Paid off again

 Had our lunch compted again (see "Speak to a person," August 10/20).  Once again, I chatted with the server, asked her her name, where she was going to school, what she was studying and low and behold, the manager came over and said they were taking care of our entire meal -- drinks, main and dessert!  So, that makes it nearly $200 this restaurant has covered for us.  

"Staff are told to pick one table for us to treat and today it's you guys!" said the manager.  I was flabbergasted.  This was the same Earl's in Dalhousie that had treated us before, but the server was different, so she obviously didn't know they'd just covered a meal for us.  

That's amazing!  So, folks, as my dear late mother used to say, "Speak to a person, dear."  

In chatting with the female server (I was going to say "waitress", but I guess that's over.  I still say "stewardess" instead of "flight attendant", by the way), we started talking about The Beatles and I mentioned that B had played drums with them.  This is a true story!  He was at the London School of Economics in August, 1961, having won a scholarship out of Sir George Williams University in Montreal, and was visiting some cousins in Liverpool.  "Let's go to the Cavern Club," they said.  "There's a great pub band playing, they're called The Quarrymen."  

So off they went.  These cousins were stewardesses for BOAC and gorgeous, so naturally, they were invited to sit with the band.  Over the course of the evening, then-drummer Pete Best got a little too over-refreshed, so George invited B to play a set with them.  So he did!  Back home in Montreal he heard a group on the radio and said, "Hey, I know those guys."  Whenever I tell that story, people are agog.  Just think, if B had stayed around things might have been very different!

The LSE has another famous grad:  Mick Jagger.  B didn't meet him because Mick attended two years later, but Jagger must be smart because you have to be to get into the LSE.  Funny, guess who manages the Stones' money?  Right.     

They can't even open envelopes

 That's what the Liberals will be saying, thanks to the ineptitude of the mail room at the Conservative leadership convention.  Heads should roll!  How can they be trusted to run the country when they can't even open envelopes and count ballots, will be the Liberal party line tomorrow.

It's a shame because what will the finally-elected-in-the-middle-of-the-night leader have to say in his/her acceptance speech?  Instead of storming in with great promises and hope, he/she will have to spend the first part of the speech excusing, or blaming, a bunch of incompetents in a mail room.  

It's absolutely ludicrous. 

Reminds me of the photo of Robert Stanfield, fumbling and bumbling to catch a football those many years ago.  That photo was played on a loop forever and made Stanfield look like a complete buffoon.  He lost the next election, by the way.  Same deal when Gerry Ford tripped up an airplane ramp.  Bad, bad news here.

Were I in the PMO, I'd be jumping with joy.  Who the eff forgot to check how the machine would feed, count and analyze the mail-ins.  Just so dumb and tragic because this country needs to be rid of Trudeau and his gang of brigands immediately.  I hear the Conservatives have tons of money, so topple the government.  Please!  Sadly, the flies in this ointment are the opposition leaders, who all know they don't have the money to fight an election and also know they will get fewer seats next time 'round.

Poor, poor Canada.

  

She's not....

 ...black enough for American voters.  That's what I think Kamala Harris' problem will be come election time.  Her mother was East Indian and her father Caribbean, so that won't count with Black Americans.  They are very clear about who counts as black and who doesn't.  Obama sort of had the same problem, but his wife was a real Black and came from "The hood" in Chicago, so that benefited him greatly.  I also think Trump will label her "too Canadian" because she spent her high school years in Montreal.  Rightly or wrongly, those will all be marks against the Biden/Harris ticket.  Remember, politics is a blood sport and Trump has taken it off the charts.  

Allan Fotheringham has died.  He was terrific.  When I returned to Ottawa, after a few years in Toronto, my first job was as speech writer for the late Jean-Pierre Goyer, when he was Minister of Supply and Services in Trudeau the Elder's cabinet.  I used to travel all over with him on a swanky government Challenger jet -- which I obviously loved doing, who wouldn't! -- and one trip I remember was to Vancouver, where Goyer was making a speech.  Don't remember where he was giving it, or what it was about, even though I had written it, but The Foth was covering it and asked me to set up a TV interview at the venue with the minister.

"Mr. Minister," he said.  "You're a smart man, so why are you so dumb?" asked Fotheringham.  He didn't use the word "dumb", but words to that effect.  To his credit, Goyer just laughed uproariously and the interview actually went well, considering how badly it could have gone with the formidable Foth asking the questions.  I loved those days of working at the top of the heap in Ottawa.  The perks were wonderful.

