More trips

So, Carney has jetted off once again, this time to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- his 11th trip to 16 countries.  Wow, this net-zero, green zealot is sure doing his level best to contribute to carbon emissions!  The one silver lining this time is that he didn't drag his harridan of a wife along.

Gawd!

What could he possibly need from the UAE?  They produce oil, something we have tons of here at home.  Oh yes, I forgot, we can't get it to markets because pipelines are evil.  But I guess he's happy to buy oil from other countries at great cost.  How dumb!  So this invaluable resource remains locked in the ground, while other countries build, build, build and ship, ship, ship!

The big announcement?  "We will get deals done with the UAE within a year," Carney promised.  Within a year?!  Who knows what deals and who knows if any will get done?  Certainly, Carney doesn't.

Speaking of deals, what are we to make of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Alberta to build a pipeline to B.C. tide water?  The only "understandings" I take away are that Alberta wants one and Carney doesn't.  Other than that, an MOU is nothing more than a delaying tactic on Carney's part to placate Danielle Smith.  I wonder why she is going along with it?

The other insurmountable obstacle is that there has been no consultation whatsoever with the Indigenous coastal people, who are already screaming they want in.  Without their say, nothing will get built and Carney knows it.  Oh, and a big shout-out to David Eby, who's already trashed the whole thing.  Yay Dave!

So, nothing's happening and Carney's blasting his carbon footprint hither and yon.  Same old, same old.

_______________________

A word about the appointment of Chrystia Freeland as warden of the Rhodes Trust.  Talk about cheapening that once-illustrious prize, her appointment is a disaster.  B was nominated for the Rhodes in 1962, but lost to a less-qualified francophone because the Quiet Revolution was afoot, mailboxes were being bombed and Quebec ministers murdered and stuffed into the trunks of cars.  

So, B, an anglophone and great athlete, was dumped -- even though he had been nominated by none other than John Turner.  I guess Turner was also too anglo to be considered.  B's booby prize, however, was a Liverhulme Fellowship to the London School of Economics -- not a bad appointment.  When you see who's running the Rhodes now, I'm glad he didn't get it.

Ah, politics.  T'was ever thus.

  

 

memorandum of underst, trip to the UAE??, freeland

The rot is baked in

If you think it's just me, tune into Kevin Klein's YouTube podcasts to find out more about what the Indigenous chiefs are up to.  Turns out councilors and chiefs in Norway House Cree Nation, for example, have just voted themselves another $100,000 each in expense money -- on top of the $100,000+ they have awarded themselves in salaries.

Yep, you read that right.  With a population 8,839 souls, the chiefs have pumped themselves up quite handsomely, thank you, and now rake in more than $200,000 each while the poor souls who live there continue to struggle in squalour.

Remember Charmaine Stick of the Onion Lake Band?  She's been trying to get an accounting of where the chiefs spend the money and they have refused to comply.  No need for an audit, we know into whose bank accounts it has been deposited.  Klein wanted to know why no Indigenous are demanding an accounting.  I'd like to know too!  So far, Charmaine is on her own.  

As I say, it's rot at the top in many files.  Just look at Arielle Karagaba, the deputy house government leader, who claimed....sit down...hydrate.....breathe.....$173,000 in personal expenses in just nine days!^%#$@!!%^%!  And there's no accountability because the Accountability Act Harper introduced was immediately repealed by Trudeau.  Guess he didn't want the same act to apply to him. 

Arielle with her buddy Carney.

$173,000!!!!!!!!  What could she have possibly squandered it on?  We'll apparently never know because it's been approved and pocketed.  And she spent all this while Parliament was not sitting and she was not doing any official business!

But give Arielle a break.  Afterall, she was born in Burundi, so may not have yet figured out that Canada is a democracy, unlike her homeland which is rife with widespread corruption, poverty, instability, authoritarianism and illiteracy.  The norm in most African countries, which is why personally we never give a cent to any country on that continent.

Remember poor old Bev Oda?  She was sacked for expensing a $16 glass of orange juice.  

Listened to interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques the other day and he has found $140 billion in new spending not revealed by Carney tucked away in the budget just released.  Jacques gave the boldest appearance before a Parliamentary committee I have ever witnessed, but it will cost him his job because the PMO is advertising for a new officer who displays, "tact and discretion".  No more facts for the public, oh no, no, no!  Sounds like Burundi.  Banana Republic anyone?

The mandate of the PBO is, "To provide economic financial analysis to Parliament to promote greater transparency and accountability" for members of Parliament and the taxpayer.  But not, of course, if any truth dribbles out.

According to Jacques, the government campaigned on maintaining a balanced fiscal anchor with a diminishing debt to GDP ratio.  But they've ditched that anchor altogether and no longer even aspire to bring down the debt.  This is the anchor that has been in place for the past 30 years, but "The government has secretly ditched it with no consultation whatsoever."

