I worked with him

My boss, Brian Mulroney.

The 'Globe and Mail' editorial today.  I agree.

Brian Mulroney's death brings back many memories.  I worked on both the Free Trade and GST task forces under him.  Both were very unpopular, but he had Canada's best interests and future in mind when he pushed through those deals.

We were indeed a motley crew, pulled together from various divisions and sectors of Customs and Excise for our expertise in our respective disciplines.  I was chosen because of my communications background and was charged with making sense of complicated financial and technical agreements.  It was challenging, but fun.  We had real, legal deadlines and we had purpose.    

My letter of appreciation for my work on the Free Trade Task Force.  (Can't find my certificate for the GST.)

For Free Trade, I remember working all through Christmas and New Year's because it had to be proclaimed January 1st.  No Christmas for me that year.  At the time, I really had no idea how important these deals were for Canada.  I do now.  The other agreement he made was way ahead of the climate hysterics, namely the Acid Rain deal with the US.  That one I did not work on, but Mulroney did it.

He had many demons (booze was one of them at times), but his vision for Canada far out-stripped what subsequent vote-chaser PMs like Trudeau have -- and have not -- achieved.  In fact, no one has measured up like he did and at great personal and political cost.  In 1993, the Conservatives ended up with only two seats in Parliament -- unheard of.  

He was a great leader.  I am very proud to have been a part of the GST and Free Trade task forces under Mr. Mulroney.  His drive and determination to push through those initiatives made him mercurial and prone to outbursts of emotion, but it was all for good causes and Canada has benefited since.

May he rest in peace.  

You can count on it

Now that Trudeau knows he will not be re-elected, you can bet he will dramatically ramp up his "Wokeness" and commitment to being a "Globalist".  What has he got to lose?  So, if you thought it was bad before, just wait!

He tripped over to Ukraine the other day, no doubt on his electric jet, to announce another $3.2 billion in aid for 2024.  That's on top of the $2.4 billion we've already handed over!  He thinks that running around the world throwing money at insoluble problems will make him an internationally-respected leader.  It won't.  He will remain the laughing stock on the world stage he has been since he became prime minister.

Trudeau's foreign policy.  Just hand it over.

WE CAN'T AFFORD HIM ANY MORE!!!!

HE HAS BANKRUPTED CANADA AND DESTROYED THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN!!!!

Our grandkids in a few years, thanks to Trudeau's insane money give-aways.

On the domestic side -- just in Peel Region -- the feds, i.e., you and I, have handed over $584 million to the district's Interim Housing Assistance Program to provide shelter and services for asylum seekers.

Why?  Who gets the money?  Well, judging by the fact that a 47-year-old Kenyan woman froze to death the other day outside a church shelter in Mississauga after having been refused entry, it doesn't go to expanding shelters and services.  This was two months after a Nigerian man also died outside the same shelter.  Pastor Eddie Jjumba said they need more money.  Really?!  Wonder what kind of home the good Reverend lives in?  Wonder what kind of car he drives?

Naturally, Pastor Jjimba is accusing the feds of racism because the two victims were Black.  Always the same plaint.

_________________________

On a lighter note, the conductor of the National Arts Centre has wasted your money and mine by writing a symphonic tribute to the late Peter Jennings.  An entire symphony!

You could not make that up.

Do you think there's any connection?

Theresa Tam, chief public "health" officer of Canada, was born in Hong Kong and has always retained close ties to China through her membership on the World "Health" Organization.  Remember that?  Remember how she refused to call out China when COVID struck?  Remember how many times she effed up and how many times your faithful blogger called for her to be fired, charged and jailed for incompetence?

And it wasn't just me.  A formal review of how she handled the epidemic revealed that Canada, under her watch, did a dismal job and caused many deaths.  Much blood on her hands, but because Trudeau is a "feminist", he will never get rid of her.  

We need an inquiry, but that'll never happen under Trudeau.

Now we learn that the two Chinese scientists who worked for the PHAC were removed from their positions and sent packing to China, after CSIS looked into them.  I told you so.  Now we see just what spying they were up to and how the Liberals covered it up for FOUR YEARS!

This is a crime, but you can bet no one will be fired or even be held accountable.  If the RCMP doesn't lay charges, the scandal will grow.      

