lotusland - nervous politics from a laid-back city

mathieu craig does vimy ridge

id suggest watching the "vimy's physical and emotional remains"  clip here if you are curious about the vimy ridge monument.  haligonian (and acadian) guide mathieu craig, who has the misfortune of being a friend of mine, describes the symbolism and architecture behind the monument quite well.  hes articulate, intelligent, and a hell of a lot more endearing and charming than ill ever be - arent you glad canada dispatched him to provide interpretation?

your mother is so corpulent, harper just declared her ass a nation within canada

things that are fucked about this whole nation debacle:

1.  ignatieff claims he started this: 
"They asked us, as a party, to affirm their distinctiveness, their particular place in the history of our country and I was pleased in my campaign to do so. And I think we have every reason to say this started with us.''

its wishy-washy use of progressive language to articulate something that doesnt really contribute to progress definitely bears the mark of ignatieffery. 

2. it doesnt mean shit:
duceppe and the governing party both agree this is just a nice bit of sophistry with no real legal consequences.  everyone on earth is pretty much supporting it, which means people just like the sound of the phrase 'quebec is a nation within canada' and are reading their own shit into it.  harper dreams of his (to borrow a coyneism) belgianization, dion focusses on the 'within canada' bit, charest is already planning a big provincial power grab...

... plus ca change, tards.

3.  the only people impressed by this are other sophists:
yep, its ad hominem time again.  really, how impressed can you be by "call us a nation, bitch!"  answered by "uh, ok, youre a nation... within canada, dweebs!"   ...  it doesnt even settle the debate, since now it is going to be about defining what nationhood within canada is, and who gets it, and what they get for it.

4.  respect for soft sovereigntists plummets at this url:
if this non-binding friendlytalk honestly satisfies your definition of the necessary recognition of quebec as a nation within canada... fuck, i cant even finish this sentence, this whole idea is so stupid.  please, this is all you wanted?!?  lip service?!  yeah, ok.

5. it represents the country of canada's sick obsession with the liberal party of canada as the most popular girl in grade 12 that we all loved to hate but could not resist paying attention to:
this country could not stop fawning over the damn lpc if it tried.  everything the liberals do is so noteworthy.  harper is unduly mindful of the liberal leadership race and is using the liberal candidates as his collective opposition.  duceppe is bringing debates that occur within the liberal party to the house in the form of motions.  nobody gives one half of a crap what layton is saying, as usual.   

hey quebec, this blog thinks youre a nation, but by nation, we mean whore issue that gets used by every party in time of electoral need.  the roc's committment to your little nation game is totally baseless.  thats right.  it just fits in with the west's maniacal fixation on provincial rights.  it fits in with an ignatieffian desire to say big things but mean nothing.  dion will twist it, in turn twisting the balls off whatever duceppe wanted this to mean.

in much more earth-shattering nationhood news, sasha said something anti-israel.  well, by his standards.

i am not afraid... or at least im not any more afraid of toronto now than i was before

my levels of torontophobia have been unaltered by the recent arrests related to the bomb plot.  toronto is still the city my much-vancouvered arse loves to hate (and visits more often than i should admit, which damages my van-cred).  i do enjoy myself when i happen to visit, and i hope all you torontonians arent too shook up to forget to make the rest of us jealous with your stupid fancy major league ball team.

canadians arent afraid.  id hope we would continue to make decisions with our brains rather than getting hopped up on propaganda and staying paranoid and indoors.  keep on keepin on, canada.

global news doesnt know shit about prince george

She got into hot water after claiming racists were "burning crosses" on the front lawns of a B.C. neighbourhood.

yes, hedy fry is absolutely whack... but will your retarded, unable-to-google selves ever get into hot water for callling prince george a neighbourhood instead of a city?  probably not.

save a bureaucrat (ride a cowboy?)

if you care, you can help this guy ditch his soul-sucking civil service job for a lifetime of philanthropy.

ontario: the newest have-not province

somebody call the waaaahmbulance!

