A huge "duh!" moment

On the day before the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation for natives is proclaimed, the government announces it may appeal the latest ruling upholding compensation for residential school "survivors" (you know what I think of that term, but I digress).

How can they be so stupid?!  This has gone on for 14 years and every tribunal and court has sided with the original ruling of $40,000 per student, but still the feds are flogging this dead horse.  Why?  It's a bizarre Monty-Python-meets-the Emperor's-new-clothes moment and I really don't get why the left hand can't agree with the right within the same government?

Here we have Trudeau wringing his hands, gnashing his teeth and weeping in the public thoroughfare about the poor natives, while his Justice department winds up for another swing at a dead cat in the courts!?  The facts are that only seven percent of Canadians even think about the native agenda and on a list of issues Canadians worry about native issues came 13th out of 15.  The other salient point is that few even vote in national elections, so why all the fuss beats me!? 

The Kids in the Hall who run this place need to give their heads a vigorous shake.  But they won't.  How Canadians could have put him back in power is a crime.      

 

A super guy

 "I'm one of the only guys left who doesn't wear a face shield," said Flames left winger Milan Lucic yesterday, when I bumped into him at a swim meet.  

We were there to watch granddaughter in a waterpolo practice and he was there with his wee daughter to cheer on his other daughter in her race.  "That looks exactly like Milan Lucic," I said to B as we squeezed past him in the visitors' gallery.  "It is Milan Lucic," said B, whereupon I immediately stopped to chat and bother him -- one of my specialties.  He was so polite when I stopped to chat.  "I hope I'm not bothering you," I said, "but you guys get paid to be bothered, hahahaha!"  He agreed.

Winner of the Stanley Cup in Boston in 2007-2008, he then graciously agreed to a picture, while I boringly told him how I had dated a couple of NHLers back in the day.  You'll be happy to know that I politely refrained from asking him why the Flames suck -- because they do -- but I held off.  Here is the Vancouver-born Serb Milan:

Four fewer female cabinet ministers

Yep, that's one outcome of Trudeau's obsession with cabinet gender parity.  He forsook competence in a number of ministries for gender and plugged his cabinet with females because they were females.  

One glaring example of incompetence was Catherine McKenna, the former environment and climate change minister who got everything wrong and met not one deadline.  Seeing the writing on the wall, she didn't run again, but has managed to wedge herself into yet another few glamourous climate fora, which will take her -- all-expenses-paid -- to all sorts of exotic places burning ugly diesel fuel to get there.  Climate Barbie strikes again!

The other victims were Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan (who botched every treaty and agreement with native bands on the east coast and pissed everyone off), Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef (truly ironic in her case) and Seniors Minister Deb Schulte (another indication of the hoot seniors aren't given).  With the exception of Fisheries, the other ministries were fluff and evidently the public, as I say, didn't give a hoot -- public hand-wringing to the contrary.  

"I think gender balance is really important, not because, you know, you've got to go find some women; we have really great women.  And you make better decisions when you have a cabinet that looks like your country," opined the inarticulate Barbie.  Irrelevantly she added that the government will have to weigh the desire to get back to work with the need to absorb the election results -- whatever that means??

And what did these valuable females in cabinet accomplish when it came to child care?  Nothing.  Crickets.  Nada.  But of course, that's been the case for 50 years since the Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommended the government "do something about it".  

And what will Trudeau do?  He'll do it all over again -- probably throwing in a few more ethnics and people of colour while he's at it.  Frankly, with another minority, you'd think he'd choose ministers because of their relevance and competence, but since the unveiling of Affirmative Action (AA) in the seventies all AA has done is piss everyone off on both sides of the argument.  So, Justin, don't sacrifice votes for gender and colour if you want a majority -- something I hope you never get.

You're welcome for the free political advice.

He went wrong....

....not the party.  So, after blowing the election, O'Toole says he's going to convene a national group to analyze what went wrong with the election.  As I said, he went wrong by, among other things, abandoning the traditional Conservative strategy of balancing budgets in favour of throwing money around like the Liberals.  As Peter Mackay said, "Losing was like failing to score on a breakaway on an empty net."

