Bumped into one today

"He's amassed a billion dollars since he took over," said a guy at the pool this morning.  "Carney," I assumed.  "No, Trump.  Carney has completely divested himself of all his companies, so he's clean," said this Albertan dunce.

"He was one of the only leaders who got a standing ovation," he added, proving in his mind how brilliant Carney was.  No, he got a standing ovation because everyone at Davos is like-minded and completely ineffectual, not because he was brilliant.

After his little tirade at the WEF, Carney hightailed it out of town before Trump arrived.  Remember when we used to ring people's doorbells and run away?  Ya, like that.

I didn't even bother to respond.  He is one of the 80 percenters who still think Carney is doing a great job.  Their ignorance is breathtaking!  Canadians still think Carney is in it for Canada.  Have another think, folks.  Carney still has all his Brookfield stock and guess where so many contracts the government lets are going?  Rhetorical.

Tash Kheiriddin has a great take on what Canada is facing.  "The U.S. is waging a hybrid war on our country.  We are now in direct economic and political conflict with our formerly closest ally.

"Canada cannot defend our Arctic against Russia and China.  Mark Norman, former deputy chief of the defence staff, believes we should establish a permanent NATO command base at Iqaluit, with boots on the ground.  

"Canada should align itself with other NATO allies in the Arctic because if we are to survive as a nation, we need all the help we can get."

I agree with her, but Carney is pirouetting around Davos with his buddies dancing the horn pipe and I don't think he gives a toss about Canada and our plight.  Afterall, he lives in New York, so perhaps the Stars and Stripes Trump draped all over a map of Canada yesterday doesn't fuss him in the least.

Our fate?

He also holds Irish and British passports, two more safe havens to which he can dash if Canada is swallowed up by the U.S.  The rest of us, however, are stuck.

A 'Homey' from 'The Hood' goes to Buckingham Palace

But she didn't last long.  I mean, you can take the girl out of The Hood, but you can't take The Hood out of the girl.  Of course, I'm talking about the odious Meghan Markle.   

Meghan from 'The Hood'.

Meghan, deviously now white.

When this all-star, blue ribbon, naked opportunist set her sights on the hapless Prince Harry, he was doomed.  Even as an actress, she couldn't pull off pretending to be a princess.  Her all-consuming jealousy and desire to be 'numero uno' overcame her; she couldn't abide the pecking order of the Monarchy.  I mean, did she actually think she could, or was entitled to, upstage the Queen and Princess of Wales?!  Evidently yes.

That mocking and appalling curtsey of The Queen she pulled on that interview showed just how really tawdry and low-class she is.  It was cringe-worthy.

I guess there's something to be said about breeding -- even the "in" variety.  Royals are bred to behave and to conform to age-old norms and rules.  Meghan, on the other hand, was bred to scratch and claw her way up the ladder, stepping on and destroying anyone and anything in her path.  She has dropped and shunned countless friends along the way.  

(It's important to remember that I am writing about stereotypes on both sides, not all cases of each culture.) 

Witness her poor father, the guy who raised her, paid for education and got her into show business.  He's now been kicked to the curb, even as he lies gravely ill in a hospital with an amputated leg.  I mean, what kind of person does that?

Apparently, Harry was so p-ssy-whipped he succumbed.  An acquaintance of ours once revealed she kept her husband under control that way:  "P-ssy power", she called it, pointing to that region of her body and laughing.  I kid you not.  So, Meghan dragged poor Harry to where she was most comfortable:  The Hood, where any tactic is fair game.  Now, according to polls, she is the most disliked public figure in the world and he's a figure of pity and ridicule.

Great work, Harry!  By hooking up with this vile person, you went from being the most popular Royal to the least!

Now they are nobodies and disillusioned Harry has realized he is a cuckhold who's been had.  The rumours -- allegedly, reportedly -- are that it was Markel who destroyed Ben and Jessica Mulroney's marriage by sleeping with a duped Ben.  Hitherto, she and Jessica had been BFFs -- her kids were even in the wedding party -- but that all went kaput because of the alleged infidelity.

Now he's a hostage in California, where Meghan will be keeping his kids.  All he can do is visit The King now and then.  That's what he has been reduced to, just his father because William and the rest of the family have written him off entirely.

