured into agreeing to have sex with him.  I didn't, but the pressure was routine and no one batted an eye.  He finally gave up and moved on to some other victim.

If you don't want that kind of life, don't work for a minister.  But it wasn't all bad.  There were many delicious perks -- like flying to exotic places in a government challenger and dining with other rich and powerful people.  No one raped anyone and frankly, I loved it!

Happily, I landed a job in the department so didn't have to deal with fending off that minister again.

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A word about immigration.  Why do we even need immigration lawyers?  There are clear rules and laws governing immigration, so if illegals get into Canada, they should be rounded up and deported.  They should also be housed in less luxurious settings than five-star hotels while they await their ride home; they should never need lawyers.  Countries have borders for a reason. 

Illegals being welcomed into Canada.

There is also something called 'The Immigration and Refugee Board', but we shouldn't even need that.  Giving them asylum means there is now a four-year waiting list to hear a case.  Wrong.  If you come to Canada illegally, you are by definition, a criminal.  They need to go before they can have children and plead their case.

Call me a right-wing radical, but I believe in a rules-based system with laws and borders that are actually obeyed.  Guess these days that makes me one.

 

Why?

Why is Manitoba spending millions trying to find the remains of Indigenous women who went missing from downtown Winnipeg in a local landfill?  I know, I know, this sounds callous, but why?   

The precious, immortal souls of these women are now with God.  That's the important thing; the bodies in which they were housed are not.

A number of years ago, a loved one was travelling alone in Europe.  When I could not reach her for a number of days, I assumed she had been killed somehow.  This is due to my natural anxiety, which is always high.  I decided then and there I would not scour Europe to find her remains.  I decided to focus on knowing she was in Heaven with The Lord because that's what I believe.  (Note:  She was fine; just a temporary phone glitch.)    

The four Manitoba women, however, led very dangerous lifestyles on the streets, so knew the lives they were living carried huge risks.  Take Ashlee Shingoose.  She was the 30-year-old Indigenous mother of three, whose kids had been removed because of the neglect and harm her lifestyle was causing them.

Shingoose's parents on the front page of 'The Globe and Mail' today.

The guy who murdered her has been caught, tried and incarcerated, so continuing with the torture to her family by dragging it out is pointless, in my opinion.  Naturally, no one will ever say this, but, as usual, I do.  

Note:  That's why I have a blog -- so I can express taboo opinions.  As I said to a woman I met at a cocktail party a few years, who haughtily looked down her nose and told me she didn't agree with a lot of my blogs, "If you don't like them, don't read them."  By the way, I didn't even know this woman, so her disdain made me burst out laughing!

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Speaking of taboo, why is Donald Trump continuing his assault on Canada?  Worse, how can he get away with ignoring legal contracts and treaties with impunity and gay abandon!?  It seems no one -- and I mean no one -- can stop him.  There's something very wrong when the president of the United States can turn into a dictator while laws, governments and courts are powerless to stop him.

As for our "saviour" Mark Carney, I predict Trump will take an instant dislike to his elite, buttoned-down persona.  That's just the way Trump is:  He either likes you or he doesn't.  And God help you if he doesn't.  What began as a bit of a giggle, is now getting very scary.

I also predict that Bob Fife's words of a few years ago will come true.  "The NDP are toast," he said on 'Power Play'.  It's taken a while, but Singh should have stopped supporting the Liberals a year ago and triggered an election.  At least then he might have at least held onto his seat.  He won't now and the NDP will go the way of the Conservatives in 1993, when the latter's huge majority crumbled to just two seats and they lost official party status.  That's what's in store for Singh, thanks to his determination to hang on until he was eligible for a multi-million-dollar pension.

That was dumb.

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A word about the verbose and turgid Andrew Coyne.  Slogging through his tortuous column today, I alit (or is it "alighted"?) on one word:  "Arguably".  Why use this word?  Either you stand behind your point, or you don't.  Saying something is "Arguably a cause for.....", as he wrote today, weakens your point and turns it into a puzzle.

Ah well, that's the sonorous, bombastic and pompous Coyne for you.  All his columns appear to be defending some sort of PhD thesis.  Please, Andrew, pare your thoughts down to one or two clear sentences, have a point and push yourself away from the keyboard.  With his work, I read nothing but the last paragraph to get his point -- if he has one.  

Oh how I wish I were his editor!