Do you really think there was no connection between how Tam allowed them license to work freely and send live viruses and research back to Wuhan willy-nilly?  They were both Chinese and so is Tam.  Everything is personal.

Of course her nationality influenced her decisions and coziness with the Chinese scientists.  That's a given.  Her nationality trumped her professional decisions.

That's a scandal.

Now we learn that it wasn't "national security" that kept the details of their expulsions secret.  No, it was the revelation that Tam, et al, would have been exposed for the corruption and coverup she engaged in throughout the pandemic -- all sanctioned by this incompetent government.    

And speaking of scandalous failures, how about ArriveCan?  It was supposed to have cost $80,000 -- which was bad enough -- but it actually cost taxpayers $59 million.  $59 million!  Let that sink in!  

A criminal scandal.

How in Gawd's name could that have happened??!!!!  True to form, Trudeau is blaming public servants and they obviously have to be fired.  But the first to go should have been the always-over-refreshed Bill Blair, who was President of the Treasury Board at the time, and Helena Jaczek, minister of procurement in 2020.  That's what ministerial accountability is all about, but Trudeau has scrapped this overriding parliamentary principle -- just as he has so many others.

The whole thing reeks to high heaven!

We're now looking at another scandal-in-the-making over the inquiry into election foreign interference, under the "leadership" of Mme. Justice Marie-Josée Hogue.  Before it even gets underway, Hogue is making arbitrary decisions about who will, and will not, be given standing.  

From what I've read, she claims her decisions are to prevent "politicizing" the process, but in reality that's exactly what she is doing with her off-the-wall determinations of who will have standing.  Because of her, several key players have declared they will not participate at all.

So, after another few millions have been thrown around, we will have no more information than we have now.  Great job, Marie-Josée!  

Our Golden Lad

Grandson Reed McArthur, age 12, won a Gold Medal and two Bronze last weekend at the Alberta Provincial Winter Games, Biathlon, in Grande Prairie.  Imagine, all those medals!  We are so proud.  Here he is with his booty:

Bronze, on the right.

Another Bronze, on the right.

Finally Gold!!!!

This is where you money is going

Since 2022, Canada has dumped $100 million in Haiti.  For what?  For nothing.  Overall, that failed and lawless state has been given $13 billion.  For what?  For nothing.  The only people seeing that money are the gangs running and ruining the country.

It has to stop.

Money going down the drain.

Apparently, so too are the elite pocketing aid money.  It's unconscionable.  Canadians are suffering and that fool Trudeau is throwing money around to stop car theft!  Whaaaaaat??!!!  Read this and weep.....another $80.5 million down the Haitian black hole, via Kenya this time.  Do you really think giving Kenya the $80.5 million to establish yet another police force in Haiti will complete its mission?  Rhetorical.........

Another useless meeting is now being convened to figure out what to do.  But they can't hold it in Haiti because the gangs have shut down the airport; they're holding it in sunny Jamaica instead.  Even Haiti's president can't get into his own country!

Canada is sending the perpetually omnipresent "fixer" Bob Rae.

Nothing ever changes in Haiti.

On the another sorry front, I'm sorry, but Ukraine will never win this useless war with Russia.  Russia will prevail, but still, Zalensky keeps running around the world asking for more billions.  Has to stop.

While Rome is burning, here at home we have trans people crying that they feel threatened because men, who pretend to be women, can't use women's washrooms.  Is there nothing else to cry about?  

This creature was on tv complaining about it.  Man, I wish everyone would either shut up, get off the public airwaves, or go back into the closet.  Yes, I know, my own brother was gay and committed suicide because of it, but there's "coming out" and then there's screaming-ranting-and-raving "coming out". 

Civility and decorum have fled town.   

Couldn't figure out what gender with person was.  Neither could it.

I'm sick of it.

Please be informed

Getting informed.

I've come to the conclusion that if you don't read 'The Globe and Mail', you're not informed.  Simple as that.  Social media tells you nothing -- and neither does the government-sponsored, Liberal-biased CBC.  CTV is a little better, but I rely on 'The Globe' for serious information.

