Canadians trust these slobs implicitly:
We begin today by heading north, past Vermont, over Winterfell, above the Arctic Circle, beyond the part of the map labeled “monsters be here,” and into Canada. There do we find a writer named John Ibbitson, who recently published a piece for the Toronto Globe and Mail warning that American democracy may not be long for this world. “If the next presidential election reveals the U.S. hurtling toward possible violence and autocracy,” Ibbitson asks, “should Canada try to intervene?” ...
Repeat a warning often enough and it starts to sound like wishful thinking. Not that most Canadians are actively hoping America descends into Mad Max (otherwise where would they go outlet shopping?). But a small subset of those same Canadians do on occasion betray a sense that the United States ought to be doomed, that by virtue of its bombast and hubris it ought to have set ticking its own eschatological clock. January 6, then, was for them confirmation of the inevitable, even as America’s roll towards self-annihilation does seem to have slowed somewhat.
The journalist Walter Stewart once wrote that in Canada, smugness had become “a national disease.” Yet if the attitude of some Canadians towards America can be self-righteous, it’s also balanced by something else: a needy insecurity.
Insecurity and smugness coupled with sanctimoniousness and complete, blissful ignorance.
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The Department of Northern Affairs spent more than $1.4 million installing solar panels in the most sunless region of Canada, records show. The climate change program was to aid Arctic hamlets that rely on diesel generators for heat and light in winter months: “We funded solar projects.”
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The Department of Public Works yesterday faced demands for a full accounting of emergency field hospital equipment contracted through SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. One MP questioned the whereabouts of 200 hospital beds complete with ventilators and self-contained generators bought as back-up for overcrowded intensive care units: “We want to know where that money went and what it actually did.”
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Transit operators seek billions in ongoing subsidies for declining fares under a Covid grant program originally promised to be a temporary measure. The last of nearly $2.4 billion in federal aid for bus and train systems expires this year: “The pandemic has severely impacted ridership.”
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The Nova Scotia government is arguing receiving timely access to appropriate housing is not a human right for people with disabilities and is asking Canada's top court to overturn a decision that found its current practices are discriminatory.
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Federal departments must stop conducting business with their favourite contractors on the phone, says Procurement Ombudsman Alexander Jeglic. Federal policy requires any tips given to special bidders must be given to all: “I am reaching out to arrange a phone call.”
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