Another national failure

Canada has three things that are unique:  The RCMP, the Group of Seven and the Snowbirds.  Soon they'll be but two because the Snowbirds are being taken out of service.  Why?  Because successive governments -- both Liberal and Conservative -- have failed to replace them and they are now too dangerous to get off the ground.

Our beloved Snowbirds, soon to be grounded for years.

This is an appalling failure of leadership and a slap in the face to what's left of our withering Canadian identity.  

In a report released in 2003, when Jean Chretien was PM, our proud aerobatic squad was deemed to become obsolete by 2010.  Chretien did nothing.

In 2012, Stephen Harper rejected a $755 million proposal from the military for new Snowbirds.  Again, nothing.

In 2021, Justin Trudeau actually did one positive thing:  He approved $30 million to keep the Snowbirds flying until 2030.  (For a guy who boasted Canada was the first proud, post-national state (an oxymoron, BTW), that was actually impressive.)

So, for at least the next four Canada Day celebrations -- and probably much longer -- there will be no beloved, familiar, red and white birds gloriously celebrating the day.  

This is a wretched lack of leadership.  Even worse, they will be replaced with....wait for it....sit down....turboprops!  I kid you not!  Not jets, turboprops!!  At first I thought this was a joke, but no.  Canada's beloved Snowbirds will be travelling around the world to air shows in descendants of the Wright Brothers originals.  

We are an international laughing stock! No wonder Trump cancelled the Canada/US cooperation effort.  I mean seriously.  The best we can do are turboprops!  

And don't expect Carney to do anything about it.  His secret recent meeting in Toronto with Soros and Obama makes clear his intentions to abandon Canada and turn us into some sort of global pawn in their international sabotage efforts.  The Snowbirds?  Who cares?!

Well, I do and I suspect so do all Canadians.  All I can say is, throw the bums out!    

   

Lanny

He needs no last name.  Lanny McDonald is a legend.  We met him in a Calgary restaurant the other day -- well, not exactly met.  We spied him enjoying his lunch and naturally went over and introduced ourselves.  "That's Lanny McDonald," I said to B.  "Go over and say hello," I urged him.  "Should I?"  Of course!  So he did and I followed.

We literally interrupted and him and his lunch-mate mid-bite, but Lanny immediately got up and extended his hand.  "Good afternoon, sir," he said so respectfully to B.  Could not have been more polite and accommodating to a couple of ancient fans, as he asked our names and immediately suggested a selfie.  Here we are:

The great Lanny McDonald.

"Thanks, guys," he said.  "I gotta go pick up my grandson."  "How many do you have?" asked B.  "Nine," said the devoted Grandpa.  Shamelessly trying to impress him with my past glory days, I told him about my two NHL boyfriends, both now deceased, and he said he had known them both well.    

Lanny is one of the greats.  He played for the Leafs, the Colorado Rockies and, of course, the Flames.  When he was traded to Colorado, fans set up a protest in front of The Gardens.  After three years there, he ended his sterling 16-year hockey career with the Flames, where he co-captained their last Stanley Cup in '88-'89.  That was the Flames pinnacle and swan song.  It's been crickets and disasters ever since.

If ever there was a great ambassador for the game, Lanny is it.  Before we let him go, he took off his HUGE Hall of Fame ring and suggested I try it on for another selfie.  What a great guy.

Me with my Hall of Fame memento.

 

Why does no one -- except me -- cover this corruption?

This appeared in my facebook feed and it needs to be shared, in my opinion, so I'm blogging it. By the way, I swim with a beautiful Indigenous woman from Stoney Nakoda. She is a retired RCMP officer and reads my blogs. "I completely agree with what you write about us and our leaders, but I can't comment because I'm Indigenous and we just stick together -- even when we know there's corruption going on."