Columnists such as Bob Fife, Konrad Yakubuski, Campbell Clark and others are worth reading because they are not shills for private interests.  Cathal Kelly I read assiduously because, although he is a sports columnist and I'm not particularly interested in sports, he is a brilliant writer and I steal many tricks and turns of phrase from him.

A Globe letter-writer agrees with me.

I once asked my father, "Daddy, how do you learn to write?"  "Read", was all he replied.  I also rely on John Ibbitson and John Ivison in 'The National Post', but I have to exclude Tanya Talaga and Andrew Coyne in the list of columnists I trust and from whom I learn.

Talaga hasn't an honest or objective thought in her head on the native file and Coyne is so turgid and verbose he is unreadable.  With him, I just scoot to the last paragraph to get his point -- if he actually gets around to making one.

"The idea, therefore, is to....." would be typical of how he writes.  You don't need the "therefore".  He's also prone to expressions such as, "More often than not...." or, "All things considered...."  His problem is that he went to The London School of Economics (LSE), but as an undergraduate, which impels him to try and answer every potential question before he actually gets to a point.

B went to the LSE, but as a graduate student on a scholarship.  Do you have any idea how difficult that is?  You can't buy your way into that institution; you have to earn entry and pay big money if you are accepted.  To get in on a scholarship is a rare achievement.  Nevertheless, I still had to heavily edit him when we first met.  Thanks to the ruthless red pen of the late Mrs. Jean Portugal at Maclean Hunter, I learned how to cut superfluous words.  (See, "how" is superfluous and I should have cut it, but I'm leaving it in because it's a perfect example.)

Back then, we used hot type and wrote to fit the space because lead type was expensive.  Also, articles and columns were cut from the bottom, so you made your points up front.  Not today.  As I say, you have to read the last paragraph to get the point.

This was how the plant floor looked when I worked with hot type and typesetters.  

The other conclusion I have come to is that without even a useless university degree, such as the English one I obtained, it can be difficult to have a discerning conversation with some people.  I have to add that although my degree did not help me get a job, the hundreds of books I had to read over three years helped me see the world through many different eyes.  Authors I studied wrote about a variety of subjects -- like sociology, history, psychology, religion, philosophy -- over hundreds of years through many eras, so I began to see what the wider world was about, outside of Lindenlea and Lisgar Collegiate.

I welcome and enjoy debating, but not with people who are ill-informed, cannot think critically and have neither facts nor numbers to back up their opinions.  That's not to clap myself on the back, just to say that whatever your degree, you do tend to emerge a better critical thinker.  It's a frustrating experience when someone who doesn't know what he/she is talking about starts hectoring me without facts, telling me how they "feel" about something.

The Thinker

So, that's my rant today.  I love writing my blog because I can say what I want.  As long as I don't slander anyone and back up my opinions with hard facts and numbers I am in the clear.  Once was at a cocktail party and a woman came up to me and, looking down her nose, said, "You know, I don't agree with everything you write."  Really!!  All I could do was burst out laughing.  I asked her if she had a blog or wrote letters to the editor?  "Well, when you start your blog, I'll have a look.  

"And I look forward to reading your letters in 'The Herald' and 'The Globe and Mail'!"

  

Who's going to pay for it?

That's a rhetorical question for one of the most one-sided, unrealistic, biased columnists to ever hit a newspaper:  Tanya Talaga.

In yesterday's Globe, she waxed on about how first nations should be given sole control over child welfare legislation affecting native children.  "We have the right to make our own laws to protect our own children," she lamented.

Problem is, when native children are taken out of the their homes because of neglect or abuse and taken in under the Native Kinship Program by extended family, statistics show that outcomes for these vulnerable kids are dire.  Remember, the parents abusing their own kids were raised by the very grandparents or aunts and uncles with whom the kids are being placed! 

How can that work?  Where do you think the abusive parents got their values and child "care" practices?

Cree toddler Serenity.

Remember the case of little Serenity, a native toddler who was found physically abused and starved in her own home and given to her grandparents under the above-kinship program?  (See "They wanted it", May 25, 2017)  They also abused and starved her, but this time to death.  

Naturally, the parents blamed 'the system', but never took any responsibility for why she was in care in the first place.  There's a reason native children compose only eight percent of the total population, but make up 53.8 percent of those in care.  Let that sink in.  