And then there's the Palestinian flag debacle.  Toronto mayor Olivia Chow and Manitoba premier Wab Kinew are both raising it on government property.  You have to remember that both Chow and Kinew are not really Canadians in spirit.  Chow was born in Hong Kong and was only elected because of the late Jack's popularity.  Kinew is Indigenous and therefore definitely not Canadian in any traditional sense.

Happily, newly-elected Calgary mayor Jeromy Farkas has tabled a motion saying the only flags that can be flown on city property are the Calgary, Alberta or Canadian banners.  At least there's one patriot in the bunch.  (Note, unfortunately it was defeated by council -- remnants of Gondek's old jiggery-pokery-wokery bunch.)

Coupled with the politicization and banishment of the Poppy, it's unconscionable.  Let's face it, Canada is no more.  It makes me weep.  

 

Did anyone notice?

I did.  Mark Carney's much-hyped announcements of all the "mega" projects he's going to build in "times never seen before", four were in B.C.  Why?  Because he knows he's not going to get ANYTHING past the natives on the west coast.  Nothing. 

This will be the fate of all Carney's mega projects.  I have been saying this for years.

That's quite the cute trick.  Announce energy projects so it looks like you're making Canada an "energy superpower", all while knowing they'll never get completed.  Remember, his main condition is that each project gets Indigenous buy-in.  That guarantees nothing will happen.  (Trust me, I was in the PR business and also worked for several ministers.  I can smell bullsh-t a mile off 'cause I had to conjure up a lot of it.)

Of course, none was announced for Alberta because Carney knows Danielle Smith will get a pipeline built -- the last thing Carney wants!  I can't wait to see Smith's reaction.  Maybe she'll pull a "Lougheed" and shut off the pipes to the East just in time for Christmas.  That would be epic and well-deserved -- especially since he called pipelines "boring".  Can you imagine!? What he means is that he's bored being asked so often why he won't approve any.

The other cute trick was that most were already underway, or announced years before.  Nothing to see here, folks.  Canada's vast riches are once again being left in the ideological ground, making us all poorer for no good reason.  

Folks, that's what you get when you elect a green lunatic prime minister, with an equally green lunatic wife egging him on with relentless pillow talk.  Remember, her entire prosperous career has been in the net zero hoax.  In my mind, the only real "net zero" is Carney's brain.  Wake up!

The Climate King of Canada.

  

 

Musings on Remembrance Day

Spent a good part of the day watching coverage of this solemn day and it got me thinking about the various members of my own family's experiences.  

Many soldiers returned with PTSD, but they didn't go into treatment.  They went to the Legion.  That's where they shared their experiences and healed each other.  The PTSD recovery industry has been very handsomely built by capitalizing on the trauma so many vets experience.  

Frankly, how can a 30-something psychiatrist possibly relate to the arbitrary horrors soldiers who faced death saw all around them?  They can't, but their comrades at The Legion can and that's how they supported and understood each other.

I call BS on that industry, just as I do on expensive treatment centres for alcoholics.  The only thing that works for alcoholics is AA.  That's where they share and care -- not in a sterile facility staffed by "experts".

I also thought about my time as a volunteer on the 'Friends of the Canadian War Museum' board of directors.  There again, members supported each other and I was privileged to have been invited to join.  I learned humility and respect for the fine gentlemen -- yes, I was the only woman -- with whom I worked, including the late historian and author Tim Cook.  He was such a great guy and took the time to take me around the various displays and paintings when I joined, explaining everything housed there.  Taken far too young, may he Rest in Peace.

I am currently watching a documentary series about the U.S. Marines.  As you know, my birth father, William Doyle, was a Marine and fought in the bloodiest battle of WW II, Okinawa.  Eight thousand US Marines died in only 36 days.  What an unbelievable tragedy.  Billy Doyle returned a changed man, so my sisters have told me.

Billy Doyle, a proud US Marine.

I never met him and only learned I was his daughter two years ago, thanks to DNA.  What a shock!  But I have so much respect for him.  In terms of genetics, I think I could have been a Marine and probably would have enjoyed it.

So, another Remembrance Day closes.  May all who served sleep soundly, not knowing the damage politicians have done to this wonderful country.  Paging Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney!

Five generations

That's how we gathered yesterday for High Tea at The Fairmont Palliser Hotel in Calgary.  There were only three present -- me, daughter and granddaughter -- but another two were there in spirit:  My mother and Grandmother.  My mother because I wore one of her jackets and my grandmother because I carried her shillelagh walking stick -- in fact, that stick may have actually been her mother's, so that would be six generations!

In any case, we were five generations there yesterday.

It was delightful, but expensive.  (I won't tell you how much because you'd die!)  Nevertheless, well worth it.

