Canadian Politics: Boring beyond Belief, or just Dull and Tedious?


caroljane

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REAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR NATIONAL LEADER, US VS CANADA

Extensive study of voter trust in a President or PM yields consistent statistical results:

To be elected President, candidate must

1. Be a believer in an official sect

2. Support traditional family, preferably propped by spouse and kids

3. Um, know a lot about Constitution and be a reckless optimist about future

To be elected PM a candidate must

1. Speak and understand 2 official doublespeak dialects.

2.Be elected as an MP and just wait till party wins power

3.. Demonstrate proper reverence for sacred national ice sport

4.. Be musical. Play an instrument well or truly love some musical form

#4 is not mandatory. Trudeau for example did not play an instrument as far as I know. But PET truly loved classical cellist Liona Boyds musical form, and enjoyed Rostropovic too.

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On a national weekend I am all patriotic and invite you to learn about one reason.

Take a look at Lester Pearson on Wiki. I could say , Lester Pearson built my life. Because of Pearsons actions of medicare, bilinualism and womens commissions, CPP and national emblem, I paid for my education (and eventually paidoff loan!), speak franlais, and now receive a nice sum because of past extensive Canadian employment and elderliness. I increased Canadas population at no cost to my family and was so well treated I overcame postpartum depression.

I could say, Lester Pearson built my life, but of course we only build our own lives. I will say, Mike Pearson knew of a possible or probable me. And so Ive lived in equal opportunity and freedom. Wavin a Maple Leaf.

I dont know about Pearsons abilities on keyboards , but because of sports predominance, our preeminent diplomat ranks as a stellar Canadian PM - and only in 5 years and never a majority!

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It occurs to me, LBJ made similar advances in American life and society as president. But do any American women (or minorities) spontaneously feel and reason about LBJ, as I did about Pearson?

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It occurs to me, LBJ made similar advances in American life and society as president. But do any American women (or minorities) spontaneously feel and reason about LBJ, as I did about Pearson?

Read Robert Caro on LBJ and you will discover what a vicious power grabber he was. His Great Society has been an unmitigated disaster. The "War on Poverty" was lost decades ago.

Head Start shows no difference by the third grade between kids that have been in the Head Start program and kids that have not. <<<<This is a finding that I just discovered this last week. I had always been a supporter of the program.

Adam

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War on Substances does not proceed all so well, also ... a Ronald R initiative I believe.

Ahh the blinded by propaganda guesswork...let's go to the videotape...oops there was none when the marxist progressive Woodrow Wilson started the War on Drugs...

"Although Nixon coined the term "War on Drugs" in 1971, the policies that his administration implemented as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 were a continuation of drug prohibition policies in the U.S., which started in 1914.[9][10] Less well-known today is that the Nixon Administration also repealed the federal 2-10 year mandatory minimum sentences for possession of marijuana and started federal demand reduction programs and drug-treatment programs. Robert DuPont, the "Drug czar" in the Nixon Administration, stated it would be more accurate to say that Nixon ended, rather than launched, the "war on drugs". DuPont also argued that it was the proponents of drug legalization that popularized the term "war on drugs".[12]

The first U.S. law that restricted the distribution and use of certain drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914."

Hmm, let's see Nixon ended the draft, extracted us from a protracted war in South East Asia and began stepping down the mandatory minimum sentences for the possession of "de Ganja."

Your comments madam?

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I stand corrected. Maybe Just Say No Nancy invaded my brainwaves.

Nixon is underrated, I always disliked but always respected and in a way admired your pivotal president. Personality overcame policy for Tricky Dick.

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I stand corrected. Maybe Just Say No Nancy invaded my brainwaves.

Nixon is underrated, I always disliked but always respected and in a way admired your pivotal president. Personality overcame policy for Tricky Dick.

Carol:

Yes, he certainly was a very bad man spying on people and covering up the spying.

I mean he was much worse than Woodrow Wilson who segregated all the Federal Facilities keeping blacks and whites apart. Much worse than Wilson who threw the Suffragettes into the Tombs in New York City where some became so ill that they died.

He was much worse than FDR who rounded up Japanese, Germans and Italians and put them in internment camps indefinitely with no due process or hearings.

He was much worse than John Kennedy who wire tapped, illegally, Martin Luther King's motel rooms to get sexual dirt on him.

He was much worse than Bill Clinton who sexually abused a female intern. Possibly raped another woman. Possibly beat another woman. And certainly had a great pick up line with a state employee when he dropped trouser in his hotel room and demanded that she kiss the misshapened miniature penis that he has, you know the one with the small bend in the middle.

He was much worse than the Peter Principle President that we now have right?

