Conservative Stunts
Does Stephen Harper think Canadians are morons? The Conservatives have been stepping up their electioneering for months but Harper wants us to believe he doesn’t actually want an election. Harper would have us believe that a fall election would be forced by the opposition parties, particularly the Liberals. I have news for you Harper, Canadians are not that naive. The Conservatives are obviously manufacturing a crisis so that they can go to the polls at a more convenient time. To say that parliament is dysfunctional and can’t work is ridiculous. What’s even more ridiculous is to blame the opposition. From the day the Cons took power Harper has been behaving as if he has a majority. He should be working with the other parties to find compromises. Harper has had one of the longest lasting minority governments in the history of Canada so obviously something is working. The truth is Harper is a power freak who wants a majority. He should just come clean with the country instead of manufacturing a crisis and hoping Canadians are stupid enough to fall for it.
Tags: campaign, election, Liberals, parliament, Stephen Harper
Quebec and the Olympics
Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois is complaining that Quebec athletes competing at the Olympics can only wave the flag of the country they’re representing and not the flag of their province. Quebec’s Minister of Education, Recreation, and Sports, Michelle Courchesne, responded to those complaints, which the PQ puts forth every two years, by saying “I am very disappointed in the Parti Quebecois, which instead of encouraging (Quebec athletes), wants to politicize the games and provoke a battle of the rags, a battle of the flags.” Now Marois says she’s outraged that Courchesne would compare the province’s flag to a rag. Courchesne later made a statement saying she didn’t mean to call Quebec’s flag a rag, saying she had committed a “lapse.” While I agree that Courchesne’s original comments were poorly worded, I feel I should point out that her words also call the Canadian flag a rag, and I don’t hear anyone squawking like a raped seagull about that!
Personally, I’m getting quite tired of the PQ’s insistence that athletes should be able to wave the provincial flag while representing their country abroad. Why can’t the PQ understand what everyone else in the world seems to understand, that the Olympics are an international competition between countries not provinces?
Marois thinks Quebec Premier Jean Charest should protest the fact that Quebec athletes can’t wave the Quebec flag. He’s obviously not going to do that, so why don’t the athletes who find this offensive take their concerns to the International Olympic Committee? Now, that brings us to the question: Are there any Olympic athletes who have a problem with this? I’ve heard this complaint in years past, and it always comes from the separatist party. I’ve never heard an Olympian from any province, or from any country for that matter, complain that they can’t wave the flag of their choosing. Where are all these upset athletes and why are they staying silent on a matter that is so important to them?
Tags: athletes, flag, Jean Charest, Olympics, Parti Quebecois, Pauline Marois, Quebec
I’m a potty mouth!
I found this while reading someone else’s blog and figured I’d give it a try. I was a little surprised that this site ranked so high. According to the results page my site contains 33% more “cuss words” than all the other sites that took the same test.
My other site, Canada4Life.Ca, has a 8.9% “cuss rate.” That’s 11% less than other websites.
Tags: Canada4Life.Ca, cuss, cuss-o-meter, swearing
Bat-shit crazy!
Bat-shit crazy. That’s the only way to describe Fred Phelps, his family, and their minions at the Westboro Baptist Church. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with this church, they’re famous for their homophobic and sometimes racist hate speech and for praising god for such things as 9/11, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami, the flooding of James Bay in 2005, the Sago mine disaster, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 2008 Myanmar Cyclone, and the deaths of U.S. troops. According to Wikipedia, the church has “71 confirmed members, 60 of whom are related to Phelps through blood or marriage or both.” (Both?!) The church is the registered owner of godhatesfags.com, godhatesamerica.com, godhatescanada.com, godhatesmexico.com, godhatesireland.com, and godhatessweden.com. Seriously, who the fuck hates Sweden? Besides, I thought god was supposed to be loving…
In their latest act of bafoonery the church has planned to picket the funeral of Tim McLean, the man who was brutally murdered aboard a Greyhound bus last week. The church claims that god hates Canada and that the murder of Mr. McLean was “a gift from god.” The group apparently plans to carry signs that say “God hates you,” “God Hates Canada” and “You’re going to hell.” Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the church’s founder says the killing is proof that Canada is a nation of rebels who refuse to obey god, and who will be punished for allowing abortion, homosexuality and adultery. Of course this isn’t the first funeral they’ve chosen to picket. They’ve also picketed at U.S. soldiers’ funerals, gays’ funerals, the funerals of victims of a 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse, and a memorial for victims of the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia.
Don’t get me wrong now, I love free speech as much as the next guy and I fully support Fred’s right to believe whatever crazy shit he wants to believe but when you start protesting at funerals you’ve crossed the line.