Dumb strategy on O'Toole's part because when it comes to throwing money down black holes, no one bests the Liberals.  Looking at an electoral graph in 'The Globe and Mail' today, comparing results in 2019 and 2021, I thought they had mistakenly repeated the same graph because both looked identical.  But no, people voted pretty much exactly the same both times.  As usual, the Liberals took most of the seats in the immigrant-rich GTA and other large, urban centres because immigrants vote Liberal out of fear of what the big, bad Conservatives might do.  Gee, they might actually enforce borders and send illegals, toting designer luggage, back!  As I have said repeatedly, Trudeau encourages "irregular" immigration because that's how he wins.

Frankly, I still have no idea how the system works?  How can the guy who got 31% of the popular vote -- the lowest in history -- become prime minister when his main opponent garnered 32%??!!  And to all those who are sure Trudeau will now become humble and cooperative I say:  Forget about it.  He won't because, knowing neither the Conservatives nor the NDP want an election any time soon, he won't have to bend an inch -- at least not until O'Toole gets the boot and all parties raise enough money to fight another election.

Frankly, I blame Governor General Mary Simon for signing the writ in the first place.  She should have boned up on her constitutional Coles notes and refused.  The GG has the power and duty to do so if he/she deems an election disruptive or unnecessary or if parliament is not functioning.  But parliament was functioning fine with O'Toole and Singh toadying to Trudeau's every wish and whim.  With COVID ravaging the country, this election was both unnecessary and dangerous.

So, here we are, $616 million hopelessly deeper in that financial black hole and it's back to the future.  Trudeau's hubris and habit of kicking sand in Canadian's faces will continue unabated and 'the kids in the hall' will keep trampling roughshod over everyone -- including ministers.  My poor grands and great-grands.

Oh, before I sign off, a word about the breathtakingly bizarre Anime Paul.  She runs for the third time in one of the safest Liberal seats in the country and, hello!  Loses again!  Duh times a hundred.  And the biggest illogical aspect of the whole election is, if climate change is the most important concern on every citizen's mind, how come the Greens failed so spectacularly??  That, my friends, was a rhetorical question.  Just ask General Motors and Ford.      

        

$2.5 billion

That's how much Black federal public servants are suing for what they deem is racial discrimination in the workplace.  WTF??!!  When I worked there, one of the main programs aggressively promoted was called "Affirmative Action", which ensured Blacks and other ethnicities were given preference when it came to staffing.  In fact, all qualifications being supposedly equal, they were bumped to the head of the queue.  

The whole lawsuit is in a cocked hat, but it is apparently almost approved -- probably by some female judge, herself the beneficiary of "affirmative action".  

You could not make this sh-t up!  It just gets stupider and stupider and stupider.  Gawd help our grands. 

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As you know, Albert's COVID cases and deaths have shot up, thanks to Kenney and Hinshaw opening the province up waaaaay too soon.  What always shocks me is that Hinshaw and her counterparts across the country are still employed?!  I did a blog on this a while ago, (see "Just a tad behind", Feb 22, 2021) naming all the health, i.e., "death", ministers and deputies and wondering why they are still sitting pretty, cashing fat paycheques?!  Absolutely no consequences for any of them?!  Why is that?  

No clue???  

More on the natives

 

This letter, in 'The Calgary Herald' today, refers to a column yesterday by native leader Doug Cuthand.  In it he claimed that natives would turn the tide and determine the outcome of the election.  

Problem is, Doug, that half the natives in this country don't vote in non-native elections.  Pretty hard to decide an election when a specific cohort doesn't even show up to mark an X.  

I blog a lot about natives and their never-ending demands for money from the beleaguered taxpayer, but I also research the other side of the coin and am quick to point out how governments at all levels have made thousands of promises to natives during election campaigns and immediately broken them when in office.

In Singh's case, he rattles off a host of nonsensical promises he knows can't be fulfilled unless the constitution is amended -- something, as I say, will never happen.  When Trudeau-the Elder did this in '78 to come up with the Constitution Act of 1982 (B was on the team, so knows what he's talking about) it was a dog's breakfast of money demands from all the premiers and only really got done because the Queen was coming to sign it, so they had to finish the job.  And the only purpose in amending it then was so it could be patriated from England to Canada.  Something ostensibly so simple, but was a mess.

So the next time you think I am going too hard on the natives, remember that everything I write is backed up by research -- including when I take their side.  But let's not forget that, according to a recent issues' survey, only seven percent of Canadians give a toss about native issues.  That's why it beats me why politicians everywhere trip over chairs to accommodate their every demand.  