So, folks, that's the problem right there and it's so dishonest. Here's the feed:

"Chief Allan Adam is the lead voice of the First Nations coalition that brought the legal challenge that killed the citizen-led Alberta separation petition. He went on CBC to celebrate the ruling. He called it a 'great win for Canada and for democracy.'

"But here is what CBC didn't ask him about:

"Chief Allan receives foreign interference money. The Tides Foundation is a left-wing lobby organization based in San Francisco who wired $55,000 directly to Chief Allan Adam's bank account to oppose the oil sands.

"Shortly after receiving that money, Adam flew to Toronto to sit on a stage next to Neil Young to publicly demonize Canada's energy industry.

"CBC themselves reported that various American funders contributed an estimated $40 million to Canadian environmental and Indigenous groups with one specific goal.... to landlock Alberta crude by blocking pipeline construction. Researcher Vivian Krauss attributed the cancellation of Northern Gateway, Energy East, Keystone, and Trans Mountain directly to this coordinated American-funded campaign.

"Chief Allan Adam was part of that campaign. He gladly took the money. This is real foreign interference in Canada's energy economy. And the same man who took American money to block Canadian prosperity is now the man leading the charge to block Albertans from having a democratic vote on their own future.
Meanwhile he REAPS the benefits of tax payer money from the very same industry profits.

"The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation's own audited financial statements tell a story that Chief Adam did not mention once during his CBC interview.

"Combined with existing assets and real estate holdings, the band is sitting on close to $300 million. And the registered population of this band? 1,567 people total.

"With only 33 people living on reserve, that works out to roughly $9 million per person on reserve and Canadian taxpayers are still sending them $10 million a year plus a $100 million lump sum payout.

"Meanwhile this reserve has no public accounting of money spent since 2021. That's five years of missing financial disclosures. No accountability. No transparency. And the money keeps flowing.

"Chief Adam has been doing this for years:

"2018 — The National Post reported his complaints were complicating the Liberal review of the Frontier Oil Sands mine. The Alberta government publicly stated his concerns were about money, not environment.

"2018 — Despite publicly criticizing fossil fuel developers and hosting anti-oil activists including Leonardo DiCaprio, Adam signed a benefit agreement with Teck after what he described as positive negotiations. His opposition was for sale.

"2020 — Adam was stopped by RCMP outside a Fort McMurray casino for an expired license plate, resisted arrest, and publicly accused the officers of "racist" treatment. The RCMP was cleared. No evidence of misconduct was found.

"Chief Allan Adam did not vote against Alberta separation. He did not organize Albertans to vote against it. He went to court to make sure Albertans never got to vote on it at all.

"Over 300,000 Albertans signed that petition. They followed the law. They used the exact democratic mechanism the Legislature created for them. And a judge threw every one of those signatures in the garbage.

"A man taking money from foreign interference organizations who also massively benefits from Alberta prosperity is taking democratic rights away from Albertans. Yet he thinks this is a 'win for democracy.'

"Canadians you are being scammed in every way possible."

The chief after an altercation with the RCMP outside a casino.  Does anyone really think the RCMP would beat up such a high-profile, public figure for no reason?  Chief Adam loves publicity, so you gotta wonder what that was about?

Daughter's take on sports

This was posted by my daughter.  She has been an elite athlete for 30 years and her kids are getting there too!

"Life-long sport. This is where I’m sure I have succeeded. Here’s a bit of a reflection…

"Consistency, variety, fun, listening to your body, hard work, winning some, losing lots, go fast, but also take it slow and did I mention consistency? Over 30 years of high performance sport, it’s not glamorous, it’s not a secret, there are many ways to skin a cat (as I had followed many types of training along the way) but you have to keep at it.

"I once had a running coach tell me, my super-power was never being too far away from my top form. But that’s consistency! In all the sports that I’ve battled in, training hard to toe the line… swimming (varsity), water polo (provincial selection) triathlon (elite/pro carded) running (some pretty fast times across all distances) and now cycling (multiple disciplines and doing alright as a masters athlete), it has taken a good five - 10 years dedicated to that sport, to get to a point where I could say I was proficient and at a level that jived with my pride.

