Delusional

Rachel Notley lost the election yesterday.  What was her reaction?  She vowed to stay on as leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party.  This is her second defeat, but she's going to stay on.  Really?  

Sounds like the Leaf's management and coach.  We keep losing, but we're going to keep doing the same thing over and over for fifty years, hoping for a different result.

Not gonna happen.

Perhaps the party might have something to say about Rachel's intentions, no?  When you keep losing, there is a mandatory leadership review and I would wager there are a bunch of members who are fed up with her.  The NDP's win in 2015 was an aberration; they had never won an election before and haven't since.  The PCs and UCPs have won 17 elections.  They did again.

The NDP in Alberta is itself an aberration.  This is a conservative, red meat, eat what you kill, money province that Rachel managed to bankrupt in just the four years she was in office.  The people who vote for her are ill-informed, new Albertans -- both legal and illegal -- who fear the word "conservative".  Alberta can't afford to take a chance on Notley again.

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Here's another depressing story.  Canada's auditor general, Karen Hogan, released a scathing report on the plight of children in Nunavut.  A review of child and family services was so alarming her office immediately raised concerns with the territorial government.  

"This report is more than statistics, trends and a compilation of facts.  It is an urgent call to action," Ms. Hogan said during a news conference Tuesday in Iqaluit.  Among the findings were, "That the territory inadequately responded to reports of suspected harm, did not complete many investigations, did not sufficiently monitor the welfare of children in care, failed to meet obligations for the health and safety of employees and could not provide accurate numbers of children in its care.  

Other than that, Mrs. Kennedy, how was your trip to Dallas?

This is shocking, but predictable.  Who's running Nunavut?  P.J. Ageeagok:

Who's the minister of family services?  Margaret Nakashuk.  They and the entire cabinet are made up of Indigenous people who are criminally neglecting children under their care.

This is the result of Indigenous people insisting on running their own shows.  Isn't working.  As a result, the department doesn't know about children's well-being, whereabouts or the kind of care they are receiving.  How can this stand?

It does and it will.  Wrong.  Criminal charges need to be laid.  But they won't be. 

 

  

      

Hack them back

 "I just can't seem to get my petunias to bush out.  They're just leggy and spindly," I said to a dinner companion a few years ago.  "You have to hack them back," said Al Kelly.  What did he mean?  He meant that the minute you plant them, you have to cut them to practically nothing.

With only a few blossoms showing, I really didn't want to, but I hacked as instructed.  After potting them, I grabbed the scissors and went to work.  Two weeks later, each stem I had butchered had produced three or four others.  Like the four I planted a couple of weeks ago; they're now busting out.  I mean, look at all those new plants and buds:

A swim buddy was complaining about her leggy petunias and I gave her the same instructions.  "Cut the few blooms off?" said Gayle.  "I can't."  You have to, I told her, otherwise they'll just be tall and ugly.

I have been a Petunia Queen for twenty years, ever since Al told me what to do.  If you despair about puny petunias, grab your scissors.  You will be amazed.  Oh, and use 'Quick Start' by 'Miracle Grow'.  That's key.  After the first hacking, you have to cycle through and keep cutting one back here and there.  You too can be a Petunia Queen!

Neighbours

 Don't ya hate it when people who have immigrated here tell you how much better everything is in their home countries?

Well, WTF are you doing here then?!

We have a neighbour like that.  Naturally, he's a Brit; they seem to be the worst offenders.  He has a wife and two daughters and he rules over them like a lord.  His accent tells me he is from East London, but you'd think he was related to the King himself.  His wife is basically a doormat, very sweet and friendly, but basically a doormat.  His daughters fear him.

Naturally, his wife home-schools them because apparently the education kids get in Alberta is vastly inferior to anything provided in Jolly Olde.  Well, as I said, WTF are you doing here?!  The biggest problem with home schooling, in my opinion, is that children spend all day with their parents and don't socialize with other kids.  They don't connect with peers and become Canadians and Albertans.  Both his daughters still have heavy British accents, which in jarring since they have been here for long enough to have lost them.

