Death of a Bridesmaid

"Hi Nan, it's Nan."  That was how we greeted each other when we phoned.  We were both Nancy's.

My buddy, Nancy

Now one of us has died.  Born 12 days apart, we met at university and became inseparable during the three glorious and crazy years we spent wreaking havoc throughout those hallowed halls.  Reading in 'The Globe and Mail' she had died shocked me to the core.  How could she be dead?!  She was only 77 -- same age as I.  How could she be dead?!

She was one of my bridesmaids when I married my first husband, but as close as we once were, we lost touch over the years.  We both moved to Toronto after graduation and both worked in the publishing business, but life intervened.  I moved back to Ottawa, she stayed in Toronto.  I did try to re-connect and we got together a couple of times when she visited Ottawa, or I Toronto.  But life intervened again.  

I think I turned her off during one visit to TO when I incredously asked her why she still smoked?!  She and I both smoked up a storm at Carleton, but I quit 50 years ago.  When I asked her, she got testy and after that, I did not hear from her.  I wonder if she continued to smoke until she died?  She was stubborn, so probably.

She opted not to have kids; I had two and two stepchildren.  As I said, life intervened.  But before it did, we caroused around Ottawa and Hull with various boyfriends hitting all the bars, dance halls, dives and dumps we university students frequented.

One of her boyfriends introduced me my first NHL boyfriend, Bryan Watson.  (My other was Brian Smith, the guy who was tragically shot by a lunatic in the parking lot of CJOH.) With a face like a road map, a nose smashed in and many false teeth, Bryan managed to be the most charming of fellas.  My mother adored him.  

One of our favourite haunts was the 'Chamberlain Hotel' in Alymer.  There we'd order quarts of beer, or a tray of draft at 10 cents a glass and dance to the 'Hughie Scott Band'.  Those were magical days, my friends, and we (literally) soaked them up until closing time at two a.m.  Then I'd have to get up at six to catch the bus to my summer job at Tunney's Pasture.  How I did that, I have no clue?!  Ah, youth.

I'd stagger home after work and tell my Mother I was definitely not going out that night, as I went upstairs and crashed on my bed.  But Bryan would always show up and charm my Mother.  "Dear, Bryan's downstairs and he said he'd wait for you to have a nap."  So, up I'd get, go out and start all over again.

Rest in peace, Nancy my old friend.  My memories will always be of our 'Glory Days'. 

Why?

Apparently, Special US Prosecutor Jack Smith, who lost his attempt to get Trump convicted on charges of providing hush money to one of the latter's paramours, has resigned.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

Please fill me in.  Why is giving someone money a crime?  So, Trump gave money to a call girl.  So what?  Reminds me of the travesty here in Canada in 2013, when Mike Duffy was given $90,000 by Nigel Wright, then chief of staff in Harper's PMO.  So what?  Wright gave money to Duffy for whatever reason and who cares?!  It's a personal matter.  Same with Trump, who, by the way, received no penalty for the so-called "crime".  Correct.  He should not have been penalized.

People get money all the time for providing sexual services -- including respectable wives of rich men.  So, in my world, giving someone money for sex is not a crime. And neither is keeping it a secret.  Extra-marital affair anyone?

What is a crime, however, is the latest Palestinian scandal in Montreal.  Illegal immigrants came to Montreal and set up camp in Victoria Park -- complete with tents and caravans.  They defaced the statue of Queen Victoria and tried to tear it down.  So wrong.  The police eventually evicted them, because law-abiding Montrealers could not use the park, paid for with their tax dollars.  In the process, a few tents and trailers were damaged because the "residents" fought back.

But what did these criminals do?  Why, they hired a lawyer and have now demanded $30,000 each for their illegal occupation of an encampment from which they were correctly evicted.

It's insane!

Pollievre has to clean up our immigration system and all the illegals who are abusing us.  

I'm sick of it.

I also want to tell you about a "God among us" moment the other day.  My 24-year-old Honda Civic would not start because the key would not engage.  Jiggle as I tried, it would not start.  So, there I was, sitting on a side street, outside my daughter's school, where I had been doing extra volunteer reading with some of her grade-two students.  

I love reading with them and am so happy daughter has invited me to participate, but when I tried to start my car, it wouldn't.  Looking across the street, I spied a young man and hailed him.  "My car won't start," I cried.  True to the "Alberta way", he jumped out of his truck.  

"What's the problem," he asked.  "My ignition won't ignite," I said.  So he sat in the driver's seat, took over and jiggled with the key.  It started.  "I'm a mechanic and I know what the problem is," he told me, explaining how to fix it.