"This win @thesaltydogenduro was about me being 47 years old and needing to play to my strengths, (I can go long and strong like nobody’s business now) along with listening to the science on older women athletes.

Her fourth win in the Salty Dog Endurance Race in Salmon Arm. The winner is the one who does the most laps in six hours.  

"I’m like a dog with a bone, stubborn and driven! @c4xc_p_team families know that I take “life-long” sport as our ultimate goal! Although I call it my “spirit-training” it’s really about a lifetime of listening to my body and being consistent. I love to compete, but I’m truly loving sharing my knowledge with my athletes and seeing them grow and achieved!! #hardwork #consistencywins #lifelongsport "

____________________

Tanya's at it again

'Globe and Mail' columnist Tanya Talaga was once again on about how hard-done-by the Indigenous are.  Never mind that she's half Polish and raised in downtown Toronto, Talaga nevertheless has gone full native about how they should be "economic equals" in this country.

How can that happen, Tanya, when Indigenous funding comes from the Canadian taxpayer -- no strings attached?  Last year, we handed over $32 billion for a total population of 1.8 million.  That's our money, so how can you be major players and partners when it's our money?

"Indigenous tokenism doesn't cut it any more.  That's not partnership, it's dominance with a smile," she wrote.  Well, don't take the money and then you can be full partners.  We all know that won't be happening.  Ever.  

And you know who's standing in the way of resource development?  You know who's blocking oil and gas extraction -- the revenues from which fund the entire country?  The Indigenous.  "If Canada and its governments want to put their elbows up against the United States, they won't be able to do it alone.  They will need the more than 600 First Nations (make that 1,200 when you add in the hereditary chiefs) that can be found from coast to coast to buy in," she says.

Does anyone actually think 1,200 chiefs will ever agree on anything?  Fat chance.  

She goes on about the terrible living conditions on reserves, neglecting to mention that she's never lived on one herself, but, you know....she knows....  She also neglects to mention the high life enjoyed by the chiefs, while their people sh-t in buckets and live in tarpaper shacks.

"Indigenous knowledge is indispensable for caring for Mother Earth and in making sure the next seven generations know this land, the animals, the water," she writes.  In downtown Toronto, the only animals you'll encounter are racoons.  Here's what great stewards of the land have accomplished:

Your average "pristine" reserve.

Stoney Nakoda reserve, just down the road.

Where's the money, Tanya?  Just ask Charmaine Stick, of the Onion Lake Reserve, about how open the chiefs are to financial accountability.  They shut her down, forcing her to appeal to the courts.  They issued an order to open the books, but the chiefs defied it and nothing happened.  Still closed to scrutiny.

Bob Joseph, Indigenous author of '21 Things you May not Know About the Indian Act and 21 Things You May Not Know About Indigenous Self-Government' said, "It's time to have a serious conversation about colonization and oppression (those old saws again) and work in earnest on an Indigenous-led dismantling of the Indian."

Hello, Bob!  The Indian Act is how the money flows.  And how will you get 1,200 chiefs to agree on anything -- especially if it threatens the money tree?  You won't.

I wrote an email to Talaga yesterday and attached the above pictures.  She didn't reply because they put the lie to her claims about pristine reserves.  Well, of course she didn't.

So there you have it.  Groundhog day on the Indigenous file.

Tree Equity, not bathrooms

"Don't look at me," said Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, "I wasn't mayor when Canada bid for the World Cup."

It was John Tory, who undoubtedly assumed he'd be re-elected as mayor by all the soccer-mad immigrants and migrants and lavishly wined and dined by FIFA.  Unfortunately, he tripped over his own willy and that was the end of that.

But Chow's mayor now and she completely bungled the handling of the match between Inter Miami and Toronto FC yesterday.  Overrun with crowds and traffic jams, the city was utterly and completely unable and ill-equipped to handle the crowds.  

