If it walks like a duck.....

So, Gerry Ritz referred to Catherine McKenna as a "Barbie".  Well, hello, she flaunts the "Barbie" look in spades!  If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck, it's a duck.  Unfortunately, Ms. McKenna has chosen "Barbie" as her duck and is thus judged accordingly.

As are we all.

How many times have I said, "We are our hair"?  McKenna dyes her hair blonde and thus becomes a "dyed blonde".  The expression, "You never have a second chance to make a first impression" holds for each of us.  It did for me throughout my career and I am sure my wild earrings, short skirts, high heels and flamboyant scarves transmitted an image not in keeping with being promoted to DM.  But one thing I let go natural was my hair as it turned grey -- a decision which helped balance some of my more unorthodox outfits.  Had I decided to dye my hair, I would have been perceived differently.

B, who wore to the office the most beautifully-tailored 'Lou Myles' custom suits when I met him, also had to face the scrutiny of his more conservative (I was going to say "cheaper") colleagues because he refused to shop at 'Moores' to fit in at the PCO.

Now McKenna has actually had the unmitigated gall to start a fund-raising campaign.  For what?!  Send me $10, I'm not a "Barbie".  Really!?  I'm a "Barbie" victim??  Get over yourself.  

       

Let's get out the beads...

...and pray some idiotic native group doesn't insist on re-naming 'The Fairmont MacDonald Hotel' in Edmonton because it was named after you-know-who -- the "demon" who established residential (boarding) schools.  A magnificent and historic place, the MacDonald has a history that rivals any other CN (or is it CP?) hotel in this magnificent country.  Why don't they protest sports' team names, such as the Washington Red Skins, the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs or Cleveland Indians, to name a few.  Aren't there better things for natives to focus on?  How about holding their own chiefs to account, instead of expecting Canadians to "comp" their entire lives.   

Please, pray with me on this one.

But I digress.  The reason we travelled to Edmonton was to take in the Davis Cup match between India and Canada, in which the wonderful Denis Shapovalov thrilled the crowd.  Thanks to his play, Canada won and will now advance.  There he was, jumping up and down, taking chances and going for everything.  The thing I love about him is he will try something and even if it doesn't work, try it again.  He has charisma in spades -- as opposed to Raonic who is a wooden automaton, boring and never cracks a smile.  Finally, Canada has someone to watch grow into a real star. 

"Oh, that's the young guy I shook hands with this morning as they were checking out," said the doorman.  What?!  I had been wandering the corridors and lobby for three days trying to meet him and get a shameless selfie and this guy didn't know who he was!  The team was staying on the same floor as we were, but I wasn't able to catch a glimpse. 

I did, however, run into Daniel Nestor in the elevator and can now confirm he is as grim and soulless as he appears on court.  "Oh, you played a great match this afternoon," I said with a big smile.  Not only did he not reply, he didn't even acknowledge the compliment.  "Hope you enjoy your retirement," cracked B as we exited.  Ha!  Good on B. 

Lots more to talk about our little trip.  Later. 
   

OK...

...so you go to a Caribbean country during hurricane season, ignore mandatory evacuation orders and then cry when you aren't rescued after it all goes tits up.  Apparently, Canadians trapped in these countries are upset that various consulates didn't down tools and rush to rescue them from their self-imposed mess.

Probably the same people either evading or avoiding taxes in Canada -- which, by the way, pay for your rescue.  Reminds me of Lebanon a few years ago when the latest civil-war-du-jour trapped "Canadians" in that country who howled and screamed bloody murder that Canada wasn't doing enough to get them out.  For them, Canada was merely a flag of convenience because they lived most of the time in Lebanon.

Please.

Indulge me as I continue to connect paying taxes with running an efficient country.  And then you have heroes like my step-daughter and son-in-law, flooded out in Houston, who manned a boat rescue operation from their side lawn to ferry elderly neighbours to safety.  With little sleep for almost two weeks, they have stepped up instead of waiting for someone to sail by and save them.  She moved to Houston because she married a Texan -- not to escape taxes -- and has been a power of strength and example through it all.  I'm very proud of her.      

  

To do what?

I know I go on, but what exactly is the point of the missing indigenous women inquiry?  Folks, the facts are in.  These women were engaging in very risky behaviour and it caught up with them.  I mean, if you are a drug-addicted prostitute you are taking a chance with your life every time you go on a "date", as they call their encounters.  Got nothing really to do with being "indigenous".   

And if they weren't killed by their "dates", they were killed by men they knew well.  The RCMP stats tell the tale, so what traipsing around the country listening to families cry is going to accomplish I have absolutely no clue?  It won't bring their loved ones back and it won't change the facts. 

