He gets the Order of Canada?!

Gord Downie?!!  Really!!!!!  For what?  For having terminal brain cancer and befriending natives?  Yep, that's about it.  Talk about de-valuing the currency of this honour, wow!  But then Trudeau skipped out on his PM duties a while ago to go to one of The Hip's concerts, so he's a fan and guess who makes the appointments. 

Inappropriately, Downie looked like a complete bum at Rideau Hall walking up to the Governor General who was awaiting.  The guy is a shaman "townie" from Kingston.  And to have the GG pin the undeserved medal on this egomaniac's tattered jean jacket was the ultimate insult to a fine gentleman decked out it appropriate formal attire.  Here is how Downie appeared:

 

Give the guy the Governor General's Award of Excellence in the Performing Arts, he certainly deserves that, but not the Order of Canada.  The natives don't need any more encouragement, thanks.

And then there was the bro-ha-ha when David Johnston called the natives "immigrants".  Well duh, they were.  "...our, quote indigenous people, unquote, who were immigrants as well 10, 12, 14,000 years ago," said the GG.  Correct, which is why he said, "quote unquote" to denote that they weren't really indigenous because we all came from Africa and Asia, or the "Garden of Eden" as many people believe.  Just to clarify, a Nigerian friend told me, the Garden of Eden is in Africa, Nancy.  Well, of course it is.  I recently had my "23 and Me" genetics done and we all started with the same basics, i.e., Neanderthal.   

On cue, grievance-culture mobs went insane when the GG called natives "immigrants", calling for Johnston to resign.  But as Globe columnist John Ivison pointed out in an excellent piece today, they have the wrong man.  "A less reactionary public figure is hard to imagine," Ivison wrote.  Apparently, "migrant" would have been a better word because there was no immigration system when they crossed the Bearing Straight.  But frankly, I never know what to call natives?  Yes, they came first, but they are not "first nations" because they are not "nations"; look it up.  Neither are they indigenous because they didn't poof here from the start of mankind as we know it.  As I said, that happened in Africa.  And I certainly would never refer to them as "Indians", a nomenclature mistakenly applied when early explorers thought they had landed in India.   

"There is a strain of righteousness that is so convinced of its own veracity that it de-bases perceived opponents," Ivison points out.  "It is not a tactic that will work on this Governor General.  When your reputation is built on a lifetime of flying straight, it is hard to warp."

Quite right.