It's all so sad, but that's what you get when you marry the wrong person.  As my sensible Mother used to say, "It's easier to marry within your own station, dear."

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As always, this is not racist.  I don't care what colour you are, we are all the same race, the Human one.  Everything else is culture, upbringing and personal decisions. 

He finally uttered them

"A new world order."  That's how Carney described his mission during a press conference in China.  He has been trying to hide his true agenda, but it was finally revealed.  And not spontaneously by accident during a scrum.  No, he revealed his true colours off a prepared script.  

Flowers from one dictator to another -- a distraction with beads and baubles, like we did with the Natives.

So we now know -- as if we didn't already -- what his real agenda is.  He is a globalist through-and-through.  No surprise when you consider he has been living in a gilded cage for all of his career, a cage in which people kiss his a-s, agree with everything he says and bear him around in sleek chauffeured limos to red carpets wherever he fancies to traipse.

Pipelines?  Boring.  Canada?  Who cares?

His trip to China produced a commitment to cut tariffs on Chinese EVs.  What did he get in return?  A promise to (maybe) reduce canola tariffs.  I'll believe that when I see it.  I wonder if Scott Moe has a better take on that file?  Probably.

The whole voyage has sorely pissed Trump off, which was dumb.  How's that going to aid the upcoming CUSMA negotiations, which he has already dismissed with a disinterested shrug?  

We're sleepwalking into big trouble.  Trump is not going to stop threatening us with a takeover, just as he is doing with Greenland and Venezuela.  The fanciful, humorous and charming notion of Canada's becoming the 51st state now looks increasingly possible.  I know it still sound crazy, but how could we stop him?

Ah, Carney fiddles in China while Canada trembles in no man's land. 

   

The right stuff

I no longer watch the legacy media for news.  It's all propaganda and BS because it's paid for by the government.  Call me unpatriotic, but I don't fancy watching Pravda for my information -- especially when delivered by the ludicrous Rosemary Barton.

I now watch only YouTube for national and international news.  For entertainment, I watch Paramount, Netflix or Prime, but nothing on CBC or CTV.  

Banned from press conferences by Trudeau, 'Rebel News' is where one gets the best and truest news about what's going on in this communist country.  Every now and then, I tune into 'At Issue', and suffer through Barton and am regularly sickened by her inane and inappropriate giggling just to see what woke sh-t the other panelists are peddling.  Frankly, I think I tune in to "hate watch". 

YouTube tells me that Ben Mulroney's marriage broke up because he had an affair with Meghan Markel.  The once best friend of Ben's ex, Jessica, apparently Meghan seduced the hapless Ban and that was it for the poor sap's marriage.  Is that true?  I have no clue, but allegedly, reportedly that's what happened.

 Poor Harry.  What a cuckhold. 

For facts, Bill O'Reilly, John Mearsheimer, Col. Douglas Macgregor and Victor Davis Hanson are also great sources.  So are Adrian Batra and Kevin Klein.  On 'America's Untold Stories', you will also learn that LBJ ordered the hit on Kennedy, something confirmed by E. Howard Hunt on his deathbed.  Watch that podcast for the most fascinating analysis of Kennedy's assassination.  It's riveting.   

So, folks, with apologies to Timothy Leary, "wake up, tune in, turn on and drop out" of legacy media.  Get informed and rouse yourselves from Carney Torpor Syndrome.    

 

Chaos and collapse

That's how Dr. Paul Parks, former head of the Alberta Medical Association, describes the state of hospital and medical care in this province.  

Heard him on the radio yesterday and it was shocking to hear him describe drowning emergency rooms, equipment shortages, hallway medicine and patients even dying in waiting rooms.  What the hell is Health Minister Adriana LaGrange doing with her $28 billion budget?!  We're only 5 million people, for Gawd's sake.

The average emergency room in Alberta.

To make matters worse, we have three other health ministries, one for addiction and mental health, one for surgery and another for assisted living -- all evidently doing nothing to ease the mess.  You can imagine the finger-pointing and blame each is giving the other for the shambles Albertans face.  "It's not me, it's him.  It's not me, it's her."

Right after Dr. Parks' interview, up popped one about Carney -- yes, it's him personally, with no Parliamentary permission -- handing Ukraine another $2.5 billion.  $2.5 billion, making our total handout $23.5 billion to that godforsaken and corrupt place!

