What's that all about?!

Last time I checked, the G7 consisted of seven countries: 

• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• The UK, and
• The US

But our hapless Boy King invited 12 other nobodies along:

• Argentina
• Bangladesh
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Kenya
• Marshall Islands
• Norway
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Seychelles
• South Africa, and
• Vietman

For starters, Paul Kagame, head of Rwanda, was responsible for the butchering of 500,000 Tutsi during that brutal civil war of 1994.  (Actually, it was tribal genocide, but let's be civilized here.)  And, with the exception of Norway, all are failed states and bankrupt nations.  I mean, come on, Bangladesh?  Haiti, Kenya? Seychelles?  Senegal?  Jamaica?  Vietnam?  The Marshall Islands?  And South Africa with an unemployment rate of 26.7%!  Haven't they done well since the end of apartheid.

In trying to appear "international and savvy", Trudeau has once again demonstrated he has no grasp of what it means to be a prime minister and the leader of a G7 country.  He is a total embarrassment.  And as I said, the unemployed Sophie only adds to the problem.  Someone should tell her that today, 72% of women with children under 16 work outside the home and with two fulltime nannies, she should get a real job and be an example to women, not a liability.    

You knew that was going to happen

Or at least I did.  I was right about Trump's cutting out early from the G7 (See "Let them eat cake", 06-06-2018).  Actually, I wondered if he would show at all, but he did -- presumably to intimidate everyone and let them know he had no intention of backing down.  But he's leaving before Climate Barbie has her "plastic" day tomorrow.  Can you imagine him sitting through that???!! 

Don Martin just interviewed Miss CB on 'Power Play' and she was in full "Barbie" mode: dyed blonde hair hanging in hanks.  Was she concerned about Trump's snub?  Not at all, she claimed.  "Look, Canadians want carbon taxes and they know climate change is real," she claimed.  As a matter of fact, "Look (you idiot)" was her answer to every question asked.  How instructive, Barb, thanks.

She should check with Doug Ford, Jason Kenney and Premier Moe about that climate change pie-in-the-sky bit.  It's all "going for a burton" very shortly.  Didn't work because no one in Upper Rubber Boot Saskatchewan (as B calls the sensible average Canadian) could connect the dots?!  And as for the baffling cap-and-trade?  Forget about it.  So basically, Bob's your uncle on that file.

Barbie also actually said, "Ecspecially," at one point.  Really?  So 'not credible' in her smug denial stance.

What I noticed was that Trump shook hands with all the fawning women who greeted him at the plane, but actually embraced and kissed the statuesque blonde, whoever she was -- not Barbie, I should add.  He is nothing if not predictable.  And let's remember, the guy didn't write "The Art of the Deal" for nothing. 

Here's what I didn't get:  Trump debarks and is greeted on the tarmac by, wait for it.....Sophie!!??  Last time I checked, she was neither an elected figure, nor the PM, so what she was doing standing there as if in charge of something was beyond me??  She is part of the cohort of well-educated women who don't work for a living and those of us who did don't like that.  Today, 72% of women with children under 16 work outside the home, so Sophie should get a real job instead of hanging around the G7 greeting world leaders who couldn't give an sh1t about what she thinks about anything. 

A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Let them eat cake

As if it isn't bad enough that Marie Antionette, a.k.a. Michaelle Jean, charged hundreds of thousands in renovations, repairs and a $20 K grand piano to the beleaguered Canadian taxpayer, she then pens a self-congratulatory piece in 'The Globe and Mail' today about how great she is and what a fabulous job she's been doing!  Even though the majority of Francophonie (with emphasis on the "phonie") is not supporting her re-election, she's bound and determined to shamelessly flog her vacuous candidacy.

The nerve of some people.  Right on cue, Canada is supporting her to be re-named -- another dumb, tone-deaf move by our hapless and inept Boy King. 

Of course, she is egged on by her husband, Louis XVI himself, to grab everything she can get her mitts on.  A number of years ago, the Royal Commonwealth Society hosted an essay competition for Canadian youth.  B went and reported in horror that guests were treated to a 45-minute, all-in-French hectoring by this clown.  Not the GG, her hanger-on!  Last time anyone checked, the Commonwealth did not have any Francophone countries, so French was completely inappropriate -- except for a vain Frenchman like Louis.

"As a result of my commitment, the Francophonie has become an inescapable global partner, earnestly solicited and eagerly expected to take action," she opined.  Really?  Not so anyone has noticed.  "I made the pledge that women and youth would be pillars of our work and take their rightful place as vectors (now there's a pompous word for you) of peace and agents of development."  Just ask the oppressed and abused women of most member countries how that's working for them.

And speaking of women, our child-PM has announced that not the recent crippling tariffs, but gender issues and plastic bags will be the priority for the upcoming G7.  Wonder how The Donald will feel about that brilliant move on two of his favourite files?  How dumb can you be?!  Is Sophie setting agenda?  I predict Trump will either not attend at all, or turn up for five minutes and leave as quickly as he can. 

We'll see if I'm right.     


 

So impressive

I'm talking about that tough-as-nails Sarah Huckabee Saunders, Trump's press secretary.  I watch her often and can't believe how she handles herself in front of the toughest gang in the world.  She brucks no bullsh-t.  Stands her ground and presses along.  Can you imagine how daunting that is!? 

