Filed under: Great White North | War on Terror |

Imagine that: 14,500 Canadian citizens apply for positions at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, their version of the CIA. Where are all the protesters, eh?
Of these, 100 are hired, and are “on probation” for five years, then they are deployed to various assignments. The CSIS listed a number of possible reasons for the growing influx of candidates, not the least of which is Canadian Patriotism, eh.
I would also think another reason for this surge is due to the support coming from the Conservative Government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who’s willing to say “Ready, Aye! Ready” once again. Just as the UK might be dropping from the scene with the descent of Tony Blair, which sucks, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

WOW! A town which publicly publishes its codes and standards, and sends to potential immigrants to read before they move there! Since this story broke four days ago, the town, located just under 200 kilometers north of Montréal, has received over 2,000 e-mails, 99% in support of the initiative. Here are some of the codes and standards listed in the pamphlet, eh:

- It is forbidden to stone women, burn them alive, throw acid on them or circumcise girls.
- Consumption of alcohol is common in Herouxville, as is dancing. “At the end of every year, we decorate a tree with balls and tinsel and some lights. This is normally called ‘Christmas decorations’ or also ‘Christmas tree.’ “
- Boys and girls swim together in public pools.
- Veils are not welcome. “The only time you may mask or cover your face is during Halloween.”

Take THAT, multi-cultural enthusiasts. There’s more...lots more, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

Lots of countries have stupid laws. Here’s one from Canada, eh.
There’s an estimated group of 10,000 to 20,000 Canadians who have been Canadians for many, many years, and some nearly all their lives. Then they find out when they’re applying for Canadian passports for travel to the USA that since they spent their 24th birthday outside Canada, and didn’t submit a proper notification that they were outside Canada, according to an obscure provision in Canada’s Citizenship Law which applied from 1947 to 1977...these people lost their Canadian citizenship, eh.
So they have to reapply as (get this) “landed immigrants” just to start all over again. And they were apparently never told to submit the forms. What a bunch of bulls**t, eh.
Fortunately, the Canadian Government realized this foobar and has accelerated the process for these “Lost Canadians” to just eight months, down from three years. They could always make it faster: if the House of Commons just automatically reinstated their Canadian citizenship immediately, that would be the Right Thing to do. Then again, they have to feed that giant bureaucratic monster on Parliament Hill, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

Well well well! Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the rest of the Tories (I’ll bet!) have finally gotten tired of the Bloc Québecois’ bulls**t game of whining and moaning about their status within Canadian society, so he proposed a motion to recognize Quebec’s unique status as “a nation within a united Canada,” eh:

“For (the Bloc), ‘nation’ means separation,” Harper said.
“Quebecers have always played a historic role in advancing Canada with solidarity, courage, and vision, and to build a confident Quebec, an independent Quebec that’s proud and has solidarity within a strong and united Canada, an independent and free Canada,” he said.
“Do Quebecers form a nation within a united Canada? The answer is yes. Do Quebecers form an independent nation from Canada? The answer is no, and it will always be no.”

Hear Hear! Truer words were never spoken. Now the BQ (and also many Quebecers) will have to change their trousers to the brown color, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

“O Can-ni-bus…
Our home-grown native plaaaaant!”

The origin of this parody for the Canadian National Anthem stems back to the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, when Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won a Gold Medal and then tested positive for marijuana use and was subsequently disqualified. He eventually got the Gold Medal back, eh.
Anyway, little did I know I’d be using this parody time and time again. This time for two Canadian university professors who have won the right to toke it up in a private room so they can continue to function at their jobs. What, as if university profs everywhere don’t use the stuff on an ongoing basis, eh.
Way down at the bottom of this story is this paragraph:

The government grows the drug in an abandoned salt mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba, and sells it to authorized users at C$5 ($4.40) a gram.

Now I ask you, is my parody appropriate or not, eh.