The juxtaposition was breathtaking.  Why are we giving that money to a country over which we have no jurisdiction, no accountability about where our money goes and about which few Canadians, other than the Ukrainian diaspora, give a second thought?  Why aren't we spending it on health care?  Think of what it could do.  

It's unconscionable.

Speaking of unconscionable, why is Carney off on yet another series of useless, whirlwind visits?  He's going to China -- whose policies over which he will have absolutely no influence -- then Qatar and then to, you guessed it, his favourite soirée, the Davos WEF cocktail party.

Many of the deluded still cling to the fantasy that he's making progress and getting deals, but so far NOTHING!  I'm so sick of him and his nothing burger of a job.  Apparently, 80% of Canadians think he's doing a great job.  In my world, that means 80% of Canadians are woefully ignorant and ill-informed.

If only he took one of the rarified top jobs he covets as head of the World Bank, the IMF or the WEF and got out of town permanently.

I can only dream.............. 

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A word about the hysteria surrounding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rounding up illegals and deporting them.  Frankly, what is the issue?  The people they are gathering are illegally in the country, so by definition, they are criminals.  Plain and simple.  

Millions have literally invaded the borders without going through due process and, with millions there now, how can everyone get a hearing?  It would take years and years and years.  They can't.  So the only remedy, as far as I can see, is to deport them and insist they follow the law, respect the border and come in via proper channels and processes.

I know all the bed wetters will cry foul, but that's the way I see it.  B and his family waited five years to come legally to Canada and longer to become citizens.  That's the way it's supposed to work, so get over yourselves, all ye who clutch pearls, gnash teeth and rend garments.  

  

Economic advisor?!

Sure, great idea, if you want advice on how to drive your economy into the ditch and beggar its citizens, hire Chrystia Freeland.  She's an expert.  Apparently, she told Carney about her appointment to the Ukraine position on December 24th, but they both agreed to keep it a secret so they could shovel another $2.5 billion over to Ukraine.

It would have been kept secret, except for the unfortunate tweet Zelensky put out announcing Freeland's new job.  Oops!  But by then, they had already handed Zelensky the dough -- ostensibly for the war effort, but probably a lot of it to fill his personal, already-overflowing coffers.  I mean, what's another yacht or two.

The woman is shameless.  How could she be serving her constituents, while being deputy prime minister and finance minister.  Then she was appointed some sort of advisor to the re-building of Ukraine, which can't be done while Putin is still bombing the sh-t out of it, and after that, Warden and CEO of The Rhodes Trust -- the latter a job based in London!

Taking the Ukraine job and  keeping it secret, while giving that country $2.5 billion, was clearly against the law, breaking a number of sections of the 'Conflict of Interest Act'.  I read the Act and also watched an episode of 'Rebel News', in which a lawyer unequivocally outlined the issues and illegalities.  A forensic audit needs to be carried out on her and Carney.

But Konrad von Finkenstein won't do it.  He is another disgrace.   

I'll also bet the Rhodes regrets appointing her because she will tarnish its hitherto hallowed reputation with her money-grubbing ways. 

She has publicly stated that the Ukrainian cause has been her primary focus all her life, so I guess she's right where she belongs.

All I can say is, ta-ta and good riddance!  

There she goes!

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So, now Carney is off to China for four days of "talks".  Four days!  Gee, I wonder if those chats will benefit Brookfield?  Rhetorical.  I mean how long can you talk about anything at that level?  I think they should announce that Carney will be visiting Canada for two days, because he certainly isn't acting as prime minister.  He pops in, in between trips and visits home to New York, where he, his wife and family actually live.

And how many deals has he secured?  Exactly.  

So many people drank his Koolaid.  I hope they mightily regret it now. 

"I like your lipstick"

"I like your fur coat," they also said.  It's a mink and I am the only woman I have seen out here wearing one.  If anyone objects to fur, they better be a vegan because these mink were bred to be coats; they are not wild.  If you eat meat, you can't object to a farm-bred mink coat.

"I like your earrings," someone else says.

A hit with my students today.

My magnificent mink coat.

That's how I was greeted as I walked down the hall of Elizabeth Barrett school this morning, when I returned to tutor.  How sweet those seven and nine-year-old children are as they greet me.  They do not yet have any inhibitions and tell you exactly what they are thinking.