To top it off, the commission now wants another year or two because it still hasn't got its act together.  No actual hearings have been held!  We are being held hostage by this hugely costly mess -- now to be compounded exponentially by the splitting up of the department of indigenous affairs.  That is a cute trick to play for time, while everyone readjusts and plays musical political chairs.

Looking back and dwelling on the past is futile.  Let's look forward and make some real progress.  Start by getting off the reserves and integrating into mainstream Canadian life.  You can still be a native and celebrate your culture -- just as the Irish, Polish, Chinese and every other ethnic group does -- but don't sit and stew pathetically in it.  Too bad your leaders won't let it happen because that's how they get their money.  Wake up.   

A Big Day

This guy, seen here at less than one day old, just started "big boy" school.  Hard to believe, but he did.  And I had the honour of taking him to his first day.  A teacher, his Mum had her own duties and his Dad, a firefighter, had a shift, so Grandma did the honours. 

"Are you excited?" I asked him.  He was, but little sister was upset he would not be going to daycare with her as usual.  "Well, now you're a big girl," I told her, "going to daycare all by yourself!  Imagine!"  That did the trick, as I walked her in.  Grandson said his goodbyes and we were off to "real" school. 

It brought back memories of my own first day at kindergarten a thousand years ago.  I still remember vividly walking into Miss Earl's class at Crichton Street Public.  I still remember the sand box, my blue nap blanket with my name embroidered in yellow, Miss Earl's sensible black oxford shoes....it remains clear as a bell.  I can only hope he will remember his first day.       

Erasing history

This latest insanity comes from Ontario elementary teachers, who have passed a daft and contemptible  motion to eliminate Sir John A. MacDonald's name from every school in the province just because he was the prime minister during the residential (read 'boarding') school era.  "Native children in these schools might be frightened when they see the name 'MacDonald' on their schools," 'said the obviously-uneducated and ignorant head of the Ontario union.  What an outrage. 

MacDonald, the founding Father of Confederation and first PM of Canada, was a giant -- a visionary from a tiny country who actually imagined the impossible creation of a huge nation from sea to sea before anyone could even have conceived of such a notion.  Without MacDonald, there would be no Canada because this country would have inevitably been annexed by the US.

First crazies pushed for -- and won -- the changing of the name of the "Langevin Block" to the meaningless "Prime Minister's Office" and now they're going after MacDonald.  And just for good measure, they next have George Cornwallis in their sights.  What's next, book burning?  Why not denigrate the parents who raised them?  Absolutely shameful.

Sadly, this is all about natives and their desire to perpetuate the schools issue, Colonialism and the flogging of the inept "missing women" inquiry -- which, by the way, isn't going too well, thanks to its infighting native leadership.

Natives were among the most brutal and warring peoples anywhere, something completely overlooked by all-and-sundry.  Take the Iroquois.  In 1649, they massacred the Huron, leaving the latter a pitiful group of a few hundred of the more than 30,000 they had been before the brutality.  Twelve hundred of them also tortured and murdered the Jesuit priests who had come to educate and convert, tearing out fingernails and sparing no body part, according to recorded eye witnesses.  The Huron were decimated because the French refused to sell them conventional weapons, backing the Iroquois instead. 

It was end of a people and its culture.  Any mention of this anywhere?  No. 

Canadian history is being denied and erased by people who know nothing and will continue to be by those not even born yet if this PC nonsense continues.  It has to stop. 

  

 

Two words

"Stupido" and money.  Those words explain everything that ever happens anywhere.  The first word was used frequently by my late mother-in-law, who lived in Spain, to describe a wide range of random, senseless  acts; the second explained everything else. In fact, my mother-in-law didn't even need to utter the word "money", she just held up one hand and rubbed her thumb fingers together -- the universal symbol for money -- and everyone got it. 

"Stupido" was behind Calgary's gay pride parade organizers when they announced the new unified Conservative party would not be allowed a float in the parade unless members attended a three-day seminar on what it means to be LGBTQ...w x y z...whatever.  A three-day seminar??!!  How is that being inclusive?  The very thing they want the rest of society to be, gay pride organizers aren't.  First Toronto bans the police from having a float in its parade -- in or out of uniform -- and now Calgary is banning a political group.  Get over yourselves, please.

How dumb.  Toronto is even dumber because it has allowed the lunatic fringe "Black Lives Matter" to disrupt and highjack its parade two years in a row.  What does "Black Lives Matter" have to do with being gay?  Stupido.

As for "money", that word explains everything else going on around you.  Life is simpler now that I just need two categories to decipher it.