Tag: trump

JOY

It’s hard to find much of that this morning.

The huge snow piles are turning brown, the crocuses are hiding underground, and a super soaker rainstorm is in the forecast. Doug Ford has won permission to dig a billion-dollar tunnel under highgway 401, while he continues to ignore our failing healthcare system. And, after treating President Zelensky like dirt in the oval office, the Orange Guy is treating Canada like dirt with his tariff plans.

How can we find anything to be happy about in all this mess? I think I’ll just give up and cry somewhere in a corner.

No I won’t, and neither will you. We are Canadians and we will deal with this. First we’ll get out our raincoats and clear the catch basins in our streets. Then we’ll send our $200 Ford cheque to a food bank. Finally, we’ll go to No Frills and buy some Miss Vickie’s made-in-Canada potato chips to drink with our glass of Ontario wine.

One activity Peter and I have found helpful during this long winter is getting together with friends and family. We held a family birthday party with lots of laughter and THREE cakes! We hosted a Chinese New Year party where nobody wore kimonos, but we played Rumoli with nickels as bets, and you wouldn’t believe how competitive people were over those nickels. We invited some friends to an Italian lunch and held them all hostage until we served dessert late in the afternoon. Other friends who are neighbours invited us to their place for lunch and we got to walk all the way there!

Being with friends and family is soothing. Even if we talk about the bad stuff going on, it gives us a sense of comfort knowing that others are feeling the same way. Plus, sometimes we get new ideas. Or new slogans. Or new energy.

Another activity is to check out legitimate media sources. Go on a laptop or an Ipad and read some posts by the well-known journalist Heather Cox Richardson. Turn on the TV and watch Saturday Night Live or Bill Mahr ranting on American stations. Listen to the remake of the Gloria Estefan song: I Will Survive! and sing along. Watch the photo diary, Canada the Beautiful, and view gorgeous pictures of places in Canada that look exactly like other beautiful places in the world:

This may look like New Zealand but it’s actually British Columbia

Best of all, we recently put up a Canadian flag in our bathroom window. That way we get to see it often. And feel almost joyful for all the good things we do have.

Sue

PS One more idea: We will definitely Not be watching any orange guy speeches tonight at 8:00.

The Week In Politics

It is tempting to devote a post entirely to politics. There is SO much news these days that one can hardly step away to visit the bathroom without missing another headline.

In just one week Chrystia Freeland started the trend with her bombshell announcement about leaving her position as finance minister. That was followed by Trump taking advantage of our “weakened country” with no finance minister, to harp on tariffs: “I Love that word. T a r i f f s. Doesn’t that have a lovely sound?” Next we had Trudeau choking up on the steps of Rideau Cottage as he announced his decision to step down as Prime Minister. Which brought Trump back again with an even greater threat: to make Canada the 51st state. OMG I am exhausted just writing about it all.

But the week was not over. Not by a long shot. Then we had Jimmy Carter enter the picture, or well actually leave the picture, and tributes from far and wide pouring in about all his accomplishments during his one-term presidency: his kindness, his courage to take on civil rights, his success with the guinea worm disease, his peace-brokering with Egypt and the middle east, and lots more. Carter was a shining star compared to the Other one-term president sitting at the funeral and looking smug, even when other former presidents refused to shake his hand. Reporters were so distracted that nobody even mentioned Melania’s outfit!

Then, flip channel and find all the wannabe Prime Ministers making their case for the vacant position in Canada. And there was Poilievre promoting his strength as a leader. He only stumbled once – when the interviewer asked point blank what he would do about tariffs and Trump’s threats to annex our country. His reply: “Well I am Not Prime Minister yet. Give me a chance and I’ll try to figure it out.”(slightly paraphrased by me).

Meanwhile Rob Ford is making headlines with his plans to co-ordinate the tariff response by the provincial premiers, and trying to look like the leader he never was during the covid healthcare crisis, or the land developers taking over the greenbelt, or the potential loss of the Science Centre and Ontario Place, or the bike-lane fiasco. To name a few examples. Ford is expected to announce a provincial election for mid-February, spending more tax payers’ money before he makes another big goof up.

Then yesterday – the start of another week – did things calm down? Oh no. Now we have Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta Oil Company, and Kevin O’Leary of Dragon’s Den fame and another headline news story that is too tragic to even mention, linking arms and heading to Mara Lago as our what? Ambassadors? Who hired Them to represent our Canadian values?

But none of this is really important. In my mind, the biggest stories right now are the tragic wildfires destroying Los Angeles. No matter what threat a president proposes, or what plans our wannabe leaders have for retaliating, the most important news is how Canada is sending firefighters and “super scoopers” specially-designed to fill up and transport sea water, to help our neighbours fight these devastating fires. Nothing else matters if we don’t have a continent we can live on together.

Sue