   

Why is it.....

 .....that the young lady who lives beside us parks her car in front of our place all day and night every day and night?  And why is it that that pisses me off!?  Why do I feel I own the street in front of my house?

Because that's the way I feel: I do own it.

Anyway, today was a productive day.  We got our drivers' licenses changed to our new address and voted in an advance poll.  I just couldn't wait to not put an X beside the Liberal candidate.  

Trudeau's hubris and his "Kids in the Hall" buddies who, unelected, run the country need to be run out on a rail in this election.  Jodie Wilson-Raybould said that Butts and gang set policy and told ministers which end was up.  They have completely destroyed the Westminster model of Parliamentary democracy and care not a whit.  

He has to go, but I fear he will get in again.  My poor grandchildren. 

Cousins' Day

That was yesterday, when B's first cousin and her husband visited us.  His mother and her father were sister and brother, yet B and Di had never met.  As the British Raj were being kicked out of India at Partition (look it up), B's family scattered -- some to England, some to Australia and others to Canada.  B's lit out for Canada and settled in Montreal.  

We were thrilled to have received the message that Di and her husband were coming to Calgary.  What a grand couple they are!  They will be buying a condo here, so we will continue our familial connection.  

Next, it was a call from a cousin who told B that she had had a baby when she was 19 and that that son had connected with her.  Wow!  No one, except the cousin's father, had ever known about this baby, but what a marvelous gift because with this long-lost son come two grandchildren!

Then he had a call from another cousin in Australia.  That was a little more informative because he learned more about the family money and inheritances -- or lack thereof -- before she had called.  Funny, every family dispute is always about money and who got more, or who should have got more.  Ah well, in our case we got nothing so who cares?!  

As an adoptee, I am always so happy when birth reunions happen.  Sadly, in my case, I found my mother a month after she had died.  It devastated me, but what a day for B, his cousin and that new-found son.  What gifts God gives us!    

Another blow for women

What a brilliant move!  Lyne Cossette, spokesman -- sorry spokes"person" -- for the Conseil scolaire catholique Providence in southwestern Ontario, said more than 4,700 books were removed from 30 school libraries because native leaders and elders didn't like them.  Why?  Because they told the history of colonial/native relations in Canada and some of it was neither pretty, nor to their liking.  

Probably especially didn't like the chapters on the massacre by natives of thousands of settlers -- especially by the brutal Iroquois and Huron.  This is not to say that thousands of natives were not murdered too, but that's the history of this country.  Now, in addition to tearing down statues of nation builders, they're burning books like the Nazis did before the second world war.

Here they are removing a statue dedicated to Robert E. Lee, head of the Confederate army in Richmond, VA.  So wrong:  

As I said, brilliant!  And why did it have to be a woman.  

"We prefer positive and inclusive messages about the diverse communities within our schools," she said.  In an attempt to whitewash the whole mess, she added, "We regret we did not intervene to ensure a more appropriate plan for the commemorative ceremony and the negative impact this gesture of reconciliation has caused."

It was more than a "gesture".  It was wrong and all the political leaders agreed.  "We don't burn books," said Yves-Francois Blanchet, summing up the societal values Miss Cossette doesn't seem to understand.  She, and everyone else, doesn't understand that reconciliation with natives will never be achieved.  Never.  The fact is that natives do not want reconciliation; they want to continue their victim/money agenda forever.  Poor Harper sincerely tried it by inviting native leaders into the House of Commons, with various ceremonies and apologies, but nothing changed.  

As I said, it's all about money.  

After the medieval and barbaric bonfire, they held a "flame purification" ceremony and buried the ashes of "racism, discrimination and stereotypes in the hope that we will grow up in an inclusive country where all can live in prosperity and security," she rambled.  Guess she missed a few history lessons in school and obviously didn't study economics, the latter of which would have told her there will never be prosperity and security for everyone 'cause that's not how economies function.

So there you have it.  A perfect example of why private schools are flourishing and expanding in this country.  If that's the kind of education kids will get in public institutions, parents who can afford to will keep their kids out of them.

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Speaking of school, granddaughter is in her mother's class this year.  It will be interesting to see how that works and if "Mummy" can be separated from "Madame".