So, I did my hour with French and another with English students, as I have been doing for more than a year.  Do I make a difference?  Who knows, but I am tutoring as I was taught in the fifties:  All with phonetics.  "Sound it out," I say, as they stumble through a word.

What a privilege to be able to help these darlings, as they start their young lives.  

$5 million

That's how much ex-mayor Jyoti Gondek wasted convening a panel of "experts" to come up with a new slogan for Calgary.  What did they conjure up after two years of navel gazing?  "Blue Sky City".  It used to be "Feel the Energy", but Gondek must have thought that moniker highlighted "evil oil".  So now, instead of looking down at the oceans of valuable oil right under our feet, we have to look up to the blue sky, where we'll find.....uh....um....clouds into which to stick our heads?  There's certainly no oil up there.

You could not make this up!

Let's not forget -- paging the dazzling genius Mark Carney! -- that Alberta's oil finances the entire country via transfer payments.  Without it, we'd be even poorer than we are, thanks to Carney's disastrous "green, net zero" agenda.

Someone needs to sit this "brilliant economist" down, ground his plane and tie him to a chair so he can be educated on how valuable our oil is.  As I have blogged countless times, we have to get it to tide water to sell to countries desperate for this resource.  But, thanks to the ludicrous NDP and the delusional, one-trick-pony Elizabeth May, we can't.

Never mind that Carney has the power to overrule provinces objections and hysterical native protests, he won't do it -- meaningless memoranda of understanding notwithstanding.  That was nothing but Kabuki theatre and a photo op.  It's a piece of paper that has no teeth and will not get a pipeline built, which is Carney's objective.

Keep it in the ground, are his watchwords!  How's that gonna work, now that the U.S. has taken over Venezuela's oil industry?  They produce the same heavy crude as does Alberta, so the U.S. will need much less of ours now.  Having ruined the auto industry, Carney is well on his way to destroying the oil one too.  This is very scary and very serious.

But back to the flood.  Why didn't Gondek fix the main water feeder for most of the city, as well as surrounding towns like Airdrie?  This is a complete failure of civic leaders, but I believe new mayor Jeromy Farkas will deal effectively with it -- unlike Gondek and the previous council.  In the meantime, 3,100 families will remain under a boil-water advisory.  

That $5 million would have been far better spent on water.  Great job, Jyoti!

Lots of fun in Calgary the other day.  

Gondek is the first incumbent mayor in memory to have been defeated after one term.  That tells you a lot about her incompetence.  Calgarians are not stupid.  They finally came to their senses -- even the ethnic community, which usually votes en block for any ethnic candidate on the ballot.

Thankfully, we live in Cochrane, so aren't affected.  When that same pipe burst two years ago, however, we lived in northwest and were affected.  So, Cochrane water managers, check our lines!

Would someone please tell me.....

....what in Gawd's name the CBC was doing flying a Palestinian flag in the background during its New Year's Eve television coverage?!

If any flag is to be flown by the CBC, it must be this one.

Once again, the CBC is disgracing itself as a purported objective scribe of international and national news.  How anyone working there can call themselves journalists is beyond me?!  I worked as a journalist in Toronto during the early seventies and, unless one was writing a column, one was required to be objective.  Any opinions were to be kept to oneself.  Period.

Wait, I think I have the answer.  The CBC is funded to the tune of billions by the taxpayer and Mark Carney just officially recognized the state of Palestine.  Unfortunately, someone forget to tell Mr. Carney that there is no such thing as an official Palestinian state, so there's nothing to recognize.

Mahmoud Abbas, along with the late terrorist Yasser Arafat, was a founder of the PLO and has ensconced himself as president of what is known as Palestine since 2005.  Despite having pledged to hold elections, he hasn't.  He also remains a rabid hater of Israel.    

What a joke.  

New Year's Day musings...

As I have blogged, three years ago I discovered, thanks to '23 and Me', that I had five sisters (half) and two brothers.  (See "It's Official", Sept. 16th, 2025). It turned out we shared a father.  That was the biggest "Wow!" in my life, but it was also a gift because two of my sisters keep in touch with me; the other three were evidently horrified because I had burst their hitherto perfect family bubble.