The father has been on some kind of disability since we moved here two years ago.  Don't ask me what's wrong with the guy because he's the most active, disabled guy I've ever run into.  "It must be frustrating to not be able to work when you're so fit and active," I actually said to him a while back.  I know, I know, that was a sly move, but I just wanted to hear what he had to say.  

Not much.

When B emigrated from England as a kid, he was sent to an elementary school in Montreal in a very tough neighbourhood wearing his British school uniform -- complete with beanie.  Naturally, his classmates went all in kicking the sh-t out of him the minute he entered the school yard.

His accent disappeared almost immediately.  "Speak Canadian," they yelled, as they punched and kicked him.  To help him cope, his grandfather enrolled him in a rough-and-tumble boxing club.  "Hit first and hit hard," he told B.  It worked.  B quickly adapted to Montreal and was no longer bothered and beaten by the bullies around him.  Did he tell his grandparents, who were his guardians?  Never.

I grew up in idyllic Lindenlea in Ottawa -- a neighbourhood designed by British town planners in the twenties and still one of the most desirable locations in Canada.  When I grew up there, it was very white and middle-class with modest, single-family homes.  Bounded by Rideau Terrace, Springfield, Maple Lane and Acacia, it had no through traffic.  The only cars on the roads were those of residents.  We also had a playground, which turned into a skating rink in the winter, and a community centre, where I took ballet and was a Brownie and Girl Guide.

I thought everyone grew up like I did.  I later learned they didn't.  But after elementary school, we had to go further afield for grades seven and eight and that's where the trouble started.  We had to cross the French girls' neighbourhood, which is where I was regularly beaten up on the way to class.  They even beat me up on the streetcar (remember those?) on the way there.  

Did the conductor intervene?  Did I complain?  Did I tell my parents?  Never.  You just didn't back then.

I was thrilled when I learned that one of the neighbours's daughters would be going to regular school in the Fall.  At last she'll meet kids her own age and socialize with them, I thought.  Not to be.  The father said they are sending her to a special school for other special kids who have been home-schooled.  That's too bad because she won't get a chance to be beaten up or befriended by "normal" kids from a broad spectrum of society.

I don't think it's a good plan because I really like the kid, but who cares what I think?

    

      

Never ends

Because of high crime on native reserves, Canada has just handed another $12 million to the Akwesasne band to fight it.  That's in addition to the millions given by Canadians every year as a matter of course.  Here's the rest of the deal:  

The casinos on the reserve rake in $91,781 a day, $944,500 per year, and each casino employee makes an average annual salary of $944,478.

I'm not kidding!

Put that in your "peace" pipe and smoke it!  It's outrageous.  They insisted on their own police force, which we pay for, but the local force still can't -- or won't -- deal with the crime there.

Just to reinforce the mess, the band offices of the Mohawk Kanestake have been raided and shut down for fraud and misappropriation of funds.  Investigators with the Quebec provincial police’s financial crimes unit are conducting searches in the community near Montreal.

The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake says provincial police are searching the band office and the health centre in connection with an investigation into the community’s COVID-19 task force.  Gee, I wonder what that's about?

The Indigenous police were disbanded in 2005, but the provincial force rarely enters the reserve for fear of violence.  So, it's basically lawless, with residents routinely threatened and intimidated to keep them quiet.

Nothing ever changes.

  

A complete whitewash

 

I think I will crop David Johnston out of this picture, now that he has forever tarnished his reputation and credibility by being a shill for Justin Trudeau.  The fact that the former governor general did not recommend a public inquiry into Chinese meddling in our last two elections is a national disgrace and an affront to democracy.

In 2012, B was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work with the Royal Commonwealth Society over many years.  Unlike Americans, who "buy" medals and decorations via political donations, Canadians are awarded medals for volunteer service to the betterment of civil society, so B was very proud to have been given such an honour by Her Majesty's representative in Canada.  Let me tell you, that medal is a biggie.* 

Now I am ashamed to have the former GG's now inglorious mug hanging on the wall in our dining room sullying this recognition.  