    

Showing his colours already

As I have been saying, Mark Carney is a dyed-in-the-wool globalist and WEFer who worships at the altar of wokery.  What did he decide would be the best move right after being anointed prime minister of Canada?  Why, fly off to Paris and London of course.

There's no doubt the Tariff Terrorist to our south is wreaking havoc, but Carney should have shown he at least has some awareness that he is King of Canada by taking a couple days to visit the good burghers of a few token cities and towns this side of the border before running off to Europe where he is apparently most at home.  He has evidently completely forgotten the little hamlet in which he was born, Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories.  No, now he is a self-declared European.

Saw a clip of him in France claiming that, "Canada is the most European non-European country in the world".  He also claimed that he is really a European because he holds both Irish and British passports, along with Canadian.

What is he playing at?!  But it wasn't bad enough that he flew off across the Atlantic in our time of dread, he also dragged along his wife.  Talk about bad optics.  Apparently the financial crisis is so dire he has to down tools and run to Paris and London, but then he destroys that altogether by making it look like a pleasure trip by carting the wife along for sightseeing and souvenir shopping.

Mark and Diana

That's just dumb.  Evidently, he has very poor advisors or doesn't listen to anyone who might have a clue about how to look "prime ministerial" and "in charge".  I suspect, having been a King for years, he just does what he pleases, listening to no one.

He has an M.A and PhD, not in economics, but in philosophy.  Think about that for a minute.  His wife -- who I at first thought was his Mother -- also has degrees in philosophy and is also a rabid greenie, so whatever he says -- or doesn't say -- in public, the pillow talk in that household will be all about net zero and if he gets in, he'll enact it.  These two have a Trojan Horse full of environmental goodies they'll unleash when he gets elected.

The other problem Carney has is arrogance.  Just saw him "answering" questions and he actually said to Rosemary Barton, "Rossie, look inside yourself," as he angrily and condescendingly brushed her question off.  I'm no fan of Rosie, but that was astounding!  If the public gets another whiff of his arrogance, he's in trouble. 

His latest gaff is inviting Zelensky to the upcoming G7 meeting here in Alberta.  Why would he do that?  It makes no sense.  The guy has no clue whatsoever about perception in the public thoroughfare.  Someone needs to get him in hand if they want him to succeed.     

(Note:  I don't know if my old colleague, the shrewd B McL, reads my blogs every now and then, but I would love to know what his expert opinion is on this move.  I bet he would have advised against it.  The other thing he desperately needs is a media relations course.  "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."  Cause he isn't.)  

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A word about the Leafs:  Did you know that the average season ticket price of a seat is.....wait for it....sit down.....hydrate.....$11,900 !#$%!@%^!!!  Who would pay that to watch that dismal team??!!??  Apparently lots of people because there is a years-long waiting list for tickets!  

I am so out-of-it.  

Sweet

I was back at the local elementary school today, helping some of my daughter's grade two students with remedial reading.  Still eight, they are so sweet, keen and try so hard.  When it's time for me to depart, a few girls always run over to give me huge hugs -- something which would never have happened when I was in grade two in the fifties.

One of my pupils also made me a gift:

From Clarissa.

She is one of 10 children (so far) in her family and just a delightful little girl.

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But a word about Carney's swearing in today as our new prime minister.  "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", was all I could think when he announced his cabinet.  The same, old tired hacks recycled into different portfolios, however he did dump some of the more radical and hysterical ministers.  Steven Guilbeault has been dumped from environment, but I bet Carney will unleash his rabid green agenda if he wins a seat in the election which will be called shortly.  I mean, the guy doesn't have a seat, so where would he sit?  In the public gallery?  Ludicrous.

When it comes to political analysis, Lisa Raitt and Stephanie Levitz, along with Bob Fife, are the people I listen to.  They all agree Carney will announce an election before the House returns.  How would it look if the first thing that happened was getting bounced in a vote of confidence.  So, the ragtag gang of re-hashed ministers will not even need to unpack before they get on the road to nowhere.

Speaking of ragtag, why would he keep Freeland in any portfolio?  That does not denote a Gordie-Howe-elbows-up approach to the blood sport of politics.  Is Carney too nice for the game?  Is he too used to politesse?  He better get over that in a hurry because he is no longer in the civilized board rooms of international trade and bespoke bankers.  He's in a cesspool of kill or be killed, where even a $16 glass of orange juice can spell doom.

