Only three

Of the 23 prime ministers of Canada, only three have had the country's best interests at heart:  Sir John A. Macdonald, Lester Pearson and -- yes, I'm gonna say it -- Brian Mulroney.  Every other has been a political and partisan hack.

Macdonald, Pearson and Mulroney actually put Canada first at great personal and political cost.  Macdonald is easy; he created Canada.  Pearson made Canada a leader in the world of peace keeping, although he did a few questionable things -- like bringing in the incompetent Trudeau, Sr., which led to the anointing of the disastrous narcissistic, man-child Trudeau, Jr. -- but Pearson's heart was in the right place, even though his judgement about Pierre was calamitous and short-sighted.  Pierre, afterall, was a separatist through and through.  But let's not forget Pearson also created our national flag and introduced the Canada Pension Plan.  So, high marks to him.  

                                                                    Sir John A. Macdonald

                                                                        Lester B. Pearson

                                                                        Brian Mulroney

                                                                        Stephen Harper

I was going to include Harper because he did a lot of good for Canada's economy, but his visceral, partisan hatred of Trudeau coloured some of his decisions to the detriment of the country at times.  So,  although he was a good prime minister, he wasn't one of the greats.

As for Mulroney, he introduced three hugely important things:  Free trade, the GST and the acid rain agreement.  These made Mulroney very unpopular, but they were the right thing for Canada.  I recently caught an interview with him and he talked about doing the right thing for Canada -- not what's best for partisan political and votes.  He's right, of course, and he did exactly that.

Now we are governed by lunatics, headed by the narcissist-in-chief Trudeau, and Canada is currently in a downward spiral both nationally and internationally.  Listening to Freeland hectoring world leaders in Washington the other day I wanted to hide under the couch with embarrassment.  She has absolutely no idea how ridiculous she is.  Swishing her hair, sniffing her unbearable tic and wagging her finger, she was actually telling them how to run their own economies!  It was ludicrous, coming from a finance minister whose policies are bankrupting Canada:

God help us!

Almost outrageous

 We are visiting Toronto for Christmas and have booked in at the Park Hyatt Hotel (previously the venerable Park Plaza).  Full disclosure, in my wild Maclean-Hunter days in the early seventies, I spent a lot of time in the back bar on the ground level, where the late John Robarts, held court in a special corner.  It was a great place, but something has happened to that hotel -- along with many other previously-reasonable establishments.  

Initially, they said they were not offering turkey for Christmas Dinner!!$%^#$@!!  That's right, no turkey was on the draft menu!

I am so sick of Christmas being cancelled because, "not everyone celebrates it".  So what??!!!  Here's the email I just sent to the guest services manager when she dropped the almost-bombshell.  

________________________________________

Email:

Good morning, Michelle.  Brian forwarded this to me.  I would like to formally protest to the GM about this appalling decision. 

December 25^th is Christmas Day and Christmas in this country means turkey.  How can a hotel like the Park Hyatt not offer turkey on Christmas day??!!  It’s unconscionable, inexcusable and an insult to the day and its traditions.  I sincerely regret booking at your hotel, in view of this.  Please don’t tell me that not everyone celebrates Christmas, I know that, but you can’t change the fact that Dec. 25^th is Christmas Day and any self-respecting establishment must offer turkey for this feast.

Things have become totally upside-down in this country.  How would it work if I insisted on pork for a Ramadan meal?  People would be as outraged as I am that no turkey will be on the menu on December 25th. 

A word of advice:  Don’t dare call it a “Christmas Day menu”.  It’s not!

Chefs today have become entirely too high-handed, in my opinion.  Since when do they override guests’ wishes and an age-old feast like Christmas.  I’m tired of everyone highjacking and denying Christmas in favour of “Holiday” and “Season” Days.  Last time I checked, December 25^th was Christmas Day; the holidays and seasons only surround it.  Please, let those of us who celebrate it have one day out of respect for our culture too.