Watching footage of this fiasco was a wakeup call for Chow to get her act together for when the actual World Cup starts.  Apparently, bathroom facilities were a disgrace and completely inadequate for what befell the town.  

Chow's priority seems to be something woke and green called 'The Tree Equity Program".  I am not kidding!  Here's the headline from an article by the 'Toronto Sun's' Brian Lilley: 

"LILLEY: Olivia Chow's Toronto adopts DEI for trees with new tree equity policy"

That's how insane it's all become.

“Toronto is the first municipality in Canada to utilize a 'tree equity' approach to prioritize canopy growth at the neighbourhood scale,” Chow proudly proclaimed in announcing the policy.

"Along with their policy, the city has released an interactive website that allows you to see your tree equity score. Bizarrely, there are areas of the city that have more trees, but are given a lower tree equity score and are considered a higher priority than neighbourhoods with fewer trees."  I think, but it's all very confusing?!

This is all based on who lives in the area and if it's mostly immigrants or poor residents, they need to have more trees.  In other words, such neighbourhoods can have a low tree density score, but a higher equity need for more trees.  This program is managed by a woman who is pulling in almost $500,000 a year!

Toronto's trees look in pretty good shape to me.

Reminds me of when Tanya Talaga claimed it was a lack of libraries in prisons that was behind the overwhelming imbalance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous inmates and the former's high rates of recidivism.  In this case, some neighbourhoods are poor because they don't have enough trees.

Huh!!??

Never mind that Toronto's transportation system is completely broken, never mind that crime is out-of-control, never mind that food banks are overrun.  No, Chow and council's priority is making sure all residents have an equally fair green canopy.

I loved living in Toronto in the late sixties and early seventies, when sanity ruled and I feared nothing when riding the "Red Rocket".  But I would not like to live there now -- especially when bedlam will shortly rule during the World Cup.  

Get the toilets ready, Mayor Chow.  The sky will soon be falling and the toilets will need flushing! 

Is there no one else?

Well, here we are.  This woman just keeps getting recycled into yet another Liberal trough post.  Now Louise Arbour has been named governor general.  She has been in every international post I can think of and now she lands as GG.  Nice gig!

She has always been a leftie and when asked if she were a Monarchist, she couldn't even bring herself to say she was.  HELLO LOUISE, YOU ARE THE REPRESENTATIVE OF KING CHARLES III, CANADA'S HEAD OF STATE, AND YOU CAN'T AFFIRM YOU ARE A MONARCHIST!!!!!!!!!!  Shameful!  Had you any integrity, you would have turned the job down.

It's me, Louise Arbour.  Again!

As I said, is there no one else?  The woman is 79 years old, for Gawd's sake! Useless.

Well, O.K., she's bilingual, which was a problem for Simon, who claimed she was bilingual -- just not in Canada's two official languages.  Simon, you will remember, was the GG who racked up more than $100,000 in airline catering on a couple of trips.  She also charged more than that on clothing.  The salary is $378,000 a year and she charges for clothing!!!  Judging by her appearance -- remember the blue and pink hair? -- that allowance didn't do her much good.

Inside reports say Simon was usually "over-refreshed" by 10 o'clock in the morning.  I guess that contributed to the gigantic catering bills she charged to the taxpayer, allegedly, reportedly.

Arbour is a career champion of human rights and mass immigration, so that'll be fun.  She should put her money where her mouth is and open up Rideau Hall and its vast grounds to the struggling migrants she champions -- something the Pope should also do at the Vatican.  We're already awash in legal fights over refugee claims and human rights cases, so expect more of the same from Arbour.  Two of her daughters are NDPers and have run for election.  Guess from whence come their woke politics?  

