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I was raised within the bosom of a very accomplished family.  My Father, Thomas Raymond Griffith, was head of the rubber lab at the National Research Council.  He had 350 patents to his name, which made the Canadian government billions.  He just earned a modest salary and didn't care.

Instrumental in the invention of synthetic rubber during WWII, when natural rubber could not be sourced in Burma, my Dad was often loaned out for months at a time to BF Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear to help them develop and refine their tires for the commercial market.

Whenever you think of tires, think of T.R. Griffith.  He invented them.

He was also the inventor of rubber shoes for propellor planes, which could be switched on to rid the props of ice.  "The most difficult thing," he told me, "Was making rubber electrically-conductive and inventing the glue that stuck it to the propellors."

Every, single prop plane in the world uses my Dad's de-icing rubber shoes.

One of my uncles, Rollie, was a decorated major in the Canadian army and the other, Elgin, rose to be deputy minister of National Defence.  (If you're American, the equivalent of Pete Hegseth's 2IC, but without the ego, boozing and philandering.)

What I remember most about Uncle Elgin was his modesty.  He had but one secretary, Miss Mitchell, a small office, a desk and a runner out from it that sat four people.  No chief of staff for him, no driver, no board rooms, no private washroom, no policy advisors and no entourage.  Elgin used to drive us to Lisgar every morning and then head off to his office around the corner in the old "temporary" buildings.  They stood for decades, where the gargantuan and ostentatious City Hall is located now.

Uncle Elgin came to mind when I was reading about the opulent and lavish gathering of Carney's cabinet in Banff (not Sarnia, or Hamilton or Wawa, of course) was the stark contrast between how our public service was run in the fifties and sixties and how it is now.

Conservatively, each cabinet minister would probably be accompanied by at least four assistants and hangers-on, so with 28 members and 10 junior ministers, that's 152 people taking over the grand Banff Centre at $275 a night.  

Frankly, I bet they're not staying at that lowly dump.  They're most likely at the Banff Springs Hotel at an average cost of $800 per night.  That's $121,600 right there -- not to mention flights, meals, booze and all the rest of the palaver.  BTW, Carney's room would be at least $2,000 per night and so would Zelensky's. 

(Note: I'm lousy at math, so if I'm out by a few decimals, please correct me.) 

In addition to the millions Carney spent wandering around the world signing toothless MOUs, I bet'cha we're talking at least $300,000 for this latest gabfest (not including flights, etc.) which will lead to zero outcome.  In the end, the munificence of this gathering will likely piss Trump off and remember, he's the only one who'll decide the fate of tariffs -- not Carney or the likes of Mélanie Joly, Anita Anand and FP Champagne.  Please.

So, here's Carney, signing an (illegal) 100-year pact with one of the most corrupt leaders in the world, judging by the fact that most of Zelensky's inner circle is either in jail, or facing trial for corruption and money laundering.  He's also courting China, another poised disaster.

AND ALL WITHOUT CABINET APPROVAL!!%$%^#!!  ALLWITHOUT THE PEOPLE OF CANADA GIVING PERMISSION!!#%@%$^@$^

Folks, that's where we are.  This weasel slithered and snuck into the top job in Canada and is now in the process of personally and willfully destroying it.

It is to weep.