Also wanted to say a few predictable words about the missing 14-year-old native teenager who's disappeared with a 47-year-old creep somewhere in Cape Breton.  Of course, the parents are blaming the RCMP for not starting the search earlier.  Hello!  Your daughter was taken into foster care because you were judged unfit!  Who are you to be pointing fingers?!  As I have said, if any of my children had been placed in foster care because I was judged completely incompetent and incapable of parenting, I would be hiding in the basement, hanging my head in shame.  I certainly wouldn't be hitting the airwaves and blaming the people trying to find my delinquent daughter.  But that's always the case. 

And what about those Flames?  They pooched it again and let a three nothing score melt away, leaving them creamed and out of the running.  Gawd!  And what does coach Geoff Ward have to say?  ""Well, it's a learning experience.  We have to re-group."  A learning experience?!  Re-group?!  Your paycheque and payroll are gargantuan and all you can say is it's a learning experience and we have to re-group!  Hey, buddy, at the professional NHL level, lessons are over.  It's all business, nothing should have to be learned or re-grouped; everyone should already know what has to be done:  WIN.

And all the local columnists are saying the team should stick with Ward.  I'd fire his ass immediately.         

It had to be said

 With the Trudeau mess swirling incessantly, I had to write a letter to 'The Globe and Mail' to remind people of how government used to -- and still should -- operate.  I am delighted it was published today -- the first one of six on the same subject.  Here it is:

 Actually, I submitted two, but the other singled out my experience as DG of Communications in Customs and Excise (before it was unwisely dumped into Revenue Canada, by then DM Pierre Gravelle); they chose to run the more generic explanation.  

When the Conservatives were in power under Mulroney, B and I went to a cocktail party hosted by a partisan aide who worked for a very powerful minister whose task it was to sideline, or get rid of, all public servants the Conservatives deemed too "Liberal".  When introduced to this aide, he asked me what I did.  Upon telling him I was DG of Communications for Customs and Excise, he sneered and said, "Oh, you must be a Grit," turned on his heel and walked away.  He had no idea that public servants were forbidden to be partisan. 

This aide and his minister actually compiled lists of people to get rid of.  I kid you not!  That's the level pf paranoia that existed within Conservative ranks.  "Brian, I've seen the list and your name is on it," said a friend at a social gathering in his home.  I was shocked.  I also began to worry that taking B's name might not have been such a good idea afterall.  I had a high profile back then and the same moniker.  Should I have been worried?  

The hiving of power in the PMO for the promotion and protecting of the Queen (in this case Trudeau)  has continued from Trudeau the Elder's days and is still in full force.

When I worked at the Public Service Commission, I used to sit around the senior management table while the whole question of whether or not public servants could put up election signs was debated.  The answer was invariably "No".  That's how seriously the question of preventing partisanship in the public service was taken.

That is my whole point about the "separation of church and state".  The Globe also published another letter of mine in which I pointed this out as the reason the religion of secular leaders must not be known to voters.  It is also the reason Jagmeet Singh's turban should not be announcing his.  But it does.  No one seems to get this?

But back to my letter.  I am quite delighted and proud it has been published!  Just think of all the people who will read it:  Morneau, Freeland, Butts, Telford......they'll all know how they have tarnished and undermined a once great Federal Public Service.  My father, a renowned scientist at the NRC; my uncle, the deputy minister of both National Defence and Revenue Canada; past Clerks of the PCO, i.e., Gordon Robertson and his ilk, all are turning uncomfortably in their graves.  

I don't

 Does anyone know anyone who has -- or has had -- COVID?  No one I talk to.  You?  The thing that strikes me is one day, everything was normal and we all went about our business, and the next, everyone apparently had COVID and we all had to be masked, gloved and locked up!  That's what Tam, et al, said.  You know what I think about Tam.  Not much.

She has blood on her hands for giving Canadians false, late or inaccurate information.  She should be fired and charged, but "feminist" Trudeau will NEVER do it.  

So, now we have a Russian/Slovakian literature "expert" as our Finance Minister.  What a joke.  There she was, in her usual too-short-too-tight dress, flipping her hair around while she accepted the job.  I cannot believe Trudeau appointed her!  But, then again, I can.  He has dug in with his "feminist" agenda.  Big mistake.

Where and when will it all end?  Gawd help our grandchildren.        

Summer in Calgary

 Short as it is, we have actually had about a week of very hot weather.  The beauty of it here in Calgary is there is NO HUMIDITY WHATSOEVER!  The climate here is one step above a desert designation, so it's lovely and dry.  When I hear weather people talk about the heat and humidity, I laugh!  Want to experience humidity?  Spend a July or August week in the Valley or Toronto.  The grands enjoyed it today.