Just a delightful time and rare that we are together, given the hectic schedules of daughter and granddaughter.  I am so grateful.

  

This makes no sense to me?

Here's a doozy.  Parliament just passed a lunatic bill, C-3, that will now allow a Canadian parent, "born abroad but with a substantial connection to Canada, to pass on citizenship to any child born abroad beyond the first generation."

This means that a parent not born in Canada, but who has lived here for just three years, can travel back to their homeland and give birth to a child who would automatically have Canadian citizenship -- even though neither their parents nor they were been born here.

That's nuts!  This allows Canada to continue to be a birth tourist nation to get citizenship.  The worst offenders are the Lebanese, who regularly arrive here, get citizenship and then immediately go back to Lebanon to have kids, live with their family and friends for generations and even run businesses.  But whenever conflict erupts, they demand to be flown to Canada at taxpayer expense.  And for some reason, they are!?

Why is this permitted?  I think it's all for votes because all these "citizens" vote Liberal.  I mean, what other reason could there be?

____________________  

A word about the Mega Projects Office Carney has established.  Firstly, why did we need this?  There are multiple government departments already tasked with these projects.  Must be because he wants to control what goes on without the annoying interference of meddling bureaucrats.

Looking at the five major ones he wants to get going, I see each will have to pass through Indigenous territory.  Guess what?  They'll never get buy-in from natives because the latter's funding does not depend on projects.  It is baked into the Canadian economy, so they can protest all they want, they'll still get their billions.  Naturally, they have taken the usual "no" position:

They believe "consultation" means "veto", so good luck getting anything past them.

We're doomed.   

Trigger warning

If you're squeamish, don't read this post.  Yesterday, I thought I had something stuck in my eye, so I kept rubbing it and trying to get it out.  Nothing worked, so I went to my doctor who assumed it was conjunctivitis and prescribed drops.

No sooner had I put a couple in, my eye lit up with excruciating pain.  Felt like it was filled with sandpaper!  So, off I went to the Urgent Care facility here in Cochrane.  But it wasn't pink eye, it was an ulcer on my cornea!  Talk about pain! 

Lots going on in the average eye and apparently, the cornea is one of the most excruciating pains you will ever experience because it has 16 nerves in it. 

I was immediately referred to a specialist at the eye clinic in Calgary, so off I went (with daughter driving me because I couldn't see) to  spend a lovely morning getting assessed and prescribed more gunk.  It turns out the worst thing you can do with a ulcerated cornea is put antibiotics into it!

So, finally on the mend, but no swimming for a while.  As an old friend said, "Geezer Alert!!"  Don't get old! 

 

The arrogance

It was breathtaking!  Watching Vassy Kapelos interview Tim Hodgson, minister of energy and natural resources, I was shocked -- but not surprised -- by his arrogance and rudeness!  He talked to her as if she were a child who needed scolding, saying at one point, "Let me educate you, Vassy."

He then launched into an obviously-rehearsed speech about how much Canada was diversifying its trade and investments outside the U.S.  After his fudged non-answer, Vassy said, "Thank you for the education, but you didn't answer my question."

He then went on to deny that Carney had said Canada's traditional relationship with the U.S. was over -- which Carney did say and which she quoted verbatim back to him.  He shrugged awkwardly and repeated his rehearsed drivel for the fifth time.

It almost looked as if he had been trained by my former colleague, Barry McLoughlin, who runs a very successful consulting business teaching politicians how to avoid answering questions.  Lesson learned, Mr. Hodgson.  Barry does his job brilliantly because Hodgson didn't answer a thing she asked him.

As I said, it was breathtaking, but Vassy got him.  It was stunning.

Captain Arrogance Tim Hodgson.

Words of wisdom

 

Useless expressions

Here's a list of pointless expressions:

• At the end of the day.........
• That being said.............
• All things considered.........
• All things being equal.........
• On the one hand..........
• On the other hand........
• When you really think about it.......
• Not to put too fine a point on it.........
• Conversely..........
• Without a doubt.........

They are really meaningless fillers and my late editor, Mrs. Portugal, would tolerate none.  They actually give the user the option of not committing to any position.  One of the worst master offenders of the device is Andrew Coyne, who uses them all with gay abandon, filling the inside front page of the 'Opinion' section of 'The Globe' every Saturday with columns and columns of drivel.

Right up there with Coyne is Allan Gregg, a Canadian pollster and self-described "pundit" who used to opine regularly on CBC.  His favourite expression was, "That being said.....", after which he would launch into the complete opposite of what he had just fervently espoused.  Cute trick because he never commits to any position on anything, but makes a ton of money doing it.  (Allegedly, reportedly, just my opinion, as the great Maureen Callahan always says adds after she excoriates a victim.)

The elusive Mr. Gregg.

So, next time you hear anyone using any of the above, take note: They're not saying anything.