Filed under: Entertainment | Great White North |

And it’s raining outside....
One album which I listened to death to when I was living in Chicago (see, back in 1979, it had not yet become the Народный Социалистический Город-Государство Чикага*) and was going to college at DeVry (before it became DeVry University) was Rush’s ”Hemispheres," the follow-up to their 1977 hit “A Farewell To Kings.” I decided to download it tonight from iTunes and savor my younger days.
WOW! I had forgotten how driving their music was back then. It kicked serious a** back in 1979, and it still kicks a** today! I know my college buddy John, who introduced me to Rush back then, would get a kick out of hearing this again.
I kinda wonder what Rush’s modern music is like, now. So if there are any Rush Fans out there, let me know where I can start. Thanks!

* - People’s Socialist City-State of Chicago

Filed under: Great White North |

Just as here in the US of A where the Donks hate President Bush just for the sake of hating him, the el cubos in Canada can’t stand the idea of having a responsible Tory government running things. So they wave the “Big Brother Is Watching YOU” meme in front of our faces. But I have to admit this parody is pretty funny, eh.
Remember, this is only a parody, eh.

Filed under: Great White North | The UN |

Yesterday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan rebuked Israel for bombing a UN outpost which resulted in the death of four peacekeepers(?). Yet, twice in the following day (that’s today), two Canadians called bulls**t on Annan’s allegation: one a retired general of the Canadian Armed Forces, the other is Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Wow! 28 years of UN bulls**t blown up in two monster smackdowns. By Canadians no less, eh. And here’s a third group to call bulls**t...introducing the BS Quartet! Click to play (WARNING! NSFW!).

---

UPDATE (1910 MST): And that’s not all, folks! Wait till you see the Flags of Complicity over at Small Dead Animals (a Canadian blog). If that doesn’t show just how useless the UN has become, I don’t know what will. 

Filed under: Great White North |

If Shrillary runs for President (and despite her statements to the contrary, I strongly believe that she will), one issue which might galvanize voters against her is her husband’s skirt-chasing ways. This news story from the First Post (in the UK) certainly won’t help. According to the report, Bill is hooking up with the aisle-crossing member of the Canadian House of Commons, Belinda Stronach.
Some things never change. I have always held the opinion that Bill and Shrillary’s marriage was one of political convenience, so much so that Chelsea was conceived under those auspices. No wonder Europeans love the Clintons; their scandals remind those across the Pond of their very own politicians.

Filed under: Great White North |

Three Cheers for the RCMP as they get their men...in this case, homegrown Islamic terrorists plotting some type of attack or attacks against Canadian institutions. The story broke yesterday when 12 men and 5 teenagers were arrested in the Greater Toronto Area with 3 TONS of ammonium nitrate! It only took 1 ton of that stuff to bring down the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City back in 1995, eh.
And it looks like there’s an American connection, where 2 suspected terrorists from Georgia also visited the GTA cell prior to its breakup by a combination of elements from the RCMP , CSIS (the Canadian equivalent of No Such Agency), and Canada’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. And of course, the families and the imams of the accused, whined and seethed when the suspects appeared in court, eh:

Alvin Chand, brother of Toronto suspect Steven Vikash Chand, scoffed at the charges outside the courthouse as several officers held surveillance positions on surrounding rooftops and a helicopter circled.
“He’s not a terrorist, come on, he’s a Canadian citizen,” Chand said of his brother. “The people that were arrested are good people. They go to the mosque. They go to school, go to college.”
Aly Hindy, an imam at the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in east-end Toronto, said the centre’s mosque had been monitored by security agencies for years. He said Muslims were once again being falsely accused.
“It’s not terrorism. It could be some criminal activity with a few guys, that’s all,” said Hindy.
“We are the ones always accused.”

If that’s the case, then why aren’t you turning these guys in yourselves? I’ll tell you why...it’s because you support their cause! Until the 1.3 billion (give or take a few hundred million) “peaceful” Muslims expel their “extreme” members who espouse jihad, then I and many of my fellow citizens, as well as our good friends in Canada, simply will not believe you, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

“O Can-ni-bus…
Our home-grown native plaaaaant!”

Fortunately, the government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided not to renew legislation to legalize marijuana in Canada. The legislation was introduced by the previous government, led by the Liberals. This decision will affect sales of munchies throughout that country, eh.
On the other hand, it will likely renew the cops’ (and the Mounties‘) fervor to hunt down those people growing BC Bud, and the stock value of Tim Hortons will increase as well (remember the legend of cops and donuts!). Soon, we’ll hear the following emanating from the north, eh:

“O Canada,
We Stand On Guard For Thee!”