There are a lot of yahoos on line who say we should abolish the vice regal position.  They, of course, don't know the Canadian constitution.  To do so, the entire document would have to be thrown aside and re-written.  It would also need the approval of the Senate, the House of Commons and two thirds of provincial legislatures, representing at least 50 percent of the entire population.

As I said, never gonna happen.

So folks, we have another rabid, female, DEI, lefty, francophone, Jacobin (look it up) lawyer.  Carney has destroyed the Canadian economy (Note to self:  Never get a PhD in economics), forced millions into poverty and reliance on food banks and continues to weaken, taint and undermine posts like that of the GG.  Welcome to Europe, er, I mean Canada!

Tweedledum and Tweedledee congratulating each other on a smug victory walk.

  

WTH !!??

Would someone please tell me why Carney is in Armenia to meet with European heads of government??!!  We do a measly $24 million annually with Armenia, that's it!  We need deals worth billions with the U.S!

There he goes again, off to somewhere other than the U.S.  Who's he waving to?  The baggage handlers?

His snobbery and elitism will be the ruination of Canada.  He is no more Canadian than the average guy in Timbuktu.  He's a Jacobin (look it up) and a Globalist.  His entire family lives in New York!  He needs to wake up and stay home, or travel to the U.S. and support all the provincial premiers trying desperately to do deals with them.

But, no.  Contrarian to the end, he thumbs his nose at Trump with all his useless trips -- 17 to 25 countries so far, yet hasn't set foot in most parts of Canada!  Time to kiss the ring of the U.S. president for the benefit of our struggling country.

He has ministers who can travel and meet counterparts who can actually make deals.  Why does he have to be the only one travelling?  Oh ya, the hubris of an insecure kid from Fort Smith who loves the limos, the private government plane, the servants and the fawning.

The guy should be run out of town, with Champagne tied to his bumper!

Sorry for all the exclamation points, but this really riles me, while ill-informed Canadians fall for his hijinks!  Show a little pride in this country, renovate the once-magnificent 24 Sussex, move in and stick to your "net zero" pledge by parking our jet for a while.

Gawd help us all!

A complete botch-up

Or was it?  "Every time someone calls the Secret Service incompetent, I hear the word "conspiracy"," said Mark Groubert on 'America's Untold Stories', a YouTube podcast into which I tune regularly.

Groubert is an investigative journalist, who has uncovered various conspiracies, including the one allegedly orchestrated by LBJ to have Kennedy killed.  That one is very compelling and I urge you to have a gander.

According to Groubert, the latest attempt on Trump's life at the Whitehouse Correspondents' Dinner was no accident.  Most SS agents detest Trump and seem to go out of their way to allow him to be assassinated.    

This was attempt number three.  Apparently, the agents didn't apprehend Cole Allen; they were looking at their phones when he simply tripped on his own shoelaces.  And, in spite of firing off several point-blank rounds, none of the agents managed to hit him.  They were firing at each other.  Keystone Cops anyone?  As with the golf course attempt, the area was wide open and again, five rounds missed the shooter entirely.

An agent looking at his phone, instead of at the scene.

The magnetometer was in the process of being dismantled when Allen simply jumped over it and fled in.  And why, asks Groubert, wasn't the detector at the front door of the hotel?  Why was it just at the entrance to the ballroom?  During the whole episode, hotel guests simply wandered in and out at will.  Security was basically non-existent.  "Anyone could have come in and done anything," he adds.  

First and foremost, of course, is that SS head Sean Curran needs to be fired immediately.  Groubert also says that the entire Protection Branch of the SS needs to be replaced with a small, military unit -- such as the Navy Seals or the Green Berets.  Another question he asks is why Vance and Trump, along with the top seven in the line of succession, were on the same dais at the same event.  "The president and the vice president are never to be at the same event," he points out.

The only protection officer who did his job was the one assigned to Vance.  That guy just yanked him, while the one assigned to Trump started having a discussion with him.  "That's an absolute no-no," said Groubert.