I would appreciate your forwarding this to the chef and the GM.  By the way, please send me the GM’s name and email address.

 I am sorry you are in the middle of this mess, but if the Park Hyatt stepped up, none of this would be necessary.  I look forward to hearing back.  Thank you, Michelle.

 Yours sincerely,

Nancy Marley-Clarke

403-710-9122 

____________________________________ 

Just got a call from a charming manager and Kevin informed me that yes, he had read my email and yes, turkey would be on the menu for sure.  "You can go ahead and cancel your Royal York reservations because turkey and all the trimmings will definitely be on our Christmas Day menu.  In fact, I have already made a reservation for three at 5 p.m."

p.s.  Disaster averted.  We have cancelled our booking with the Royal York.  Sometimes, you just have to put it out there.  Happy Turkey!

You've failed your people, not us

The latest hogwash on the native file involves three bands that have filed an official human rights complaint, alleging that the federal department of Indigenous Services has committed "systemic discrimination" against adult band members with disabilities.

First of all, I hate that word "systemic" because it is misleading.  But hey, it grabs attention!  The bands behind this nonsense are the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai -- all members of the Blood Tribe.  Second of all, babies born with disabilities or abnormalities have usually had a rough time in the womb.  That's on the mothers' behaviours and lifestyle when pregnant.

Tracy McHugh, Siksika councillor, claims that when children with disabilities reach 18, they have to move off-reserve to get help (i.e., more money), or access it via the 'Alberta's Persons with Developmental Disabilities Program'.  In case you missed it, the Siksika and Chief Ouray Crowfoot just inked a $1.3 billion land claim for its 7,800 members.  $1.3 billion!  I'd say that's probably enough to cover the needs of a handful of disabled adults on-reserve, wouldn't you?

The Piikani just bagged $64.3 million from the feds over water rights.  That covers 2,451 people.

And the Kainai?  Google won't tell me because the band won't release the numbers (Gee, I wonder why?), but I'll bet it's also millions.  How many members?  12,800.

"They have to leave the reserve," said McHugh, "And we are a people predominantly under poverty (why is that, anyone dare ask?).  They have to uproot and leave family behind," she complained.  "You leave a whole lot of culture behind," she added.  Here's the "culture" left behind:

"Every government has failed our people with developmental disabilities on the reserves.  It's a long time coming.  A very, very long time coming," she added.  

In previous blogs, (see, "Just a beginning", June 3, 2022 and "Here's a number," May 4, 2022) I pointed out that Stoney Nakoda -- yes, the same people -- were handed $11,000,000 for a new health facility this past Spring.  So, with the usual money they get every year, they also pocketed $11,000,000 for a health facility and now they want more!!??!!!!  Why can't this new health facility treat these people??!!!  WTF??!!!  Systemic racism?  Spare me.

And no one -- except me -- does any research, or has the balls, to call this bullsh-t out.  

So, there you have it, folks.      

Thoughts that didn't make it

Here are a couple of letters I sent to 'The Globe and Mail' that didn't get in:

"Dear Editor,

"In the late sixties, I dated two professional NHL hockey players.  Both Bryan Watson and Brian Smith, may they rest in peace, were perfect gentlemen and both had advanced through the hockey ranks to achieve places in the NHL.  In fact, they were the kind of young men mothers love – mine included!

"I have no idea what happened to that civil culture, but I suspect the stardom status young players in their early teens are now accorded has something to do with the entitlement, privilege and lack of consequences they “enjoy”.  Oh yes, and money.  Lots of it."

_________________________

"Dear Editor,

"Wait a minute, hockey parents are mad?  The young and talented teenaged hockey players accused of sexual assault were reared by the same parents who are now “mad as H-E-double hockey sticks”.  Yes, they sacrificed a lot to get their sons to the “maybe”-NHL level, but this does not give them a pass when it comes to the behaviour of their offspring.  What did the kids learn? 