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Now Adam, it is your territory and your scales of justice, I can only look at your leaders from outside,

I only asked you to take a look at one of ours, a contemporary of LBJ (um, no love lost between ) I did enjoy Lyndons colourful injunction to our poor PM --Dont come in etc

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Now Adam, it is your territory and your scales of justice, I can only look at your leaders from outside,

I only asked you to take a look at one of ours, a contemporary of LBJ (um, no love lost between ) I did enjoy Lyndons colourful injunction to our poor PM --Dont come in etc

I know, just practicing my rhetorical style for my stump speaking in this election down here.

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I smell false dichotomy and excluded middle sizzling in the lazy spring air. Damn. Missed a meal again. Always cast the bad character as a demon. Always cast the good character as a good man, but no saint. Turn up all the analogy knobs to favour your side of the argument. Spice heavily with cliche and emotive words. Climb the cherry tree and bring back big juicy ripe ones to illustrate the potency of the data.

Use anachronisms generously to tilt comparisons against historical weighting. If Stalin, Mike Harcourt, Pol Pot too evul, just compare to W.Wilson the Killer. Zoom back and forth up the timeline. Drag up little known facts (and spin 'em hard) irrelevant to the prior point at dispute. Nipple clamps if necessary, but not necessarily nipple clamps. Look, a plane!

Meanwhile, the sad fact of Carol's complete slave-life is revealed. In five years, Pearson's minority government managed the Quiet Revolution aftermath in Quebec, installed Canada's national symbol, sketched wholesale penal and judicial reform and laid it on Trudeau's desk, lost another election, negotiated unified national social program financing that stiffened the Canadian spine and diverted us from another hideous constitutional failure and crisis of federalism. Packaged up all post-war social programmes, added glitter and rhinestones, made them universal to all Canadians, ripped the Crown off our flag, had nap, resigned, collected stamps, wrote trashy memoir of bringing peace and showgirls and blue movies to the Middle East, died. Yawn.

His statue on Parliament Hill resembles Jackie Gleason. I kid you not.

So dare ye mock Vimy, dare ye mock Pearson. His Nobel acknowledgement grew quietly precious to us Canucks, and sealed our armed forces to their fated blue helmets, gave new meaning to our heavy losses in Korea, turned a corner to a newer more inclusive Third Way Myth, pushed, planned, approved and lavishly underwrote the fabulous centenary that was 1967, Expo, profit, pride, strong dollar, silent Yankees, hand off puck and team to sexy Pierre, write dull memoirs, garden, die.

Compare him to Pol Pot and the fiendish LBJ. No matter. He stilled killing in Egypt. He brought pride to our country as peacemakers, putting another brick in our monumental mythic culture. He told LBJ to fuck off in re Vietnam, as he had told Kennedy to fuck right off, and later would instruct Trudeau to continue saying fuck off to the rest of the warriors who wanted to drag Canada into places that would dirty us unduly, and soil us with the stain of Yankee Lackey. Dire socialist windbag in a bowtie? Weak leader? Pushed around by LBJ and the mad circus of raw American interest? Hah.

No to US nukes on Canadian soil. No to a number of annoyed requests for this and that. As he was a very thorough admirer of Eisenhower, he suspected the same plots and interest groups in the giant next door ... he never executed power but by committee and moral suasion. He helped us see that mild and obstinate clerks for justice could move a nation far ... dull, plodding Pearson, dire socialist windbag. Here's your fucking airport and statue, let us mock you, O dull Mike.

Of course we Zombie Canuckis will have many dire socialist windbag non-entity Ralph Kramdens like Pearson, who loved guns in a case on the wall with the key in his pocket. And we Zombies love them like socialist living dead are trained to do. But when you kick at our Ralph, you kick at the dull plodding beaver within zombie culture. That vengeful, cunning staple of horror movies: the insulted silent swimming zombie beaver, the piranha of the north ... you thought his gang was dead but they have gnawed their way to the fifteenth floor to kill you tonight.

Pearson. Pearson is not negotiable. Keep this peaceful and keep Laura Secord where she belongs -- as mythical sponsor of a major chocolate line, not as Heavy Cannon in the War between cousins.

Peace, Adam. Peace. Order. Good government. Pearson. Hiss boom bah.

Edited by william.scherk
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Well done William.

Well done.

I love to start the day with a good laugh.

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Adam

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You reproduced my left eye witout permission! Send money.

A closer analysis would establish that it is your right eye...and you should see the other pictures that I have...I know you want to forget that weekend...

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You reproduced my left eye witout permission! Send money.

A closer analysis would establish that it is your right eye...and you should see the other pictures that I have...I know you want to forget that weekend...

