Mid-Week Post

Back when we kicked @$$:

Troops from Le Régiment de la Chaudière waiting to land on Normandy beach (photo here)

 
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“Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?” he told Trudeau ...

Yes. Yes, we did.

That's what happens when James Madison is led to believe that he can burn down some Ontario potato farmers' fields and get a way with it.

I'm sure Mr. Trump meant that in jest. He should just carry on distrusting the petty little fruit Justin and his Chinese overlords as the rest of us do.


Also - who can blame Trump? Canada and Mexico need NAFTA badly and neither party are skilled in negotiating tactics:

U.S. President Donald Trump may seek separate talks with Canada and Mexico in a bid to get individual trade deals with the two countries, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday.  

“He is very seriously contemplating kind of a shift in the NAFTA negotiations. His preference now, and he asked me to convey this, is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately,” Kudlow said in an interview with Fox News. 

“He may be moving quickly toward these bilateral discussions instead of as a whole.”

More from the  most "transparent", fiscally responsible and least insane government in the country's history:

Let’s add this to the money spent building a refugee camp at the border. We can add it to the $173 million that was allocated in the budget for better processing times. Also the unknown cost of relocating some 800 Canada Border Services Agents from the Toronto area to the Quebec-New York border.

Justin Trudeau’s tweet sure is expensive.

Last fall the cost of each failed asylum claimant was estimated at $15-20,000. Michael MacDonald, Director General at Citizenship and Immigration gave that figure to the House of Commons Public Safety Committee.

“It varies with the individual case, but overall, as a general estimate, one can look at anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000. I think we’ll give you a more precise response, but it very much does vary,” MacDonald told the committee last September.

That figure includes social services but was also an estimate drawn up before we realized it would take years for each border crosser to get a hearing.

(Sidebar: these "asylum-seekers" -  Chahal said she has heard people are crossing the provincial border because the wait for a refugee hearing in Manitoba isn't as long as it is in Quebec, they don't speak French, or they feel better connected with local refugee communities in Winnipeg.

"We didn't see that last year. We're only now experiencing it. So we're trying to be proactive about it," she said.

Last week, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen announced $50 million would go to Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba to ease the housing costs for new refugees.

While Quebec received $36 million, Manitoba received $3 million.)

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The national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women is accusing the federal government of putting its political interests before the safety of Indigenous women with its decision to extend the troubled inquiry’s timeline by six months instead of the full two years the commission requested in March.

(Sidebar: it is, after all, just money.)

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In another sign of the chronic underfunding of the Canadian Forces, it turns out that the military has ran out of sleeping bags and rucksacks.

As a result, they are ordering soldiers who currently have sleeping bags and rucksacks to return them.

Some of the equipment was first issued in 1982.

Absurdly, the military is even asking for sleeping bag liners to be returned.

(Sidebar: could this be any more embarrassing and from a clearly indifferent Liberal government?)

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The exchange, which took place as McKenna’s young daughter watched from the chairs placed behind her mother, came after a series of squabbles between the minister and some Conservative MPs. Last year, Conservative MP Gerry Ritz was forced to apologize after he called McKenna “Climate Barbie” on Twitter. The Tories have also been vocal in their opposition to her carbon tax plan.

In her opening statement, McKenna slammed the Conservatives for the former government’s environmental record. Things picked up during the first Tory question when Conservative MP Joël Godin accused her of delivering an overly partisan opening statement. In response, McKenna pointed out the Conservatives had attacked one of her public servants in a committee meeting.

“I do not like seeing attack ads using my public servants. And that was a Conservative attack ad, using my public servant who was talking about carbon pricing. I take great offence with that and I think Canadians take great offence,” she said.

Fast wasn’t having it.

“With respect, you’re in a political arena and if you’re going to be partisan at committee, you can expect an equivalent response,” he said.

As the questioning went on things continued to spiral downwards. MPs gestured dramatically and cried “point of order” until Chair Deb Schulte managed to restore calm.