For starters, Johnston should have turned down the position of "Special rapporteur" looking into whether we should have a public inquiry in the first place.  Since he didn't, he certainly should have been objective and honest and recommended an inquiry be called.  He didn't do that either.  In fact, he blamed 'The Globe and Mail' and 'Global Television' for revealing Chinese interference in our democracy.

He further failed the smell test by appointing  Liberal party donor Sheila Block, a lawyer with Tory's LLD who gave almost $8,000 to the Liberal party and no other, as his assistant.  

What??!!!

The fix was in from before day one, when Trudeau promised up front he would implement every one of Johnston's recommendations when the latter tabled his report.  Would he have said this if he had suspected in advance that Johnston might actually recommend an inquiry?  Rhetorical.

To add fuel to an already sizzling bush, Johnston and Trudeau's family connections go back generations.  They are skiing buddies and cottage neighbours, making Johnston unfit to judge anything Trudeau has done.  He's also on the board of the Trudeau Foundation.  I mean, come on.  It's all so sordid and wrong.  As I have said, from the cancelling of Canada Day fireworks to the apologizing for anything and everything Indigenous, to the SNC affair, to the Wilson-Raybould mess, to the manhandling of a female MP, Canada has lost its way and the sooner we get rid of Trudeau and his band of brigands the better.

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*Actually, I should have been given one because guess who did all the behind-the-scenes work on that file?  Rhetorical.

Here's a switch........

 

White Supremacists Are Not The Real Threat   Bill Donohue   May 22, 2023   When Joe Biden was elected president, he promised to unite the country. He has failed. As he proved May 13 at Howard University, he is dividing us along racial lines.   In his commencement address, he told the black audience that white supremacy “is the most dangerous terrorist threat to the homeland.” That is simply not true.   He also said that the battle against racism is “never really over.” To the extent this is true, it is due in no small way to people like him and his administration. They have a vested ideological interest in stoking the fire.   It was only fitting that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he agreed that the “rise in white supremacy” was our greatest domestic terrorist threat. But it is not white supremacists who are killing innocent Americans—it is the drug cartels and their illegal aliens. And Mayorkas is the principal reason why.   As reported in The Economist, nearly 14,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized between October and March, as much as the total for fiscal-year 2022. Since it takes only 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill an adult, that means that this seizure alone could kill approximately 3.2 billion people.   And Biden and Mayorkas are telling us white supremacists are a bigger domestic threat?   As reported in January by Axios, illegal border crossings reached their highest number since Biden took office. And that was before Title 42 expired. Our southern border is being invaded in record numbers, and not all who seek to come here have good intentions. The problem is we can’t keep up with the number of really dangerous persons entering our country. That is the real domestic threat.   As reported by the New York Times on May 18, we set a new record last year with the number of people—nearly 110,000—who have died of drug overdoses. Fentanyl, of course, is the real killer. “Drug overdoses have contributed to a decrease in life expectancy in the United States and are one of the nation’s leading causes of death. Other drugs in the nation’s supply that can be mixed with fentanyl, such as the cheap and addictive animal tranquilizer xylazine, have heightened the dangers of opioid use.”   There is another serious threat to our domestic security and that is crime.    Under Biden, our cities are witnessing record crime rates, and much of that is a result of Democrat mayors and Democrat District Attorneys. No demographic group has suffered more than black Americans. To cite one example, a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that in Chicago, 1 in 14 Chicagoans had been shot by their 40th birthday and 50 percent had witnessed a shooting by that age. The rate among blacks was the highest.   As I point out in War on Virtue: How the Ruling Class is Killing the American Dream, it is not blacks who want to defund the police, or abolish our prisons—it is white liberal elites. Most blacks are law-abiding citizens, but they are being preyed upon by a minority within their own ranks. It is not white supremacists whom the average black person needs to fear—it is young black males.   If criminals were held accountable for their behavior, we wouldn’t have such an explosion in violent crime, and for that we can thank politicians like Biden. Instead of making race-baiting speeches, it would behoove him to show his support for the African American community by speaking out against the soft-on-crime policies that his Party is promoting.   Hard core drugs and hard core criminals are the greatest domestic threat to the United States, not white supremacists. To insist otherwise is a ruse, and a dangerous one at that.   Stay up to date on our social media posts. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Truth Social and subscribe to our Rumble and YouTube Channels.   Phone: 212-371-3191 E-mail: pr@catholicleague.org

More nonsense

Whatever happened to Canada?  How have we gone so drastically wrong?  How have we lost our collective way and devolved into pandering ninnies to the interests of the perpetually woke, disgruntled and disaffected?  