But what I wanted to go on about today is the reality that NAFTA is dead, but poor old Freeland didn't see it coming.  And now that Trudeau is still pushing keeping Mexico in, neither did he.  B said 10 years ago that the only deals any country can negotiate are the bilateral ones.  Harper got that, but this bunch?!  No clue.  Trump has announced he wants separate deals with Canada and Mexico, which is the only way to go.  Hello!  The original Free Trade Agreement, of which I was proud to have been a part. 

The other bush-t underway is the extension of the MMIGW (or whatever it's called).  They asked for another two years and $50 million.  Two years!  To do what?!  Listen to more crying and teeth-gnashing for nought?  Carolyn Bennett gave them six months, which is still waaaaaay too long, to "Get to the bottom of the systemic problems facing indigenous women," she proffered.  We all know what the problem is:  The reserve system that traps people in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do except drink, take drugs and kill women.

All so effing useless. 

You don't do that

If you've never read Cathal Kelly in the Sports section of 'The Globe and Mail', do yourself a favour and start.  I stumbled across him a few years ago, when reading something by my old Maclean Hunter colleague, Roy MacGregor.  Kelly is a brilliant writer -- a cross between a modern day James Joyce and the late Tom Wolfe.

I now look eagerly for him every day, even though I have zilch interest in professional sport.  He's funny, intelligent, insightful and makes me realize I am not that good a writer.  Really.  Anyway, yesterday he had a brilliant piece about the visceral hatred between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.  Even though Williams consistently beats Sharapova, there is something about the latter that spooks the former.  I had no idea, but what do I read today?  Williams has pulled out of The French Open just before her fourth-round match with the confident and daunting (to her) Russian. 

Frankly, I think Williams was rattled by the impending battle and called a press conference to cite some vague pectoral muscle strain as the reason -- even before the "injury" had been looked at, diagnosed or MRI'd.  So, Sharapova won that one without having to step onto the court. 

In the "old days", no one would ever duck out of a match for a pulled muscle.  You entered the match and you played until you were beaten.  She had just won a decisive victory over someone-or-other and then announced she had to withdraw because of a hangnail.  It's complete BS.

As someone wrote the other day, tennis is now very boring.  Gone are the days of the volatile Ili Nastase, the tempestuous Jimmy Connors and the unpredictable John McEnroe.  Now everyone is a boring, wooden-faced Bjorn Borg or Milos Raonic.  We have a wonderful book by a couple of Aussie players entitled "Tennis for the Bloody Fun of It'.  No one's having any anymore. 

 

Ontario is still.....

....basically very conservative which is why people don't like Kathleen Wynne.  Her problem is that she married a man, had kids and then came out as a lesbian.  Small-town Ontarians and traditional, family-oriented immigrants don't like that and they certainly didn't like her "wife" campaigning with her.  I see she has stopped that, but it's too late.  I don't care what she is, but that's all I can think of for the personal dislike most have of her.   

Of course, after 15 years, the Liberals have outworn their welcome.  Her other problem is she should have resigned a year ago, when it was clear people had a personal dislike of her.  But she didn't and insisted on leading the party into a soon-to-be disastrous election for her party.  Even Dalton McGinty knew when to go.  And didn't he land on well-heeled feet!  He's now a handsomely-paid professor at Harvard!  (Remind me never to go there.) 

Watching all the coverage on the Sunday morning political shows a couple of other things are clear to me:  Tonda MacCharles needs to lose that ridiculous eighties hairdo and Elizabeth May needs to get her teeth fixed.

She's no Simon Reisman

What in Gawd's name is Chrystia Freeland doing with NAFTA?!  She's been at it for what, years?  And can't get anywhere.  She is obviously not up to the task.  So get her out of there and bring in someone else to negotiate with the Americans.  They obviously neither respect, nor take her seriously. 

I was part of the original Free Trade Agreement negotiations, when I worked for Customs and Excise, in 1988 between Simon Reisman and Peter Murphy, US negotiator.  Murphy had had cancer, but Reisman still wielded a big stick and we got a great deal.  Is the problem that she's a woman?  That she's four foot something?  That she insists on wearing those ridiculous pearls?  Maybe all of the above.  She is not taken seriously.  She is dealing with high-powered, chauvinistic American men and apparently can't hold her own.  But will Trudeau replace her?  Never.  We're effed. 

I had to work all through Christmas and New Year's in 1988-89 to ensure the agreement was implemented on January 1st.  But hey, I was a dedicated public servant and was happy to do my part.  Here is my official "thank you" from the deputy minister of Customs and Excise for my work on the FTA and my official certificate:

 





As to the Kinder-Morgan fiasco, Trudeau should have put his foot down two years ago.  Yes, he would have pissed off the tree-huggers, but he would have had two years to dig himself out of that green hole.  But he waited until the whole thing was a mess.  Guess what?  That $4.5 billion is just to compensate Kinder Morgan for what it has spent in vain trying to get the approved pipeline built.  We are now looking at another $8 billion to actually get the thing in the ground.

As I have said, ad nauseam, he will have to call out the army to get shovels in the ground.

And he won't.