All good questions.  It's fascinating stuff and I'm becoming convinced there are a lot of people, whose job it is to protect Trump, who aren't really trying.    

Here we go again

As I have been banging on about for years, the predictable is happening.  In spite of Carney's magic "Major Projects Office" and promise of "building things at rates never seen before", the Indigenous blockades have started:  

The Indigenous are now going to court to block everything.

Well, of course they have.  Their funding does not depend on any major -- or minor -- project getting done; they get their money regardless.  Were it otherwise, projects would be humming along.

Was this predictable?  Well, of course.  Carney tried an end run by passing another fast-track bill, the Building Canada Act, but that too is running up against legal challenges in court.  Even PCO Clerk Michael Sabia has said that Indigenous court challenges mean decades lost -- not months or years, decades!

The Indigenous claim that meaningful consultations have not been carried out.  Will any consultations ever be meaningful for them?  Their lawyers just continue to drag things out for years.  And why not?  They get big bucks for every challenge!

So, as I've said many times, that's done-and-dusted for Carney's big visions and major projects.

_________________

On another Indigenous file, the search of the Winnipeg landfill for the remains of four Indigenous sex workers has at last been halted.  Two sets of remains have been found, but sense has filtered into the thick and deluded heads of the burghers of Manitoba:  The other remains will lie where they are.

Frankly, although Wab Kinew called any objections to the search "racist", these women knew the perils their profession entailed.  They risked their lives every time they went to work.  They must have known where they might end up and I doubt they would have expected the city and province to spend millions searching for them.

What did this all cost?  $18.4 million.

When-oh-when will the Indigenous start trying cooperatively to build Carney's "Canada Strong?"  Sorry, rhetorical.  Never.

A complete mystery to me?

Re-printed from 'The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights'

_________________________________ 

April 29, 2026

Besides an insatiable appetite for control, what defines the Left is an equally insatiable appetite for envy. No one epitomizes these vices today better than New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a young Muslim man born to privilege who has never had a real job. 

He recently stuck his face into a camera and said, “When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we’re taxing the rich.” He had his proverbial snarky grin on his face, delighted with his decision to fleece the upper class. If he had any integrity, he would include himself and his parents in his rape-the-rich game.

Mamdani has made it plain that he supports the “abolition of private property.” Or as he likes to put it, “If there was any system that could guarantee each person housing—whether you call it the abolition of private property or you call it a statewide housing guarantee—it is preferable to what is going on right now.”

Calls for the “abolition of private property” are what made Karl Marx famous. It is a basic tenet of communism. Now if Mamdani were honest, he would have to rid himself of his private property holdings, and those of his uber-rich parents. They all sing from the same communist playbook, but in real life they are capitalists par excellence.

Mamdani loves private property so much that he owns four acres of land in Jinja, Uganda. It is worth an estimated $250,000. Not bad for a plot of land with nothing on it (at least for the moment). As one Ugandan told a reporter, “One thing for sure is that Zohran owns not only one land here, but many.” He may not be required to report private property holdings that do not generate income, so he can skirt scrutiny. This is the kind of capitalist trick that if done by others would drive him mad.

The working class can barely afford to pay for one wedding, but Mamdani had no problem paying for three of them. The biggest one was in Uganda. He made sure to keep the riff-raff far away. He hired heavily armed men and masked special forces to guard his family’s estate, making ICE agents look angelic.

Mommy and daddy are filthy rich. Mira Nair is an international filmmaker and Mahmood Mamdani is a Columbia University professor. He makes $300,000 a year, which is not exactly chump change, especially for a Marxist. She is worth an estimated $5 million. She sold her Manhattan apartment in 2019 for $1.45 million.

Despite all his loot, he is driven by envy. Envy is not identical to jealousy. The jealous want what others have; the envious want to deprive others of what they have. That defines Mamdani.
 