Quite the day

 "Because he has a gun," said B when a young prisoner, escorted by two armed guards went in ahead of me.  This was his explanation to my complaining that I had arrived ahead, but was bumped by this convict.  "He went ahead because those guards have a gun."  Everyone burst out laughing.  B has this ability to diffuse any situation with humour.  Frankly, no one wanted to sit in a waiting room with a shackled prisoner, surrounded by two armed guards, which is why they put him inside and out-of-sight.    

Had to head 30 K's south in Calgary to the South Campus of the Foothills Hospital to get a bump cut out of my forehead.  While waiting, two armed guards arrived with the above-prisoner shackled and in leg chains for treatment.  Kind'a disconcerting.  Sadly, he was young and now has obviously completely effed his life up.  His poor mother.  

"I guess these kids get mixed up in gangs and drugs, end up in prison and then are totally effed," I said to the assistant doctor while I was lying there waiting for the plastic surgeon.  "Yep, that's exactly what happens," she replied.  So sad.  The young plastic surgeon who was treating me makes regular rounds at local prisons and then schedules prisoners who need treatment.  Kudos to her. 

Anyway, about 15 years ago, I had Mohs Surgery (google it) for a bump on my forehead.  Lately, however, it has been growing again, so I had to have it removed.  There go three weeks of swimming.  Bummer.  Here is the mess:

       

No, no, no

 Trudeau has just announced another $305 million for Natives due to the "stress" of COVID -- on top of all the billions we already give them.  This is just so wrong, wrong, wrong.  We don't have the money!

Natives leaders' only preoccupation is getting more money.  It's not for the welfare of their people because if money fixed it, they'd all be sitting pretty.  Natives need to get off the reserves and integrate into Canadian mainstream life, or start holding their own leadership to account.  

But they won't do either.  

Speak to a person

 That's what my mother used to say to me from the time I was a toddler.  She would take me to old age homes to sing for ancient residents from the time I was four.  I had to "perform" and I did.  Although I didn't want to, she used to insist I walk in with her, smile and talk to old, wrinkled ladies.  From her, I learned how to be a conversationalist -- a skill which stood me in good stead when I was a journalist in Toronto.  

I worked for Maclean Hunter on a number of business publications, such as 'Home Goods Retailing', 'Office Equipment and Methods' and even 'Chatelaine', 'Miss Chatelaine' and 'The Financial Post'.  It was expected that I would go to a conference in, say, the Royal York Hotel and walk up to 350 strangers, introduce myself and..."speak to a person".  I was very successful in those jobs because of my mother's admonition that I step up.  Actually, the only reason I left Toronto and a successful career in journalism was because my then-husband wanted to start a business in Ottawa.  Guess I wasn't ready to divorce him, but I did.  By that time, however, I had had two kids and moving back to TO was not an option.

 Anyway, this all came back to me today when we went out to lunch.  I ordered a vodka martini and was once again dismayed at the non-martini glass in which it was served.  Why has the traditional martini glass vanished?  This glass is NOT a martini glass:

Doesn't even feel as if one is drinking a martini.  Sigh.  But, back to "speaking to a person".  I chatted up the server, as I always do, asking her her name, where she went to school, what sports she did, all about her family....etc., etc.  When the bill came, she had compted all the food!  "You guys were such a pleasure to serve," she said.  Whoa!  I guess it pays to "speak to a person", Lilly.  Thank you and Rest in Peace.  xo

Time to trade a few guys

 Watching the Leafs pooch yet another season, here's what I'd do:  I'd trade Mathews, Nylander, Marner, Tavares and the coach.  That would wake up and shake a few people.  $10 million each for these four is insanity!  Can you imagine if the Leafs grew a pair and got rid of these super stars?!  That would be perfect.  I mean, how could they do any worse?  The Las Vegas Golden Knights was formed with a gaggle of rejects and look how well they have done.  No cup yet, but it'll come.  

Trade Mathews, et al, and these n'er-do-wells might wake up and actually play to their abilities on another team.  And after two years on other teams, if they didn't win, trade them again and maybe the next team would benefit.  

Just heard Brian Burke say that it was time to trade Nylander.  He should have gone farther and said what I have just said, time to trade the big four who take up $40 million of the entire salary.  They need a better defence.  Bye bye to the big four.

That's my take and I know nothing about hockey, but I do know about human psychology and motivation. 

Even though they are fully aware.....

