In a cocked hat......

That's where Canadian values have been chucked. Apparently, our heritage has been erased, if you believe comments made by the head of the Canadian Sikh community on 'The Agenda' last evening. Articulate and well-meaning, this chap announced that Canadian values are based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Huh??!! No they're not. The Charter is about ten minutes old. Canada was founded on Judaeo-Christian principles, the Magna Carta, the ten commandments, the rule of law, do unto others, democracy...and all that stuff. It was not founded on my-right-to-do-whatever-I-please-whenever-I-please. But that's what we have become: a country in which the rights of the individual now supercede those of the greater community. That's the philosophy that bred the Vancouver hockey riots. How's that workin' for ya? Can't wait to move to Alberta. Just as England has moved out of London and into the countryside, so Canada has moved out of the Eastern cities and into the West.

Just for good measure, the next guests on Steve Pakin's usually sane show featured a woman who was enraged that Canada was not hands-on-involved in the internal politics of The Sudan, along with a guy representing Toronto's black community who wanted to know what Canada had done for black people since Pierre Trudeau. Whaaaaaaaaaat!$%#&%$!!?
I mean, seriously. The Sudan? Canada should be marching in the streets of Sudan? Josipa Petrunic, a "fellow" at U of T, was beside herself because..."many brilliant potential political candidates here in Canada were forced to go back to Sudan when Canada disengaged from that country's internal struggle". Isn't that where they should be in the first place, back engaging in the struggle in their own country? What am I missing here? Please tell me?

The Toronto guy sat there complaining that no one since Trudeau had done anything for the Black community. Huh? Apparently, that's the reason the black community is disengaged from Canada at the moment. Huh? Didn't Kennedy say, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Huh? Isn't that the way it works? Apparently not in Toronto. This guy then had the gall to add that he had told his community not to vote for the party in power because they had decided not to fund a local cultural centre. Hey, fund your own.

Speaking of the hockey riots, the show next swung into a piece about the Vancouver police chief who was described as an "Asian Canadian". Apparently, his cultural background was one of the big reasons he was surprised at the brutality of the riots. Huh? Isn't a police chief supposed to know that stuff is coming? Isn't a police chief supposed to expect the worst? Isn't that what police are for? Aren't they supposed to protect us from our criminal selves? They're not there to high-five the crowds, for G-d's sake. If he doesn't resign, he should be fired for incompetence. Yeah, right. Just try that in Pol-Corr Vancouver. And isn't the chief a Canadian of (fill-in-the-blank extraction) -- not an "Asian Canadian"? The insanity of it all is very depressing. People seem to come to Canada bent on establishing a perfect version of their home countries. What they seem to forget is that they are in Canada -- not in a perfect Sudan or Jamaica or China. Poor old politically-correct Steve-O needs to give his head a shake!

And don't call any of this racist. It's cultural -- nothing to do with race. That's why so many Canadians don't speak up. They fall into the trap laid by the PCs that any discussion of culture is automatically racism. Don't go there. I'm not talking about a certain kind of police chief. I am discussing the generic job description of "police chief". As I said, it's a clever plot.

Getting ready to move, we have had to de-clutter and touch up. In the process I have discovered the greatest product know to man: liquid paper. Seriously, I needed to cover a few nicks here and there in the kitchen and bathrooms, but didn't want to get into a whole painting deal. Spying an old bottle of the stuff, I wondered if it would work on a cupboard edge? Perfectly. Just a little dab and the door was perfect. So armed, I proceeded to inspect the entire condo and am delighted to report that many dabs later, everything looks like new. It's completely amazing!

To my friends and colleagues in the tax department, I gave yet another lecture on how Canada works to an unsuspecting hotelier in Niagara-on-the-Lake. This chap was bragging about how he pays as little tax as possible. Looking around at the immaculate sidewalks, flower beds and lawns, I asked who paid for all this stuff? Well, he bragged, we do in our taxes. (He really should have said "they" do; he was big into tax evasion.) But that's it exactly. Don't want to pay taxes? Move to Greece or Spain or Italy or Portugal.......or wherever. That's what not paying your taxes gets you. Buddy, it's a privilege to pay taxes in this magnificent Canada. You don't get a heart transplant in the underground ecomony of Little Italy or Chinatown. That's not how it works. And the next time you find yourself bitching about being held up in traffic because of road work, remember: those are your beautiful tax dollars at work making your city more beautiful. Hey, as I said, if you don't want a working society, if you don't want a functional infrastructure, if you don't want health care, move to Greece or Spain or Italy or Portugal....or whatever.