As for Singh, don't count on him to defeat this government.  Regardless of what he says, Singh does not want an election because not only will he lose his own seat, but his party will also be reduced to non-official status and the money that accompanies that status will poof.  How could he pay for his $1,500 suits, his BMW and his Rolex without it?

As Bob Fife once said, "The NDP are toast."

I also heed the thoughts of Victor Davis Hanson (he's on YouTube, watch him) who points out that Carney remains a Davos, WEF, globalist just as was Trudeau.  I mean the guy has just been elected prime minister and what are his first moves?  To jet off to London and Paris.  Were I advising him, I would have recommended a trip to Renfrew or Brockville.  If his international jaunts aren't the moves of a globalist, I don't know what are.

I also didn't like the way he handled himself in that media Q & A outside Rideau Hall.  He was sarcastic, condescending and talked down to the press.  Not a good move when that's the bunch that holds all the influential pens in the public thoroughfare.  

Carney is used to being surrounded by "yes men".  That's over.  The other question is, where will he run?  Can't be out here, where the Liberals are viscerally loathed.  As for Trump, who runs his shop on personality and the cut of a jib, I bet he has already taken an instant dislike to our new PM, which does not bode well for the country as we battle the Tariff Terrorist currently occupying the Oval Office.    

As I say, hang onto your hats.

Creative treaty interpretation

Trump is following in Putin's footsteps when it comes to shaky treaties.  Putin is claiming that Ukraine isn't really a legitimate country at all, that it really belongs to Russia.  

Same with Donald Trump.  He is claiming that the US/Canada treaty of 1908, signed in Washington on April 11th of that year, which finally clearly delineated the border between the two countries, is invalid, that Canada has actually belonged to the US all along.

That's what he is hanging his hat on with his determination to annex Canada for our water and minerals.  He's also talking about the 300 percent tariffs Quebec puts on imports of dairy and eggs via the supply management systems in place.  That's a convenient fact Trump and Karoline Leavitt are jumping on to bolster their arguments about reciprocal tariffs.  Those supply management systems need to be dismantled, but they won't be.  Quebec has too many seats to risk that move.

I hope either Carney or Poilievre are up to the task at hand.  I don't know what Trump thinks of either potential PM, but I suspect he will take an instant dislike to Carney.  Carney is the opposite of The Donald.  He's polished, buttoned down and a bit precious; Trump is the exact opposite.

Will he detest him as much as he does Trudeau and Freeland?  We'll see.

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Listening to a YouTube podcast about the criminal, anti-Israel-pro-Hamas student demonstrations that took place last April at Columbia University in New York, I was shocked that the mayhem and destruction was allowed to run unchecked and amok for so long.  Who let this happen?  

Pro-Hamas mayhem at Columbia.

So I pulled back the curtain and guess who was the president?  Someone named Minouche Shafik.  Her biography told me everything.  Born in Egypt to Muslim parents, naturally she has to be anti-Israel in her heart of hearts, as all Muslims are.  It's in their DNA.  As I always say, you can't hide your core beliefs and culture.  You can try papering them over with a long list of dazzling academic credentials, but you can't erase your core beliefs.

This must have been the case with Ms. Shafik.  She finally called in the police, but delayed far too long while buildings were overrun and destroyed.  That's why Trump just pulled $400 million in federal funding from the place.  He's nothing if not serious about his agenda.

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A word about the American media -- especially CNN.  They have been claiming that Britain is in trouble because Trump will not be visiting there first, as is always the case with a new president.

No, new presidents always visit Canada first.  

In another act of ignorance, when then-Prince Charles was visiting the US around Remembrance Day a few years ago, they lamented about how sad it was that he had to wear a fake flower on his lapel.  They didn't even know it was a poppy!

When I was plying my journalism trade in Toronto in the late sixties -- my glory days hanging out with the likes of Margaret Wente and Christie Blatchford -- I would never have been able to get away with such inaccuracies.  The brutal Jean Portugal, my ruthless editor with the bright red pen, would have insisted I got it right.

Rest in peace Mrs. Portugal.  We will never see your equal. 

Random observations

So, today's the day Mark Carney is expected to walk away wearing the Liberal leadership crown and thus be anointed our prime minister.  

His Majesty's Crown

Trudeau's weepy and pathetic speech about his "dedication" to the country was nauseating.  "Every single day, I have done what was best for Canadians.  I have always had your backs," he blubbered.