The Catholic Church considers envy to be one of the seven capital sins. Robert Nisbet, the great American sociologist, got it right when he said, “Of the seven deadly sins, of all states of the human mind indeed, envy is the basest and ugliest. It is also the most corrosive of spiritual and moral fiber in the bearer and the most destructive of the social fabric.”

It is bad enough that Mamdani stokes the flames of envy, but what makes him even more detestable is his rank hypocrisy. Pope Francis did not know him, but he knew of his ilk. “Hypocrites are people who pretend, flatter and deceive because they live with a mask over their faces and do not have the courage to face the truth.”

Mamdani doesn’t have the courage to tell the truth about his enormous wealth. Instead, he pretends to be one of the masses. But he never was and he never will be. He is a nepo-baby foreign investor who is not subject to the consequences of his own economic policies. “Do as I say, not as I do” never sounded more obscene.

Family holdings in Uganda are extensive, going beyond Jinja. Their prize possession is a luxury 5-bedroom villa on two acres of land. It has a pool, gardens and a spectacular view of Lake Victoria. It is worth more than 1 million dollars.

____________________________

How did he get elected as Mayor of New York?  I still can't figure it out??

The magnificent New York.

Maybe it's just me?

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when the staff take up a table and eat in the restaurant in which you are paying good money to dine?  It just pisses me off. 

The other day, the head chef was sitting at the bar, chowing down.  Why?  Why wasn't she in the back eating?  Frankly, I don't want to be reminded that she eats for free and patrons don't.  The other bad idea about this scene was that she is very overweight -- not a good ad for how you will look if you eat what she prepares.

This annoys me.

Yesterday, the assistant manager was enjoying his lunch at the banquette next to ours.  He came over and said our meal would be a little delayed because there was a backup in the kitchen.  "I see you got your lunch," I smiled.  "Well, I had to wait a little too," he replied.  

Really?!  How annoying that you had to wait to eat your free lunch.  The nerve!  I thought, but didn't say.  (Yes, it happens.  Rarely, but sometimes I don't blurt out everything I think.)

I know, I know, it's my 'Upstairs Downstairs' mentality, but I think there has to be a separation.  That's why, when we had live-in nannies, my rule was you stay in your room and we'll stay in the rest of the house.  I bought them a TV and even loaned them my car, but the line was drawn; they didn't sit and watch TV with us.

Did I miss my era, The Gilded Age?  Apparently.

My true calling.

 

The Death Zone

Lying in bed this morning, I started thinking about the recent death of yet another friend and began listing all my relatives and contemporaries who have left this planet for the great unknown in the past few years.  Yep, B and I are definitely in what I call 'The Death Zone'.

Here are just the ones I can remember at the moment.  I am sure I will add to this sad list as the day wears on and memories flood back:    

Betty-Anne
John
Bob**

Mike

Jane

John

Wendy

Heather

Art*

Barry*

Libby

Jamie

Gordon

Mowat

Holden

David

Terry

Kenny

Brian*

Bryan*

Andy

Richard

Ted

Paddy*

Donna

Charlotte

Larry*

Roger

Cameron

Russ

Joe

Nancy

Joe

Wendy

Jack

Ian

Jimmy

Jeff

Derek

Jacqui

Emile

Gabriel

Madame Blais

Billy

Bill

Theodore

May they all Rest in Peace.  

Lost friends, husbands, beaus and loved ones.

I am approaching my 79th birthday, May 1st, so this list takes on new meaning.  Today, I thank God for my health, my children and my grandchildren.

______________

Note: ** ex-husband

            * former beaus

Memory lane....

Seventeen years ago, Marlene Shepherd, owner of that fabulous store 'Shepherd's', asked me to take part in her Christmas ad campaign.  I was flabbergasted, but thrilled of course.  I was 62 and this campaign was brilliant because all the models she chose were of a "certain" age.  Why?  Because we had the money!

Here are a couple of newspaper ads that ran in 'The Ottawa Citizen':

I bought and still wear that beautiful red jacket.