It's no wonder people would rather vote Tory now (and they did not before because ...?):

A new Nanos Research poll shows the Conservatives now have more accessible voters than the Liberals.

It represents a big reversal for the Trudeau Liberals, who long held an advantage when it come to the number of Canadians willing to vote for them.

According to the survey, 46.3% of Canadians say they would ‘consider’ voting Conservative. 

That number is 44.6% for the Liberals, and 40.5% for the NDP.

One more day before Ontario finally decides that the Liberals have screwed it long enough:

The choice is between the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats. Both are running on platforms that don’t add up. Neither will be able to keep its promises. Each appeals to specific voter groups with fixed beliefs that pit one part of the province against the other. The question isn’t which is the best of a bad lot? It’s which will do the least damage to the province, hurt fewer people, and have the least harmful impact over the long term?

I've noticed that none of the major parties have indicated how they are going to acquire money for all of the things they promised.

As long as Canadians don't demand leaders and independent parties or persons, our lot will always be the lesser of an amount of evils.


Also:

But it is reasonably clear to those who move in Ontario political circles that a culture of corruption had taken root; a sleazy streak now runs through our politics. ...

After an election, there is always a call for healing and desire to move on. That should be resisted in regards to the hygiene of our political culture.

Oh, please, Santa Claus, let this happen!:

If recent polls are correct, the Liberals look poised to drop from the governing party in Ontario to losing their official party status.

As of June 5, according to the CBC News poll tracker, the Progressive Conservatives were at 37.6 per cent support, the NDP at 36.1 and the Liberals at 19.9 per cent. 

As a result, seat projections were at 74 for the PCs, 48 for the NDP and two for the Liberals. That would be a stunning, though not unheard of, fall for a governing party that has been in power for 15 years.

Moderate? Hardly:

North Korea’s new top three military officers are known for their unquestioning support of leader Kim Jong Un and are flexible enough to accept the massive changes that may come from any deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, people who follow the secretive country say. 

If they are loyal to Kim, they will do as he asks which will not include surrendering its nuclear weapons or opening up the country.




The same China people still believe is democratic and can lead North Korea into being so:

Facebook Inc said Tuesday it has data sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese companies including Huawei, the world's third largest smartphone maker, which has come under scrutiny from U.S. intelligence agencies on security concerns.

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China's national carrier will resume flights between Beijing and Pyongyang this week amid improved Sino-North Korea ties, a company official said Tuesday.

Starting Wednesday, Air China will provide three flights per week on the route that it suspended on Nov. 21 last year. Relations soured last year as Beijing, angered by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, backed a series of United Nations' sanctions against its ally.

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The anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre came and went this week, barely noticed, unmentioned in official circles in Canada, legally unmentionable in China and expunged by algorithm, in advance, from Sina Weibo’s millions of overseas social media accounts. It is as though the event never even happened. And in a way, it never did.

When it is remembered at all, the event is commonly understood to have been a riot in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square that was brutally put down. A journalistic convention has evolved over time to mention hundreds, “perhaps thousands” of deaths. In the hours that followed the killings in Beijing, the Red Cross Society of China released an estimate of 2,700 dead. British diplomatic cables declassified last year, however, refer to an anonymous official with the State Council who put the butchers’ bill at 10,000 deaths.

In Beijing, most of the dead were not murdered at Tiananmen Square, but rather in the surrounding streets and boulevards, especially in the Muxidi district. They were shot, bayoneted, bulldozed and crushed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers. The killings were not confined to Beijing, either. Nor were the protests. Student-led rallies and marches for democracy and a free press had been underway for weeks.

June 6th isn't only for marking the D-Day operations that turned the tide of the Second World War. It is also for remembering the war dead who gave their lives for half of a country:

People who can afford to be blissfully unaware thanks to the sacrifices of others.

(Merci beaucoup)