You reproduced my left eye witout permission! Send money.

A closer analysis would establish that it is your right eye...and you should see the other pictures that I have...I know you want to forget that weekend...

lol I took pics too - but you of course would likely flaunt instead of conceal..extremitism is no vice to Colonel Brazen.

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Of Pearsons 5 years. so momentous for my future life, I remember little of political debate except for nukes (we discussed in Current Events class) and Red Ensin/Maple Leaf (wildfire all over town).

In our family Dad was quietly pro new emblem. Stuart matriarc and formidable stepma Lib was loudly pro Union Jack. Late beloved Stillman was encasketed under Union Jack, end of story. Aunts were on side of Dad but did not dare say so. My traditionalist Ma was torn - Da Farnam took opposite side to everybody, just to be ornery - uncles did not care and just wanted peace and quiet.

j

Resurface in 1984, Lib told funeral director to put Union Jack on my dads casket, and it was my task to countermand as instructed by Ma. I was never really pardoned.

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Well done William.

Well done.

I love to start the day with a good laugh.

Thanks in turn. You are kind to allow me to get away with verbal murder -- taking your rather mild comments and constructing a vast diatribe to counter it. As you know, I write for my own pleasures foremost, but before that I need a goad or a stimulus of some kind. In this case, I must thank you (and invisible others) for the instigation, the incitement and the initial grinding surge in my mental turbines.

I do not always know where my words are going after the turbines begin to throb, so ... I appreciate the good humour. Three times this month I have risen to my hind legs, fangs bared, after rather benign 'provocations' on your part.

Here in the above, I was also addressing a species of fallacy first, embedded in my attention to the Syrian civil conflict, competing narratives, and blank, staring, odious ignorance. Objectivish things (and you, Adam) are the salt on my jumbled word salad.

So for the opportunity to lay some words in a row, thanks again.

Here is the latest from the brick works, addressed to someone who mistook me for LBJ:

I understand a difference in opinion, interpretation or stance (political), and understand that bias is often undetectable by normal means in analyses. But this goes both ways, no? If one can dismiss the perspective of the Other as part of a murky prejudgement process by which the Other has corrupt perceptions, does this not excuse and absolve us from examining our own biases in turn?

To my eyes, the Otherizing of those who hold to a different stance does no good work. Otherizing and subtly denigrating 'Western' voices does no good work. So, the 'Bill blah never blah US war blah,' this kind of discourse baffles me. It leads to the same cul-de-sac of righteousness as any Otherizing process, to my mind, and so obscures what may be at issue.

Often we agree so much more, on so many fronts, with the Other, once we note the Other is a real person, with real human qualities, not a cut-out, not an exemplar, not a symbol of perfidy or ignorance. Classing disagreements with Ignorance or Naivety is no help in uncovering a common goal, tool or road forward. How we each of us deal with disagreements is reflected in our ability to resolve them on a larger scale.

These are serious questions, but I do not accuse. I only wonder, as always, about the scope of argument. Here in this thread the Failing-West argument's conclusion seems assumed in its premises, and we know that this is the road to fallacy. By scope I mean the range of view of information under discussion, its width and breadth and density and comprehensiveness of data.

It is a feature of my own biases that I want to raise questions about the scope and clarity of vision we need to achieve agreements and conciliate differences.

In this view, there is no monolithic West, just like there is no Monolithic Syria, and it does understanding no good to assume facts not in evidence.

Thus, I would, if this were a seminar and not a social media Wall of Blurts, examine the premises undergirding your messages. For example, the contrast between a rising Russia/China and a staggering West is drawn with the phrase "a Capitalist Russia & China that have surpluses and a functioning system versus the red ink and collapsing institutions in the west be it medicare/aid or social security."

This is debatable, and should be debatable, and in a seminar I would take this line to its end. I believe it is mistaken as analysis. But to proceed with discussion I should accept your mistaken impressions as the baseline of reality? I think not.

As for my opinions on the USA and its military culture and its chauvinism and belligerence and its failed strategic goals ... read or view my article on this point here:

This is lyrical and slightly crazed in tone (due to its environment in discussion, at the second link), but it stresses multiple themes that I have been hammering on for a couple of weeks: Myth, war, peace, government, power, bias, prejudice and the power of good ideas ...freedom and regime of civil rights and protection of minorities. The named Pearson is Lester B Pearson, who was for five years Prime Minister of Canada. He was quiet, wore a bow-tie, and deeply rankled power in the USA during his two minority government terms.

Pearson did an enormous amount of quiet consensus work in his time leading Cabinet, and he firmed up a line between Canada, loyal ally, and Canada, lap-dancer to American Military Command.