"Did the entitlement and lure of mega bucks cancel out the teaching of gentlemanly values, respect, restraint and integrity?  Those are values you learn at your mother’s knee, as the expression goes.  Time for hockey parents to take responsibility for their sons’ behaviour and step up."

__________________________

This next one is true and refers to when I ran the Problem Resolution Program at the Canada Revenue Agency and developed a case management system.  I discovered a minor glitch and asked for a quick meeting to jig it.  When I walked into the room, 19 IT people were sitting and standing around a huge board table!!!!!  I was floored!  I had expected one programmer, but no, 19 "experts" appeared.  

This was all orchestrated by Frank Sexton, may he rest in peace.  To this day, I never understood one word Frank said at any meeting I ever had with him.  It was all complete techie gibberish and beyond me!  The other thing about Frank that drove me insane was he was always talking about some new system that he'd heard of that would be online "soon" and would be better than what we were working on.  "But Frank, I need this system now -- not next year!"  If I had waited for Frank to solve the problem, it would never have been solved.

Appeals Branch had the same problem with Frank, so they just went out and contracted their own case management system outside of IT.  When I heard about it, I cloned theirs and that was the one we went with, leaving Frank and IT to continue pondering their technical navels into infinity. 

But I digress.....here's that letter, which went into 'The Globe and Mail' today, after I had written this blog:

"Dear Editor,

 "Years ago, I ran a simple case-management system in a large federal government department.  While developing it with the IT people, I asked for a meeting to iron out a minor flaw.  When I walked into the meeting, there sat 19, highly-paid people from IT!  That’s how costs balloon in federal IT."

_________________________

I blog these because I want my grandkids to have a legacy -- even if they weren't published.  It would be nice if they discovered after my death all nine volumes of my printed blog and said, "Gee, Grandma wasn't just some old lady who baked muffins."

That's my goal.  

At least she resigned

I'm talking about Andrea Skinner, Chairman of the Hockey Canada Board.  I don't need to go into all the seamy details of this sordid affair, but this woman told the inquiry into the Hockey Canada mess that she had complete confidence in CEO Scott Smith.

Really??!!  You must be kidding!  This guy HAS to go!  How could a woman actually endorse this dinosaur and give him an "A" for his performance!!??  After her shocking appearance before the committee, she at least had the decency to finally resign.

Not so the CEO of Bobsleigh Canada.  After more than 90 athletes signed a petition demanding her resignation, Sarah Storey is digging in and staying put -- to the detriment of the sport.  It's unbelievable!  (Frankly, I have never understood why it is an Olympic sport in the first place, I mean, who does it in the real world?  Nobody, unless you count kids in a toboggan on the local neighbourhood hill.)  

The AGM actually had to be cancelled because of all the booing and shouting that greeted Ms. Storey's appearance.  And she hasn't resigned?  Talk about a complete lack of integrity.  Another woman who debases our gender.

Back in my early twenties, I dated a couple of NHL players, Bryan Watson and Brian Smith, may they both rest in peace.  These guys were perfect gentlemen and so respectful of me.  My mother loved them!  I don't know when the culture of entitlement and bad behaviour crept into the sport, but I suspect money had a lot to do with it.  And I also put the blame squarely on the shoulders of your average hockey mom.  You learn respect and restraint at your mother's knee; these mothers obviously didn't teach those life lessons, so focused were they on the financial windfall down the road, should their sons make it big.  

I learned today that in 2017, Trudeau created an "Office of Sport Integrity".  Really?!  Apparently, its mandate is to ensure sports are safe and its watch word is "Abuse-free sports".  How's that working?  Its commissioner is someone named Sarah-Eve Pelletier and all her underlings are women.  What have they done?  SFA, as far as I can see.  Remember the Sheldon Kennedy mess?  None of the recommendations from that report has been implemented.  Not one.