It was pathetic because if ever anyone has put his globalist, woke-and-broke, DEI agenda ahead of his country it was Trudeau.  He tried, but repeatedly failed, to impress other world leaders with his farcical socks and smug ignorance at every conference and meeting into which he crashed.  He was an embarrassment at every turn.

An old colleague of mine from our public service commission days, who now runs a very successful consulting firm, said in a recent newsletter said that Carney must find room for Freeland and Gould in his cabinet.  Gould maybe, but Freeland never.  She will be the one to make sure the cabinet is continually riven because, frankly, she can't shut up.   

Will she defer to Carney?  Never.  Just can't help herself.  Thinks she is always the smartest person in the room and hectors everyone within earshot -- including the long-suffering public.  Does she listen?  Why do you think every senior ADM and DM with whom she worked at Finance immediately retired when she took over?  Exactly.  I knew those guys when I was with Customs and Excise.  They are very smart and would not take kindly to an ill-informed ex-journalist telling them which end was up.

Do we really want a prime minister who parades around in too-tight-too-short dresses with unkempt hair flopping everywhere?  And those pearls!  Gawd.

So, Mr. Carney, dump her.

He also needs to completely clean out the PMO -- especially Katie Telford.  She controlled Trudeau's his every thought and planned his every move.  I mean, the guy couldn't even wipe his backside unless she handed him the toilet paper.

So, Mr. Carney, dump her too.

But what everyone needs to remember is that Carney is a declared woke, DEI, green lunatic.  Just read his book, 'Values', it's all in there.  He wants net zero in 10 minutes and a load of other things that cannot come to pass.  Just ask Liz Truss and a number of other British politicians and journalists I watch on YouTube and they'll tell you how he helped destroy the British economy with his green ideologies.  He's hiding all that for the moment, but mark my words, it'll come to pass and we'll be much worse off when it does.

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What to make of Trump's taking a chainsaw to the public service?  Fareed Zakaria exposed the many lies he has told on his show this morning, but none matters because Trump's base is as ill-informed as Freeland.  As Zakaria pointed out, you can quickly slap tariffs on, but it takes decades to remove them.  He pointed to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which levied similar tariffs on everything imported into the US.  Great idea at the time, but those tariffs were not completely lifted until the nineties -- 60 years later!    

Trump's actions remind me of Teddy Roosevelt's heated exchange with fellow Republican congressmen in 1902, when the president threatened to bring in federal troops to reopen anthracite mines which had been closed because of a strike.  One said, "What about the constitution?"  To which Roosevelt, shaking his colleague by the shoulders, said, "To Hell with the constitution when the people want coal!"

That prompted representative Joseph Cannon to say, "Roosevelt's got no more respect for the constitution that a tomcat for a marriage licence!"

I think that applies to Trump, but it appears the judiciary is stepping up to reign him and Musk in on some of their more outlandish moves.  As I said, buckle up! 

Very worrisome

A friend sent me this, however, the source is 'The Guardian'.   I am posting it because if any of it is true, it is very worrisome indeed:

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► Trump was first compromised by the Russians back in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money and it continued for decades. In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider possible business prospects. Only seven weeks after his trip, Trump ran full-page ads in the Boston Globe, the NYT and WaPO calling for, in effect, the dismantling of the postwar Western foreign policy alliance. The whole Trump/Russian connection started out as laundering money for the Russian mob through Trump's real estate, but evolved into something far bigger.

► In 1984, David Bogatin — a Russian mobster, convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob. (NY Times, Apr 30, 1992)

► Felix Sater is a Russian-born former mobster, and former managing director of real estate conglomerate Bayrock Group LLC located on the 24th floor of Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Michael Cohen, Trump's former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob. This goes back more than 30 years.

► Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Bayrock. Bayrock was run by two investors: Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former Soviet official who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic; and Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman who had pleaded guilty in the 1990s to a huge stock-fraud scheme involving the Russian mafia. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and poured money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management.

► Semion Mogilevich was the brains behind the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich operatives have been using Trump real estate for decades to launder money. That means Russian Mafia operatives have been part of his fortune for years, that many of them have owned condos in Trump Towers and other properties, running their operations out of Trump's crown jewel.

► One of the most important things that is often overlooked is that the Russian Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. That is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they operated out of the home of a president of the United States is deeply disturbing.

Beware