What are the odds I would be parked immobile across from a mechanic who could fix my car?!!  

As I said, A God Moment.  

   

   

Will Elizabeth May get the same?

First it was Jack Layton, the woebegone leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP).  Then it was John Horgan, the maladroit leader of B.C's freak NDP party and premier of that bizarre province for two years.

Will the Green Party's hapless Elizabeth May be next?  I mean, how far down the totem will we go?  Mayors?  Local councillors?  High school teachers?  

I'm talking about State Funerals.  These n'er do wells were all given them.  Why?  Who knows, but it must all be about politics and votes.  In Canada, a State Funeral is supposed to be given to prime ministers, members of cabinet and governors general who die while in office.  Last time I checked, neither Layton nor Horgan fit this description.  

And as for May, well forget about it.  She is the one and only member of the Greens in the House, but judging by how cavalierly such funerals are meted out, I would not be surprised if she gets one too.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was cornered at a cocktail party by May?  Gawd!  I thought I would die on the spot of boredom!  She blathered on and on and said nothing, while I fortified and steeled myself with a few glasses of wine.  It was torture!  

I mean seriously.  Canada has lost its pathetic way.  

And speaking of pathetic, Justin Trudeau has finally resigned.  But not really because he's going to hang around until the end of March while a new leader is chosen.  So, when Trump gets into office, we'll be trounced because we will have a lame-duck eunuch of a prime minister bumming around.

"Forgotten, but not gone", is how JFK once described  a hanger on still in his employ.  That'll be Trudeau.  As I have told you, my stepson played soccer in the same league as little Justin in the early eighters.  He was a spoiled brat then.  One morning, as Margaret was lounging stoned on the pitch sidelines, Justin picked up a rock and smashed it over my stepson's head.  What did Margaret do?  Why, she roared with laughter and did nothing to discipline her wretched, spoiled child.

Our still PM

That's why he turned out as he did.  A narcissistic, entitled man-child who has brought our country to the edge of ruin.  His hubris knows no bounds.  B thinks it will take eight years for us to recover, but Justin is determined to continue to wreak havoc to ensure Pollievre inherits an unholy mess.

The poor guy.

And as for Mark Carney, the best description I can come up with is "unelectable snob".  Everyone goes on about his brilliant career, but remember, he was appointed to a five-year term as governor of the Bank of England, but fired after just two.  Ever wonder why?  Yeah, exactly.

   

 

A shout out to first responders

A member of my family is a first responder and he deserves a huge shout out for the work he does.  He had to attend the scene of the brutal murder of a Calgary mother of three young children, killed by their father.  After shooting his wife, the husband next went to his father-in-law's home and murdered him too.  Then he shot himself, leaving three babies parent-less.

The very next day, this stalwart firefighter showed up at B's birthday lunch, looking happy and cheerful.  How he does this, I do not know?  But I am very proud of him.

Brave and selfless first responders

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On another front, the 'Globe and Mail' featured a front-page story of a native woman from the Wikemikoong reserve on Manitoulin Island who had to boil her drinking water for 14 years.  Naturally, I asked myself why?  

Pulling back the curtain, as is my wont, I learned that only 8,431 souls inhabit this reserve -- a reserve given $13 billion in 1995 for use of its land and another $10 billion from the Robinson Huron treaty.  In addition, they received $1.4 billion in the "Cows and Plows" settlement in 2024.

That's a TON of money.  So, why did she have to boil her water?  Why didn't the chiefs of her reserve install a filtration system?  And why didn't 'The Globe' look into, and publish, these facts?  Because they were inconvenient and ruined the narrative of the woebegone woman who had to boil her water.

Naturally, she doesn't look to her own leadership for answers.  OMG, never!  She blames "Ottawa".   Why, of course she does. 

The 1.8 million native in this country are handed more than $32 billion a year.  Adding in all the other Indigenous groups that are also handed money, it amounts to $2,034,970,155.  That's more than $2 trillion!!$!@#%^^$@!!

If you're sick of it all, trust me, I am too.

Has been's and never was's

That's about what comprises the new cabinet Trudeau has just unfurled.  I've never heard of one of them!?  This gang will only be around for a few weeks before the government is defeated in a non-confidence motion, so hopefully they won't do too much damage, but at least they'll get limos and other perks during their 15 minutes of fame.