It's so appalling.    

The price of tea in China?

The breathtakingly unqualified Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, was spotted recently at the UN trumpeting women's rights to the ineffectual general assembly while "Rome was burning" in Ukraine.  I mean, how irrelevant at a time when thousands are being slaughtered right under her perky, turned-up nose?!  

Russia, now in control of Ukraine's nuclear power plant and threatening to blow up the world, and Ms. Joly is worried about women's rights?!  That's about as appropriate as worrying about the price of tea in China -- another power, by the way, of which Canada should be mightily afraid, sitting as we are right under its flight path to attack North America.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

"What me worry" seems to be her rallying cry.  Now, she's in Peru drumming up support for Haiti and trying to stamp out gangs and corruption in that sad, failed state.  Whaaat??!!  Haiti runs on gangs and corruption and always has.  That's its main form of government.  Every dime received from delusional, but well-meaning, saps goes directly into the pockets of gang members who control the country.  We don't want more young Canadians killed because of this insoluble mess:

More virtue-signaling  which will lead nowhere, but, hey, it's always nice to visit Peru.      

So....

Native columnist Doug Cuthand is lauding GG Mary Simon as a role model for Indigenous people.  According to Cuthand, she is a revered and respected grandmother to all her people.  

Well, I find that wrong.  

Simon was the one who racked up almost $100,000 on in-flight food and booze for her and 29 of her friends on a junket to Dubai.  As I have blogged, what the hell are our GG and her buddies doing going to Dubai in the first place?  Here's Mary (centre) looking very pleased with herself, obviously unperturbed by the kerfuffle surrounding her wanton spending of the taxpayer dime at a time when so many families are watering down their kids' milk.  Well, I guess when you're generations-used to being handed public money, these thoughts don't occur to you:

Also wanted to say a word or two about the fiscal and monetary mess in England, where barely a month into her tenure, PM Liz Truss has had to backtrack and reverse a disastrous mini-budget that slashed taxes on the ultra-wealthy.  Devised by her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, the whole mess blew up in their faces.  My economist husband said that the plan was a good one -- if you wanted to wait about 20 years for it to bear fruit.  Something about supply side versus demand.....er......uh.....??  B explained it, but I don't get it.  Nevertheless, the extremely well-educated, Kwarteng came up with a wonderful, theoretical, long-term plan, but boys, this is politics.  No one has more than a few days!

I think it's sad, a) because Truss is a woman, and b) because Kwarteng is Black.  They've both set these two groups back about 50 years.  That's too bad because it will just serve as an excuse for the "see-I-told-you-so" gang to dine out.  Here the hapless pair are, defending the budget and doubling down at a Conservative Party conference just before throwing in the economic towel:  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Canada's minister of diversity and inclusion, Ahmed Hussen, just announced another disastrous racially-discriminate program to promote Black entrepreneurs by throwing money at them.  It's to be a Black-led endowment fund which will be a sustainable source of money to support Black communities.  Well, I guess if your portfolio is "diversity and inclusion", you have to think up something.

To that I say, huh??!!  

It's also to be open only to Black stakeholders.  Naturally, the media have said nothing.  That's wrong.  If a business can't make it on its own, it should be allowed to fold.  I should know, I started a business almost 50 years ago, went bankrupt and lost a fortune.  No one bailed me out, nor should they have.  Ah....if only I had been Black in 2022......

  

Here's another annoying headline:

This is Theresa Tam writing her own performance evaluation.  In my opinion, she was a COVID disaster, but she claims she saved 800,000 lives.

Go figure!

_________________________________

On another unrelated matter, we were at the local hotel here in Cochrane the other night and the young server said she loved my earrings.  They weren't expensive, so I took them out and gave them to her.  She was floored.  "I can't take those!" she exclaimed.  "Yes you can, I have a ton of earrings and I hardly ever wear these."  Giving is a gift to the giver.  It felt good to see her so happy.