The numbers don't lie and those are very sad numbers.  The total budget for Indigenous Services is $16.5 billion.  Billion!!  For child and family Indigenous services alone, the budget is $542 million, so anyone in the Native Kinship Program gets LOTS of money to take these kids in.  As usual, they blame "colonialism" and "chronic under-funding".  

Underfunding?!  Check the numbers.  Time for natives to ask their own leadership where the money is going.  Oh wait, I forgot, Trudeau cancelled the Accountability Act and chiefs are now refusing to release any numbers to their band members.  Can you spell "fraud"?

Talaga claims that, "We can make our own laws concerning our kids."  If that's so, why are so many Indigenous children and youth committing suicide in despair? 

"It's time for Canadian governments to respect the inherent Indigenous right to self-governance.  Taking care of our children extends beyond courtrooms.  But unfortunately, it appears that the courts are the only thing Canada seems to listen to," she complains. 

Talaga never mentions who'll be paying for it all, because, as I said, that's rhetorical.  Her credibility is skewed because she isn't really fully native; she's half Polish and was raised in downtown Toronto -- not on a reserve where she might have gained direct, plausible, on-site experience.  

And I marvel at the fact that she never, ever gives statistics, data or numbers to support her positions.  When I was toiling away at Maclean Hunter as an editor, anything I wrote had to be backed up by facts and proof.  Talaga's position seems to be, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's made up."

As you can deduce, I have no time for her.

  

Can't have it both ways

I know King Charles has waited 75 years to be crowned, but he has to be serious.  He had scheduled a visit to Canada for May, but has cancelled, due to his cancer.  He must, however, send a replacement because the visit must go on.  Otherwise, he will stir up those who bray for the abolishment of the Monarchy.

Few know this, because Civics is no long taught in schools, but the Monarch is Canada's Head of State.  Contrary to the many uncooked ideas that swirl around incessantly, Trudeau isn't the Head of State and neither is that appalling and hideous excuse for a Governor General, Mary Simon.  The former is (currently) the Head of Government and the latter serves as the King's representative in Canada.

Neither has any other status.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Monarchist, but if a visit to one of Charles' realms is important enough to be scheduled in the first place, then the visit must proceed.  If he can't fulfill his duties as the Sovereign, Charles -- or rather the government -- must name a Regent.  What is a Regent?  Someone appointed to carry out the Sovereign's duty when the latter is too sick to do so.

King Charles at the moment.

Charles can't remain King and not carry out his duties.  He must appoint a Regent.  

But I bet his hubris will not allow him to.

_________________________

This letter was in 'The Calgary Herald' today on the same subject:

My thoughts.

  

Oh no, not again

More tragic deaths.

My first thoughts upon hearing that yet another man had killed his wife, three kids and sister-in-law in Carman, Manitoba, were, "On no, I hope it's not another native."

But it was.

I also thought about how ridiculous the federal government's announcement was about handing out yet another $23 million to various "support" agencies to eliminate "partner violence".  How in Gawd's name will $23 million stop a crazed, drug-fueled man from killing his family?!  

It won't.

But I guess they have to have something for Marci Ien, the Minister of the unnecessary Women, Gender Equality and Youth portfolio, to announce every now and then.  Talk about useless virtue signaling!  That's this tired government's only agenda:  Blabbing and handing out millions and billions with no end in sight. 

Anyone who kills a newborn baby deserves absolutely no quarter.  But will he be treated as an Indigenous accused, through a separate, less harsh judicial lens?  You betcha.  

Home-grown dictator

Netanyahu was a strong leader

Now that he's ordered the complete evacuation of Rafa, so he can pulverize what's left of Gaza into powdered rubble, has Netanyahu become a "Hitler"?  Has Israel, after what befell Jews in the Second World War, actually managed to grow its own Hitler.  Who could ever have imagined that?!

Has he become this?!

There are 1.5 million refugees existing in plastic tents and broken-down shelters in Rafa because they have been forced out of their homes.  But they have nowhere to go and panic is setting in.  Of course, the talking heads and impotent leaders at the UN decry his plans, but do nothing about it.  "These people have nowhere to go," cried Philippe Lazzarini, the well-paid head of the UN Relief and Works Agency.  Hello, buddy, your job is to find them refuge!

What's left of Gaza.