A few days ago, I had a couple of great conversations with Dr. Nora Doyle and Maureen Doyle, the two sisters with whom I am in touch.  We shared laughs and swapped stories as if we'd know each other all our lives. 

Baby sister Maureen

 

Another baby sister, Dr. Nora Doyle.

Note: As you know, I found my birth Mother 45 years ago, pre-Internet, thanks to slogging through city directories, forging letters from my Father to the lawyer who had handled the case and phoning complete strangers until I hit pay dirt.  Sadly, she had died at 49, a year before I found her, but I met her brothers and sister and other relatives and concluded I am glad I had been adopted by my wonderful parents.

My birth Father, however, had been incorrectly identified -- until I spat into a container and sent it off to have my DNA extracted.  Low and behold, it hadn't been the guy everyone thought it had been.  My father turned out to be an American Marine named William (Billy) Doyle; Nora and Maureen are also two of his six daughters (including me).

I will keep in touch with them and be eternally grateful for their presence in my life.  So many genetic mysteries and gifts have now been solved -- like where did all the athleticism come from?  And where did my irreverent sense of humour come from?

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Right on cue, a main water main has broken in Calgary.  Again.  Two years after the first one.  WTF?!  Apparently, an expensive, state-of-the-art, high tech, fibre-optic acoustic monitoring system was "working normally" when it ruptured.  Huh?!  How could well-paid experts at city hall say it was "working normally" when it burst?  Obviously, it wasn't working normally -- or if it was, they need to get a new "normal" to detect weaknesses and potential leaks.

Pulling back the curtain, I see that all the emergency and water "experts" at city hall are women.  Were they DEI hires, à la Brenda Lucki, the hapless former commissioner of the RCMP who effed up every crisis she encountered?  Sadly, probably.  Leapfrogging women over more qualified men does no one a favour -- especially the women.

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I see that Queen Camilla has spoken about the sexual assault she endured as a teen on a London subway, so I thought I'd re-post mine.  When I was 12, Dr. Richard Braden, my orthodontist, assaulted me while I was trapped in his chair.  I froze, completely panic-stricken and did nothing.  When he released me, I went out to my Mother, who had been waiting in his outer office.

"Isn't Dr. Braden handsome," she oozed, as he greeted her warmly.  I said nothing and never told her or anyone else.  When I read his obituary, I was tempted to pen my own memories of the horror of his chair, but didn't.  Afterall, the great Dr. Braden was the Commodore of the Britannia Yacht Club and a pillar of the Ottawa community.  

I wondered how many other young girls he had assaulted in his torture chair over the years.  When my daughter and step-daughter were young, I warned them many times about, "anyone touching your private parts" -- even the doctor or dentist.  

I also suffered what is know as "date rape" -- however, adding "date" to the term makes it sound less criminal -- almost funny.  It's not.  It's rape, plain and simple.  This happened when I was invited by my cousin to her boyfriend's cottage.  "Bill will be there too, you'll like him, why don't you come along?"  So I did.  But even though his parents were there, he still attacked me in the dark and, terrified of "making a scene", I did and said nothing.  Again.

A few years later, I met him at a parent/teacher assembly at my children's school -- the famous Rockcliffe Park Public in tony Rockcliffe Park.  There he was, preening around as the president and giving us all a speech.  After he imparted his wisdom, I approached.  "Hi, Bill.  Remember me?  Remember when you raped me at your parents' cottage?"  Surrounded by adoring mothers, he blanched, turned white and took off. 

That was a good moment.

Then there were the unwanted attentions and actions of one of Pierre Trudeau's ministers in 1976.  I was his speechwriter and used to travel with him, but I was vulnerable, had just had a baby and desperately needed the job.  I will leave the details of his actions to the depths of your imagination.  It was not pleasant and again, it was rape.

Unlike many victims, I did not dine out on my horrors for the rest of my life.  I got on with what I had to do to survive and I thrived.  Gratitude overtook any misery I may have harboured and still does.  

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On a lighter note, last evening, for no apparent reason, I called an old friend in Ottawa to wish him a Happy New Year.  Flabbergasted, he picked up and we had a great conversation, laughing and tripping down memory lane 45 years after we had first met.  

Thank you, François Proulx for your continuing warm friendship.  I will not let so many years pass between us again before getting back in touch.

So, all in all, it has been a great Christmas and New Year's here in little, old Cochrane, Alberta!