The latest is the news that 200 historical plaques and monuments -- cast in expensive bronze, no less -- will be renamed and recast because Pat Kell, director of "heritage" for Parks Canada, has decreed that our plaques do not adequately reflect....you know what's coming....the Indigenous.

"The dedication of these plaques are at odds with today's standards," she ludicrously said.

Why in Gawd's name is the tiny tail wagging the Canadian dog?! It's so insane and wrong.    

"Parks is in the middle of a three-year program to re-examine and rewrite the plaques that the Historic Sites and Monuments Board use to point out places deemed important to understanding Canada's past. 

"Some involve historical figures who held beliefs at odds with current standards. They include one of the Fathers of Confederation, John A. Macdonald; Archibald Belaney, otherwise known as Grey Owl; and Nicholas Flood Davin, founder of one of the West's first newspapers." 

Reasons include ignoring Indigenous contributions or using antiquated language, such as "Indian" or "Eskimo." Another issue is controversial beliefs held by historical figures. 

The most common reason for rewriting -- covering plaques for French explorer Jacques Cartier, Alberta's Bar U Ranch and Nunavut's Kekerten Island Whaling Station -- are "colonial assumptions," the document says. 

One voice of sanity emerged, that of Larry Ostola, former vp of heritage conservation at Parks Canada.

"A new woke perspective is being imposed on what was formerly an apolitical, fact-driven historical designation process," he sanely wrote in the National Post.

 

But Kell said the changes are being partly driven by the 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. One of the calls to action recommended Canada "develop a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration." 

She said it's an attempt to use the latest scholarship to broaden the stories told, not erase familiar ones. Sorry, Pat, it is because that's exactly what you are doing.

 

Bob Coutts, for many years the chief historian of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, said it's a mug's game trying to decolonize sites that are historic, largely because of their role in colonization.

 

"The story still focuses on a colonialist story," he said. "You could pad it a little bit, but it's still going to be a plaque about the building of a fur trade fort." 

As well, the whole idea of plaques depends on written history. That works against Indigenous history, Coutts said.

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In a further bowing and scraping to wokeism, Calgary is not going to celebrate Canada Day with the usual fireworks display because of....wait for it...."cultural sensitivity". Naturally, the affronted Indigenous are still not satisfied. Nicole Johnston, Piikani advocate, went all truth-and-reconciliation on the mayor and said she and others had asked Calgary to drop Canada celebrations altogether (really!!??) in 2021 following the discovery of children buried in unmarked graves at a Kamloops. B.C., residential school.

(Note: These so-called graves were later found to be tree roots, not skeletons -- an inconvenient truth no one ever mentions, except me.)

"They went ahead and had the fireworks anyway," she complained. Hello, Nicole! I thought Canada Day was a celebration of what's great about this country and all its people, not just about pandering to one disaffected group.

Guess not, what with our ultra-woke mayor Gondek in charge. "I think the mayor should step up and apologize for the first year for not understanding what the fireworks meant for Indigenous people and cancelling the fireworks when we first asked," opined Johnston. Wouldn't it be nice to see the odd native have an agenda other than what went on a couple of hundred years ago? Never seems to happen.

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Since penning this, enough people hit the bullsh-t button to force Gondek to reinstate the fireworks. Calgarians are obviously much more sane that the dunderheads running it.

But you watch, the wokers will not stop. I predict the Stampede itself -- officially The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth -- will be next on the Indigenous radar. Will they want that cancelled too? Not gonna happen; too much money involved.