"The release of the report comes just as there is growing unease in Ontario over the cash windfall Alberta is reaping from soaring world energy prices. But while government officials in Ontario would welcome a debate on the challenges Alberta's overflowing coffers pose for Confederation, they are leery of sparking a potentially divisive debate."

look, ontario.  the oil is in alberta.  too bad for the rest of us. sure, the alberta government might do something stupid with the money, but c'est la vie.  i'm sure the pinch manufacturing industry folk are feeling will have repercussions across the country, but you guys (proceeding from sir john a.) were the ones who decided the peripheral provinces basically do the resource extraction thing while you guys do the brunt of  the manufacturing in addition to whatever resource extraction your generous surface area affords you.

the equalization payments will be calculated, and youll just have to live within whatever the number is.  welcome to the have-not neighbourhood!  bc totally says you can take our "richest-looking ghetto province" crown for as long as youve got the title.

until the federal government busts a trudeau and takes the canadian consumer's interests over those of the oil guys in alberta, you just have to wait it out.

p.s.:  using less oil in our everyday lives is a good thing.

im of the opinion that alberta should start putting money away  for the future via economic diversification (no, i dont mean private healthcare provision).  well, that, and restore some of the more questionable funding cuts.

michaelle jean and her gun cabinet...? wtf

so, im here in middle o' nowhere, america, sitting in thunderstorms and marvelling at the amount of dairy products people here consume.  i feel the urge to step into the canadian blogosphere for a moment, and notice that we/you are still stuck on the gg appointment.  slow news season?  probably.  who wants to hear that the usa is stiffing us on the softwood deal (haha, freud) when we can learn from bourque and others that the jeans got rose to build them a cabinet with secret gun storage?

the flq hasnt killed anyone since the seventies - it was among the darkest chapters of our history but it's thankfully over.  the flq is not around anymore.  having a governor general who may be close with people the state has deemed safe enough that theyre wandering free building people cabinets is not the biggest deal on earth. the gun thing is tacky, but im sure there are other uses for it, like hiding bottles of screech or adult magazines.   i guess one man's murderous animal who builds a cabinet with gun storage is another man's retired freedom fighter.

and i think the 'retired' part hurts hardcore separatists the most.  shit's over.  the best they can do now is rally the province behind an amorphous question and a plan with no specifics regarding passports, currency, military, the debt, etc.  if ottawa fucks up a wee bit, they can stress english canada out by electing bloc politicians who are more populist than sovereigntist.  nobodys into nurder or serious treason much these days.

if we believe in rehabilitative justice, we have to move on.  are treasonous, separatist canadians still canadian?  i think they are.  english canada, wake up and smell the fucking tourtiere - some separatists are worried her appointment bangs another nail into the coffin of their cause.  they dont want to see canada promote and celebrate these people who are supposed to feel oppressed and alienated.  they dont want to see people sympathetic to their cause celebrate the canadian state through service to their country. 

michaelle jean's dual citizenship: who gives a toss

dear everyone bitching about jean's dual citizenship,

kindly shut up.  dual citizenship does not make you a traitor, nor does it make you less able to perform the duties of governor general (remember, theyre not particularly arduous).  her french citizenship doesnt make her a 'french governor' a la samuel de champlain - come on.  lots of canadians have dual citizenship, and i dont think theyre particularly treasonous people (except for the ones who skip out on their military service in the old country.  cough. ANTONIO. cough).

i have dual citizenship, which is important to my family heritage as well as in terms of providing work/educational opportunities in the old country.  really, though, as you can tell from my blog, im as canadian as the rest of youse at heart and in practice. 

dual citizenship = still canadian.

got it?

-a

michaelle jean is deserving, yes, but...

when do we get an aboriginal governor general?  it's a symbolic post, and so it would ultimately be little more than a symbolic gesture, but in terms of symbolic gestures, an aboriginal head of state would be significant.  if youre thinking that aboriginals may have reservations regarding representing the crown given history or nationalist sentiments, it's interesting to remember that we've had an acadian gg, as well as an unspoken but all-too-frequently cited "it's quebecs turn, like RIGHT NOW" rule.

as youre likely aware, im in the 'scrap the monarchy' camp seeing as im not english and dont really have any allegiance to the british royal family.  sure, it's part of our heritage, so let's just make our ties to the monarchy history.  they're a family born into their titles in the uk, and we're supposed to invoke them and honour them and use them to imbue parliament with authority because their ancestors helped get people in gear to found the freakin country.  collective ancestral respect?  yeah, whatever. 

i'd be in favour of a republican model where a head of state would be appointed to carry out a largely ceremonial role.  ideally, it would be nice if the head of state could be integrated (and in this case, possibly elected) within an aboriginal self-government model, where royal assent was not necessarily a given.  of course, the aim of this exercise is meaningful aboriginal participation (and not just to make us settlers feel better about ourselves). 

... but do you think belinda's little essay contest doles out the payola for crrrazy ideas like that?  hell no.  ha.