John Ibbitson called Canada a failed state. "One definition of a failed state is that it has no functioning national government and by that standard, Canada is failing pretty badly," he wrote.  We're actually on a par with Haiti and other dumps, thanks to Trudeau who will not resign, leaving us floundering and weak.

Donald Trump is so right.  He's going to clobber us.  That clown show at Rideau Hall looked more like a hostage taking than anything else with all the clowns running around dressed in their finest 'Emperor's New Clothes'.

The King and his courtiers.

Trudeau knows that in the wake of Freeland's resignation, the opposition parties are ready to end his government as soon as they get the chance.  He must also know that if he leads the party into an election, the Liberals will suffer a catastrophic and humiliating defeat as bad as what voters delivered to Brian Mulroney in 1993, when only two Conservatives were elected.  But still our narcissistic "leader" clings to power like the dictator he is.

_______________________________

Another story that smacked me in the gob this morning was the report released by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) that found that no wrongdoing was committed by the RCMP and no racism in the arrest of the chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Allan Adam.  I was smacked because I was sure they would dump all over the RCMP and they didn't.

Adam, you will remember, was the guy who was cited in a casino parking lot for an expired licence tag.  Instead of taking his ticket like a civilized grown up, he got out of his truck, dropped his coat, took off his ring and assumed a fighter's stance, fists raised.  

The report says that Adam and his wife refused to cooperate, became aggressive, threatened assault, started yelling about racism and made death threats.  The RCMP officer, himself an East Indian, told the investigation, "Last time I checked, I'm an Indian.  Race did not play a part in any way in this arrest.  I don't pull people over just because I don't like the colour of their skin.  No," he said.

Mr. Adam also told the officer to go back to his own country and blamed him for COVID.

Naturally, Adam went public and sent pictures of his injuries to all the media, who obediently printed them as usual with the assertion that Adam was targeted because he is Indigenous.

All poppycock and I am glad SIRT put the record straight.  For once.  The report doesn't say what Adam was on, but I'll bet he sure didn't want to blow.

    

Katie Telford finally struck out

I have been telling you for a long time who runs Trudeau and his government (See "Last time I checked..." July 31, 2020).  It's Katie Telford.

Once again, she arrogantly assumed she would prevail in her cat fight with Chrystia Freeland -- so much so that she jetted off to New York this past weekend with her family for a little holiday and even posted gay pictures of her brood on Instagram.  Telford obviously had no clue that the wily Freeland would punch her in the political gut by resigning first thing Monday morning.  

Talk about a hangover.  This woman began as a glorified secretary, but quickly overtook the dim and incompetent prime minister to rise as his alter ego.  The latest example was his groveling, knee-bending-ring-kissing dinner date in Mar-a-Lago to sit at the feet of the incoming president.  As finance minister, Freeland was the one who should have been with him.  But no, he had to have Katie there to hold his hand and put words in his mouth. 

Make no mistake.  Telford is in charge.  Period the end.

Finally, political toady Freeland had had enough.  She quit with a flourish rarely seen in Ottawa.  Her public letter of resignation was a beauty.  Frankly, I couldn't have written a better one myself in all its savagery.

A toady no more

The fact that Freeland was an incompetent finance minister is a given.  She did the PMO's bidding for far too long to the detriment of all Canadians  She should have followed Bill Morneau's example and quit a long time ago.  Morneau, you will remember, is the guy who refused to craft a political budget and walked away.  Freeland took the abuse and kept delivering budgets that have ruined Canada.  This time, she turned.

So, we have another example of Trudeau -- the avowed "feminist" -- kicking yet another woman to the curb.  He did it to Jody Wilson-Raybould.  He did it to Jane Phillpott and he did it to Celina Caesar-Chavannes, an MP from Ontario.  And let's not forget his performance in the House of a few years ago, when he crossed the aisle to manhandle and shove Cheryl Gallant right out the door of the House of Commons.  That one should have resulted in an assault charge, but of course didn't.  

And how about his affair with an underaged student in Vancouver a few years ago.  The word "paedophile" springs to mind.  He will not resign, I guarantee you.  He just appeared at a Christmas party for Liberal staffers, as arrogant and aggressive as ever.  It was unbelievable!  

Trudeau's problem is that he inherited his money, so he didn't have to learn anything.  He became a monster because he was allowed to.  Now it's time to exit stage left, but he won't.  

       

Love young women like Abi

One of my young friends, Abi, is a provincial Mixed Martial Arts champion.  She also plays on a rugby team.  Here she is:

MMA champ Abi

So great to see young women putting it all out there!