Filed under: Great White North |

Imagine Canada and Ukraine (NO, it’s not the Ukraine, it’s just Ukraine..yes I’m picky tonight!) taking to the stars instead of the USA and China...and instead of ”Firefly," you get ”Mosquito." Hey it was bound to happen, eh.

HAT TIP: Hud’s Blog-O-Rama

Filed under: Great White North |

Canada gets a Conservative government for the first time in over 12 years. With things such as the aftermath of Adscam, the dilapidation of the Canadian Forces, the mounting strain on their single-payer health care system, etc., Stephen Harper and the Tories have their work cut out for them, eh.
One thing I must add: it was nice to work during the day yesterday and not have to worry about exit polls, preliminary results, and the like. That’s because under Canadian Law, the news organizations could not report on election results of any type until the last polls were closed in British Columbia and the Yukon Territory at 7:00 PM Pacific Time (10:00 PM Eastern). That meant I could come home, sit down, get dinner, and view the results like everyone else at the same time, eh.
And another thing: all around the world, it’s being reported as a shocking victory. BULL-S**T! Most MSM outlets didn’t even bother to cover the election, especially here in the United States, which meant if you wanted to get reports about it, you had to go through the blogosphere to find out. If anything, Harper’s vow to restore good relations with the USA in general, and President Bush in particular, will instill more hope amongst those Americans who value the friendship we have forged with Canada over the years, and once again, we will hear the words ”Ready, Aye! Ready!” on the world stage, eh.
The breakdown: For the incoming 308-seat House of Commons, the Conservatives won 124 seats (with major gains in Ontario and Québéc), followed by the Liberals (now the official opposition) with 103, the Bloc Québécois 51 (the most likely coalition partner for the Tories), New Democrats 29 (their ten-seat gain came at the expense of the Liberals), and 1 Independent. It was feared by some Canadian pundits that the Liberals could try to form a coalition with the NDP to prevent Harper from forming a government, but that is not going to happen, as they do not have enough seats. That means the balance of power belongs to the BQ, who seem willing to cut Harper some slack, eh.

Filed under: Great White North |

I’m sure most of you who read this blog have some friends and/or relatives who live in Canada, and they all get to vote tomorrow in the Federal Election. What a choice they have, eh.
My doctor holds multiple citizenships besides American. He was born in the UK and raised in Canada, and he has multiple ethnic ties to other European countries as well. He’s been here in Arizona since the early 1990s because he knew he didn’t want to work for the Canadian government. I am actually able to shoot some breeze with him, and I think he’s genuinely amazed that I know something about Canadian politics, so I don’t think he’d mind if I shared his prediction about tomorrow, with which I mostly agree, eh.
He believes that the most likely outcome of tomorrow’s election will be another minority government, but this time, it would be led by the Conservatives, with backing from (of all groups) the Bloc Québécois. To me, that seems an unholy alliance, because the BQ stands for Québéc seperatism. Although Tory leader Stephen Harper has pledged to give greater respect to the provinces, he’ll have to cut some deals with the Bloc, because it is inevitable that they will try to hold another referendum to break away from Canada. If it should ever succeed, it would mean the end of Canada as we know it, eh.
And one day out, although there has been considerable blogging regarding recent Liberal Party scandals, most notably over at Captain’s Quarters, and a lot of Canadian bloggers are expressing their utter contempt for the 12 years the Liberals have been in power, we still don’t know the full extent of the dissatisfaction the Canadian Electorate holds. We’ll all find out tomorrow evening which Canada they will choose, eh. 

Filed under: Great White North |

If there are any Canadian readers out there, can you please explain to me where the Liberal Party got the nickname “Grits,” like the Conservatives have “Tories?” Thank you. Now on to the matter at hand, eh.
Yes, there is another sign generator out there for the occasion of the Canadian Federal Election! I discovered it over at Small Dead Animals, a Canadian blog, so I decided to give it a try. Here are the results, eh:

Now to be fair, I wonder if they’ll have an equivalent sign for the Tories, eh.