With almost 30,000 killed, Lazzarini actually has fewer people to look after because of his inaction and moribund leadership, but what's to become of these people?  It's a mass tragedy with no end in sight.  Netanyahu's goal is the complete annihilation of Hamas.  That'll never happen.  And the US running over there to try and broker a ceasefire is a joke.

Every week, I listen to Fareed Zakaria to try and make sense of what's going on.  So far, despite all the "experts" on both sides giving their opinions, I still have no clue.  The only thing that seems clear is that there's no solution.  Frankly, from the footage I see, I think everyone in the Middle East ingests too much hysteria-inducing caffeine.      

Speaking of pointless wars, Zelensky's answer to his own hopeless cause is to replace his top general.  Sort of like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after doom has struck.

It's all so sad, but the mothers of these terrorists must shoulder much of the blame.  They are the ones who taught their sons to hate from the time there were toddlers at their knees.  Don't forget that reality.

   

Big trouble ahead

Alberta, as we all know, is the financial engine of Canada upon which every other province feeds and mooches.  And what powers this wealth?  Oil and gas.  So, it's very disturbing to read a Conference Board of Canada report that puts the country's economic future in the stark relief of impending doom.

Trudeau and his felon sidekick, Environmental Minister Stephen Guilbeault, are planning to further bankrupt the province and kill the country -- even more than they already have.  These two ideologues and globalists have ruined Canada and broken the federation, so much so that Alberta has just opened an office in Ottawa to try and push back against the ruinous policies of Cheech and Chong.  

Guilbeault has actually given more than $144 million of our money to international climate organizations.  $144 million!!@Q#$@!!  Go get 'em Danielle!

Here's what's about to happen, thanks to the cap on greenhouse gas emissions:

• 151,000 Canadian jobs will be lost by the end of the decade,
• Canada's GDP will fall by $1 trillion,
• Federal revenues will plumet by $152 billion, 
• Alberta's revenues will drop by $73 billion, and
• There still won't be any viable alternative to the combustion engine!   

This lunacy will affect the entire country -- not just Alberta.  It's dire and people need to wake up and run these climate fanatics out of office.  Please share this with every voting-age Canadian you know.  

__________________________________

And speaking of financial lunacy, mediocre Toronto Maple Leaf captain John Tavares is fighting RevCan over an $8 million tax bill he owes.  Clearly, he owes the money, but I guess he doesn't think the $77 million he got when he signed on with the Leafs is enough.  I mean, it barely covers the costs of his luxury cottage on Lake Joseph and glitzy home in California!  Frankly, I would trade the guy because he's doing nothing.

On another unimportant note, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., went to arbitration to get $19 million a year, instead of the $18 million he was being offered.  It's obscene that we pay people who push pucks around and toss baseballs into the air this kind of money. 

  

London has fallen

I'm talking about London, England -- although I might as well be talking about London, Ontario, where the latest sex scandal is unfolding, about which the police originally had done absolutely nothing for six years.

No, the other London is now overrun with a rabid, criminal Islamist movement, which stages illegal and violent demonstrations in the public thoroughfare on a daily basis.  And what do the Metropolitan Police do to enforce laws and protect innocent citizens?

Nothing.

But they do aggressively restrict any pro-Israeli demonstrations, such as the one that was cancelled recently by the Apollo Theatre out of fear of violent Muslim reaction to Douglas Murray, who had been scheduled to speak at an event to raise money for Israeli soldiers.  Murray, you will recall, is a British author, journalist and lecturer renowned for his logic and clarity on secularism and the rule of law.  (He can be regularly found on YouTube.)

Murray was cancelled because many of the ushers had received threatening, anonymous emails warning them not to work at the event.  Or else.  Gee, wonder who was behind them?

The London police have been cowed into submission and I wondered why?  Pulling back the curtain on who runs the place, we find it is the Lord Mayor himself, Sadiq Khan.  So, mystery solved.  Kahn is a Muslim and head of the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), which is responsible for keeping order in that once-great city.  Do you think his personal beliefs might be influencing his civic decisions and duties?  Rhetorical.

Lord Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

MOPAC has about a million committees on the deadly diversity, equity, inclusion and women's hocus-pocus issues and eats up more than $219 million in public tax dollars in its rabid promotion of its' sacred "Wokery" cause.