In the rest of the world he would only be known, if known at all, as the Canadian who first received a Nobel Peace Prize (for his work to defuse the Suez crisis).

PS -- every once it a while it bears mentioning that we live in multiple dimensions, and remain individual at all times (with the exception of the twins who share some cortex). We measure ourselves left, right, up, down, top, bottom, in, out, past, future, present, dreams and fantasies of revenge and murder, most of us.

If we are multidimensional beings, how austere and corrupt is any intellectual regime that forces us between two plates, as a specimen under harsh light and pre-concluded interrogation, with only bad/worst on X and Wrong/Wronger on Y. I am not LBJ, I am not Canada, I am not Socialism, I am individual. If you mock me or my friends in myth, I will uncap the fangs and bite your generalization to death.

Edited by william.scherk
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So well told, as always.

More reminiscence from Pearson years (recently recovered). I said Current Events class, I meant Club. Mr McOwen (trades instructor carpentry auto repair and soccer admin) was a political junkie (Can/US) , little scope w/peers so started club. I was juniorest member, it was terrific fun and informative, I only saw later. Of course we became insufferable knowitall pains in our families and Mr McO received a few complaints. A lot actually.

Aaa, current events club - so many cute senior boys, so few female analysts...

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I am busy this afternoon with a friend who last saw me thirty years ago.

Today we are giving each other instant facelifts for a new Bill's Morning Makeup Tips (video). Finally.

I took her to the Old Folks and introduced her to a couple of third floor cronies, "This is Cindi. She is my friend. I haven't seen her in thirty-seven years. I brought her here because I don't have any other friends." Much hilarity ensued, and the Insta-lift Idea was born again (seen first in a Parade Magazine article in some long-forgotten bathroom, wherein a lady of the certain age had elastics and invisible tape cinched tight against her scalp).

Cindi and I today will discuss marketing and a business plan for an extension of this idea, the Popeel Pinch-N-Cinch one-size-fits-all, fits-under-your-wig, 5 Second Facelift. May be available at Canadian Tire and a Monday Morning near you. For those of a certain age, as they say, omitting the danged measurement entirely.

Cindi and I met in Drama, with obvious implications for show business in White Rock.

I shall return and ignite the turbines later ... watch out for falling fallacies.

Edited by william.scherk
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I am busy this afternoon with a friend who last saw me thirty years ago.

Today we are giving each other instant facelifts for a new Bill's Morning Makeup Tips (video). Finally.

I took her to the Old Folks and introduced her to a couple of third floor cronies, "This is Cindi. She is my friend. I haven't seen her in thirty-seven years. I brought her here because I don't have any other friends." Much hilarity ensued, and the Insta-lift Idea was born again (seen first in a Parade Magazine article in some long-forgotten bathroom, wherein a lady of the certain age had elastics and invisible tape cinched tight against her scalp).

Cindi and I today will discuss marketing and a business plan for an extension of this idea, the Popeel Pinch-N-Cinch one-size-fits-all, fits-under-your-wig, 5 Second Facelift. May be available at Canadian Tire and a Monday Morning near you. For those of a certain age, as they say, omitting the danged measurement entirely.

Cindi and I met in Drama, with obvious implications for show business in White Rock.

I shall return and ignite the turbines later ... watch out for falling fallacies.

I am busy this afternoon with a friend who last saw me thirty years ago.

Today we are giving each other instant facelifts for a new Bill's Morning Makeup Tips (video). Finally.

I took her to the Old Folks and introduced her to a couple of third floor cronies, "This is Cindi. She is my friend. I haven't seen her in thirty-seven years. I brought her here because I don't have any other friends." Much hilarity ensued, and the Insta-lift Idea was born again (seen first in a Parade Magazine article in some long-forgotten bathroom, wherein a lady of the certain age had elastics and invisible tape cinched tight against her scalp).

Cindi and I today will discuss marketing and a business plan for an extension of this idea, the Popeel Pinch-N-Cinch one-size-fits-all, fits-under-your-wig, 5 Second Facelift. May be available at Canadian Tire and a Monday Morning near you. For those of a certain age, as they say, omitting the danged measurement entirely.

Cindi and I met in Drama, with obvious implications for show business in White Rock.

I shall return and ignite the turbines later ... watch out for falling fallacies.

Yayyy! Dollar Store bandaids are no damn use. I will pay top loonie.

Cindi! If Drama was like Current Events, let us all bless Lester Bowles.

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I need to add, my first job out of university was a previously (Employment -Male) one due to events set in motion by our Mike. I was no worse at my job but not appreciably better, compared to predecessors I was told about.

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