 ....of the consequences, they still come in the thousands.  Watching "Immigration Nation" on Netflix, I am dumbfounded that hundreds of thousands of Mexican, Central and South American illegals keep flowing across the border into the US with nary a concern for the fate of their families.  What is really disturbing are the infants and toddlers they bring with them who are immediately taken from their parents and placed in holding facilities.  And I'm talking infants.  

Who would do this?  Obviously, thousands.  However, unlike those who stroll into Canada illegally, many are apprehended at the border and immediately placed in custody, i.e., jail.  Here, we simply let them in, process them and ask them to be good boys and girls and appear before a refugee tribunal when called.  That really worked perfectly, didn't it.  Right now, Canada has lost track of 50,000 of them.  Good work and good luck finding them!

In the US, those who escape immediate apprehension go into hiding for years, working illegally until they are caught.  By the time that happens, however, they have ensured they have had a couple of American-born kids, hoping that will mean they can stay.  Doesn't work -- especially with Trump in power, who has sworn he will deport all illegals.  People, countries have borders and processes for a reason.  Otherwise, entire continents would simply empty out into the US and Canada, which seems to be happening anyway.  On the other side of the Atlantic, the entire continent of Africa is attempting to empty out into Europe.

The reason Canada isn't too keen on processing them is because they can still vote.  All you need is an address and photo ID.  When you show up at a polling station, they don't cross check to see if you've shown up at your immigration hearing, so you just cast your ballot and disappear again.  And guess who they all vote for?  That was a rhetorical question. 

In the US, such illegals are represented by vocal and active champions who hold rallies denouncing and attacking beleaguered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents -- officers who are only doing their jobs.  When they show up to deport an illegal, there is a tide of weeping and wailing when someone is taken away.  Never mind that up to 90% of those deported have been convicted of a felony.  That, apparently, is irrelevant.

What does disturb me, however, are those illegals who have served with distinction in the military, like the Marines the series followed who were to be deported.  These gentlemen were brought illegally to the US by their parents as children, but have grown up in the US.  Don't know what questions the Marines asked when they were recruited, but these guys fought in Afghanistan and other theatres and returned home heroes.  Now they are being deported.

The sight of them marching in protest in their number one Marine dress is jarring because a more patriotic bunch you could not find.  

It's all such a mess.  

 

Here we go again

 Lebanon, a complete disaster.  Frankly, I thought Greece was the worst non-country in the world, but South Africa takes the cake with an unemployment rate of 30.1%!  Boy, they've done well in the thirty-odd years since the African National Congress took over.  (And don't get me started on the latest COVID funding scandals in the government of Cyril Ramaphosa.) 

But, back to Lebanon.  Please tell me why more than 300,000 "Canadians" are living in Lebanon?  I'll tell you why, because the Lebanese come to Canada, get citizenship and then bugger off back to live in Lebanon.  They get Canadian citizenship so they can demand planes be sent to fly them "home" whenever there is a crisis in that corrupt and hopeless country.  This has happened and relatively recently.  Frankly, Canada should not permit dual citizenship under any circumstances, but we do.  

So, here we have criminals and brigands running Lebanon and allowing thousands of tons of explosives to sit in unsafe warehouses for three years just waiting to go off.  How does that happen?!  Corruption and graft, that's how.  And now you watch, they'll be braying for "assistance", which means money and probably more free plane rides, from beleaguered Canadians and Trudeau is handing it over!  Hey fellas, we don't have the money!

If you want to find out what's going on in the world, read the economic tables in 'The Economist'.  It's all there.  In terms of unemployment, as I said, South Africa takes the cake.  Others follow:

    Columbia      21.4%

    Philippines    17.7%

    Greece           15.5%

    Spain             14.5%, and right up there.....

    Canada          12.3% !!!!!

Haven't we done well since we foolishly kicked Harper to the curb!  

Note:  If you want to know how the entire continent of Africa is doing, read "Africa, a stupid continent", 17 Nov. 2017.

Taking it to new heights

"Victims of sexual assault may not have to wear masks in public spaces because a mask might remind them of the trapped feeling they experienced during the assault," said a CBC radio announcer yesterday.  I almost drove off the road!

As someone who has been sexually assaulted and raped -- the former when I was 13 by my orthodontist and the latter when I was 20 by a guy with whom I had gone on a blind date -- I could not believe my ears.  But then again, of course I could.  