And therein lies the problem.  Overseeing all this is British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  

Doomed PM Rishi Sunak

Do you think he will take charge and enforce the laws of the land?  Again, rhetorical.  Thankfully, Sunak is so far down in the polls he has virtually no chance of winning the next election, but the anti-democratic lawlessness damage he and Khan are doing is precedent-setting and may be impossible to reverse.  Will Sir Mark Rowley, the titular police commissioner, intervene?  Hasn't so far and won't.  I mean, why wade into a cultural and religious cesspool and risk your cushy job and honourific title?

In another shameful capitulation to civic and political cowardice, B.C. Premier Dave Eby has forced the resignation of the senior minister of Post Secondary Education and Future Skills, Selina Robinson, because she said Israel was founded on a "crappy piece of land".  Hello, it was!  That's why the British dumped it. 

Naturally, this caused hysteria among many voters who have bombarded Eby's office with phone calls and emails saying they are "hurt and alienated" by Robinson's comments.  Eby is an NDP premier. And who runs the federal NDP?  Exactly.  Does Singh's religion have anything to do with the pressure on Eby to dump her?  How can it not?

Could it have anything to do with the fact that Robinson is the most senior Jewish politician in the province?  How could it not?  Never ones to miss a chance to jump on any bandwagon, First Nations leaders have also chimed in to demand she be removed.  What this has to do with natives I have no clue?!  But there they are anyway, braying for blood and rending garments in their customary display of the perpetually-offended. 

Folks, never forget that in the end, all politics are not only local, they're also deeply personal.

  

 

When I dated them.......

..........the two NHL players I knew and went out with in the late sixties were perfect gentlemen.  Wonderful memories are flooding back as I read about the five players currently charged with rape and sexual assault -- memories that for me are in stark contrast to what these brutes have been charged with.

No, the guys I dated were nothing like that.  Bryan Watson, who at the time played for the Habs, was a great guy and treated me like a princess.  My Mother loved him because he was unfailingly polite and respectful to both her and my Father.  This was the summer of 1966 and I had met him at Carleton University, where I had been attending summer school because I had failed 'Earth Sciences'.  He was auditing classes to meet girls and I was the lucky girl he fancied.

Bryan Watson with his pre-helmet, smashed-in face.

The other NHL player I dated was Brian Smith, who played for the Los Angeles Kings.  This would have been in 1967.  He too was a gentleman my parents adored.  I think they hoped I might end up with one of them, but I was too young and had adventures to pursue in Toronto.

Tragically, Brian Smith was gunned down in 1995 by a lunatic in the parking lot of CJOH, where he worked as a sportscaster.  We were at the cottage when I heard that on the news and I actually had to sit down to recover.  It was so shocking!  

Brian Smith, a lovely guy.

That's why I find it unbelievable that today's young hockey players are in such a mess.  It was clear to me that the clubs players worked for back then expected them to behave like gentlemen to safeguard their organizations' reputations.

Not anymore, apparently.  Frankly, I blame the parents -- especially the mothers -- who see a lot of dollar signs and indulge their sons' every whim and misadventure.  Isn't it funny that you never see the parents anywhere near their sons in the media during the perp walks.  Thanks to them, their sons' lives have been destroyed.

This is not to say that sexual abuse was not around when I was a child.  I experienced it by my orthodontist when I was 12, but was too terrified to tell my Mother, who was always sitting in the waiting room.  I recently read his obituary and was tempted to post a remembrance, but didn't.  He got away with it because I cannot have been the only young patient he assaulted and yet he was never caught.  Why did we all stay silent?  Shame, guilt and a feeling that it must have been our faults for being "too cute".

I also experienced "date rape" by a guy who invited me to spend the weekend at his cottage in 1969 with his parents.  Once again, I was mortified and blamed myself.  I did, however, get my own back when I attended a parent/teacher meeting at the school years later.  Who was chair of the association?  None other than the offender himself, Bill Mitchell.  

"Hi, Bill," I said.  "Remember me?  Remember what you did to me at your parents' cottage a few years ago?"  We were in a group of parents and he turned beet red and walked off, while the other parents stood there speechless.

Yep, I did get him back.  Mothers watch your children and always expect the worst.