Here we are, the models of the mature women ad campaign.

It was quite the Christmas.  The campaign also included radio spots, which I had to record in a studio in the Market.  My salad days for sure!

 

The highlight of my year

Every year, Hilary and I enjoy a girls' weekend for her birthday.  We stay on the Gold Floor of the magnificent Palliser Hotel in Calgary.  I use the time to talk about anything and everything -- including observations of fellow diners that tell us what to wear, what not to wear and how to behave.  Or not.  

This year, she turned 12, here is a little visual record of our time:

Enjoying the Gold Floor.

The famous Calgary Tower, where we had lunch in the revolving restaurant at the very top.

The magnificent Rockies, viewed from the Calgary Tower.

My beautiful granddaughter.

Great swimmer!

So many desserts!

The Saddle Dome, seen from the top of the Calgary Tower.

____________________________

This came across my feed, unrelated to our weekend, but Barton's outfit on the left is a perfect example of a screaming fashion botchup -- such as the ones I warned Hilary about during our weekend observations.  Camouflage pants and blue shoes?!  And to think, we are giving her a clothing allowance via the CBC! 

Didn't get published

Just to make sure I have a record of my letters (I have a huge scrapbook of Vol. 1), I am sharing a few that didn't get in, so when I publish my next volume, they will be recorded.  Here are just a few............

Me and my letters.

 Dear Editor, Globe and Mail,

I too am adopted, but am not part of the Indigenous "sixties scoop" , thus would never presume to comment on the experience of that cohort.  I am instead a Caucasian baby boomer who considers herself "rescued".  Finding my birth mother and family (pre-Internet) was a years-long, arduous slog through city directories and dead-end phone calls.  Sadly, when I did finally light upon the right person, I learned she had died just a year before.

However, meeting the family within which I would have been reared made me profoundly grateful to have been adopted by the fine people who became my parents and extended family.  Instead of the privileged, middle-class upbringing I had had, I would have been raised in poverty and intermittent depravation.  My birth mother's unselfish sacrifice in giving me away allowed me to succeed; I doubt I would have in my birth family.  

So, not all adoption stories are bleak.  Mine was done in the best interests of both me and my birth mother.  I was lucky and very grateful society found a place for me to reach my full potential.

_______________________________________

Dear Editor, Globe and Mail

While a letter writer claims Pierre Poilievre shows disdain and contempt for journalists, I would argue Prime Minister Carney shows even more disdain and contempt for Parliament itself.  He rarely attends question period and when there, often leaves early when questions get too annoying.  To me, that is clear disdain for our democratic system.

Mr. Carney needs to park his jet in a hangar for a while, stay in Ottawa and show up to face all Canadians in the House of Commons — those who voted for him and more to the point, those who didn't. 

_____________________________________

Dear Editor, Globe and Mail

Never mind Gateway and Trans Mountain, I'm old enough to remember 'The Great Canadian Pipeline Debate" of 1956.  The issues surrounding this kerffufle centred on who would pay and who would own the TransCanada Pipeline to get Alberta oil to Ontario and Quebec.  Chaos reigned in the House of Commons for months, with one Liberal MP, Lorne MacDougall, actually dying during the overheated debate. 

Now the debate is about getting Alberta oil to offshore markets, but it remains about getting an invaluable resource for all Canadians to market.  Sound familiar?  Plus ca change.....

____________________________________

Dear Editor, Calgary Herald

Carney's recent video to Canadians was a re-hash of unfulfilled pre-election promises, not a summary of actual accomplishments.  Yet, his poll numbers mysteriously remain consistently high. 

Puts one in mind of that old fable, "The Emperor's New Clothes", in which the emperor rides around town completely naked, while everyone raves and cheers about his beautiful new outfit.  It's baffling?  When will Canadians wake up and realize Mr. Carney is basically that naked emperor?

_____________________________

There are many more, but I will include those in another blog.