(Note:  I was not a fan of blind dates, but this one was with the best friend of my cousin's boyfriend and we were going to his parents' cottage while they were there.  I thought that was pretty safe.  Wrong.  Frankly, instead of teaching women how not to be raped, we should teach men not to rape.  The other thing to remember is that most rapists are not slathering deranged creeps in dark alleys.  They are ordinary in every other sense, they are our co-workers, our neighbours -- even our friends.  They are often our bosses.  In my case, I was sexually harassed and assaulted by a Minister of the Crown in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet in 1977, for whom I worked.  Rapists are ubiquitous.)    

Victimology is rampant and apparently everyone, if they look inside hard enough, can be one.  If I had kept dining out on what had happened to me, I would have had a miserable life.  The one thing I took away from the orthodontist incident was a vigilance to tell my daughter and stepdaughter, when they were young, to tell me immediately if anyone -- be it a doctor, dentist or teacher -- ever touched their private parts.  As to the rape, I got my revenge years later when I bumped into the perpetrator at a school function, when he was a "stalwart" citizen and president of the school parents' council.

"Hi Bill," I said in a group of people.  "Remember me?  Remember when you raped me at your parents' cottage?"  He froze in terror.  I just smiled broadly.  It was a great moment.

"Cancel culture" is another dangerous societal fad that must be resisted at all costs.  And you know how I feel about "Black Lives Matter".  We are being terrorized into silence by radical groups -- be they left or right -- and I'm sick of it.  Happily, this blog allows me to talk about it freely.   

    

Totally inappropriate

Watching an NHL game yesterday, I was dumbfounded by the "religious" ceremony at the beginning, wherein inherently violent team members stood in a circle (of love) and listened to a black Calgary Flames player make a ridiculous speech about systemic racism in the NHL while the other players looked weepy and downtrodden.

Here's a bulletin:  Buddy, there is no systemic racism in the NHL.  The league is all about money, money and more money and if a player has the talent, Gary Bettman, et al, don't care what colour he is.  He'll get signed and he'll make millions.  During the anthem, this player solemnly "took a knee" while players on either side "comforted" him with their hands on his shoulders. The whole spectacle was disgraceful.  I bet if I looked up his salary, I wouldn't have to suggest a tag day for the guy.  This isn't the US and why we are adopting the whole "Black Lives Matter" cause is beyond me?!  Thank you Colin Kapernick.  Not. 

Just as I flipped the channel in disgust, I happened upon a CBC documentary entitled "Being Black in Canada".  OMG!  Naturally, the entire program was about how awful it is to be Black in Canada.  Folks, the CBC is now unwatchable.  Call me a "Karen", but I'm sick of acting as if we have a crisis of racism in Canada.  As I keep saying, we're not the US.  Yes, there is racism, but it's not "systemic". Look at the readily-available RCMP stats to see who's killing who.  Blacks kill twice as many Blacks as do Whites.  God help us and our tax dollars.   

Charmaine's perspective

Before I get to my exchanges with Charmaine Stick, of the Onion Lake Band, a woman who is fighting to force her band council to reveal what they are doing with the money they receive, I wanted to make a couple of points:

This morning, at my local YMCA, they were giving out free masks to anyone who wanted them -- be they Y members or not.  People were just driving up, getting a package of masks and driving off.  Hey, I bought mine at London Drugs!  Why is the Y giving them away?  This is all in aid of the fact that Calgary has enacted a bylaw that says all citizens out-and-about in public spaces must wear a mask.  That's a good thing, but I don't want to pay for them, thanks.

The other thing that pisses me off (there are always so many) is that summer students are on a campaign to make sure they don't have to write exams because they have been so traumatized by COVID.  They are lobbying to get a pass without an exam.  Bullsh-t to that, I say.  Happily, the province isn't buying.

But back to Ms. Stick.  A while ago, I blogged that I thought the elected chiefs should take precedence over the hereditary.  She vehemently disagreed.  She says band councils are illegitimate and were the creation of Indian and Northern Affairs designed solely to do the bidding of the federal government, which tried to impose its view of democracy onto the native way of governing.  She claims these chiefs have become very wealthy implementing government policies and programs and pocketing money for doing so.  There, we agree.

I sent her another message asking what happens when hereditary chiefs do not agree with the elected chiefs?  I also asked who gets the federal money sent every band's way?  Obviously, it must be the elected chiefs, which is why they get rich, but she wants to know what they are doing with the money.  She has mold issues in her home and has been trying for three years to get them fixed.  What has the band council done?  Nothing.

Frankly, in my opinion, she is being ignored and treated like a "squaw".  I would tell the elected chiefs that she is not a person to be trifled with.  I wanted to donate to her legal defence fund, but she tells me her bills have been paid.  Frankly, I am learning a lot from Charmaine Stick and I am honoured she continues to correspond with me.  I will report more on this file.