Musings —02.12.2016 10:13 AM
—Sometimes, in my old age, I get tired of facile B.S. (updated)
Canada is us, the people. Canada is not governments. Stop saying "Canada is back." We, Canada, never left. #cdnpoli
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 12, 2016
UPDATE: Oh, and guess who said it first, on July 1, 2006? That’s right: one Stephen Joseph Harper.
You’re right. Let’s all stop this nonsense and concentrate on making Canada great again!
Yep.
It just reeks of that old Liberal arrogance. Canada is a country unless they’re in charge don’t ya know.
In fairness, that bullshit has only been spewing from a few Linerals mouths. Unfortunately those mouths are attached to the prime minister and a good chunk of his cabinet.
Off topic:
You think it was a mistake for Trudeau to stick his nose into the Whitby-Oshawa provincial by-election?
Should have read Canada isn’t a country unless they’re in charge
Conservatives and New Democrats do the same crap. “Our values are Canadians’ values,” etc. etc. It’s pathetic.
Fair point
So do their supporters in the blogosphere and Twitterverse. My favourite all-purpose rhetorical pabulum, suitable for all political persuasions, is “This used to be a great country, but now it’s going down the tubes and nobody cares.”
Bingo. I understand political rhetoric is overblown – I’ve written plenty of it myself, over the years – but this particular example has been going on a bit too long. Need some new wordsmithing.
How about “Canada’s New Government” 🙂
During his first Canada Day speech, Harper also said, “Ladies and gentlemen…Canada’s back.”
It was horrible then, and it’s horrible now.
Didn’t know that. Got link?
I would suggest closing comments on this thread. Scott apparently has a third hand anecdote that has settled the question.
New wordsmithing, eh? How about “Canada is the new black”?
Like.
Lyndon:
Shorter Scott: “Harper…CPC…cons…stupid…crooks…bigots…idiots…cheats…see you all again tomorrow.”
Scott – in fact, your wife’s old Italian godmother was reacting to the fact that Tim Horton’s discontinued the Dutchie. BTW, Evil Lord Harper had nothing to do with that decision by Tim Horton’s management.
What’s really funny is that as of 12 noon today, CBC still hasn’t published a story on the results in the bye-election. And yet its they and others like them, who are complaining about the loss of viewership etc. Case in point, I was up at 6 am, turned on the ‘puter and had the results from FB, Google and Yahoo immediately.
Our tax dollars at work indeed.
As for Trudeau going in there, he owed Wynne and no doubt was almost forced to do it.
Sorry, doesn’t fit with the Liberal partisan hack narrative that we’re all Liberals now. Haven’t you heard? Canada’s back!
Amen!
Thank you Warren perfectly stated. Liberal or Conservative you have to agree Canada didn’t disappear the last ten years nor it did recently.
If you venture away from web pages and the comment sections of most opinion pieces most Canadians hardly ever say things like that.
We are proud to be Canadian and frustrated at mistakes made by the government of the day.
I remember something you said about 10 years ago Mr Kinsella, about Mr Harpers first win, para phrasing here but something to the effect that “relax everyone, Canada will be fine with this new Conservative government”.
That stuck with me. I was then helping Cheryl Gallant and was disturbed at the number of people that actually thought I would support or help a party that was, as they saw it, determined to destroy our country.
I obviously do not support the new Liberal government and am disheartened at some of the new policy’s, however, I am impressed with the talent in the Cabinet and trust that “Canada will be fine with this new government”.
Isn’t it ironic how much both the Conservatives and the Liberals need each other, and, just how great of a Country we’ve created bouncing back and forth between them.
Halle-freaking-lujah!
There are times the 140-character Twitter world says it all.
Cheers,
Bill
Canada is a great country, has always been a great country and always will be a great country, regardless of politicians . It’s the people not the politicians that make it that way. Politicians will always be small blip on the radar, a footnote to the greatness of our country, they do not determine who and what we are, we do. That is why we are always scored one of the greatest places to live.
We need to get over our collective February blahs. After all, we live in the best country in the world!
For example, politicians, and media pundits, who begin by saying that ‘British Columbians do not want….’ or ‘Canadians want an end to …’
A cousin to this is, ‘Here is the reality…’ and ‘Here are the facts…’
I had a bit of fibrillation when I heard the present prime minister repeating the word, ‘Obviously.’ I thought the previous prime minister had a patent on that word’s use.
Comes the revolution, all that will change.
(Cole Porter song from the 30’s was, ‘Comes the revolution , we will all eat cake.’)
If Paul Wells is to be believed Ban Ki Moon used that exact phrase today while meeting with Trudeau. Not exactly diplomatic language, and I can’t see it endearing the UN to non-Liberals.
Thank you Mr. Kinsella.
Although I’m not a Liberal I appreciate your honesty in speaking the truth on such things (like electoral reform without a referendum/constitutional amendment).
As a non-Liberal, when I hear the PM say that I feel like a second-class citizen who is valued less by him. The PM is supposed to represent all Canadians.
However, with Harper’s government gone, I will once again proudly fly a Canadian flag on my fence this July for the first time in 10 years. I just didn’t like those guys or their concept of a country. Just the way I feel folks and as the Romans used to say ” De Res Gestibus non disputandem est”.
What a shock.
Thank God. I thought I was the only one.
That was a good tweet.
That’s clearly not what Trudeau was implying. He wasn’t talking about governments, at all. He was talking about a breaking with the last 10 years of a country left rudderless while a band of misfits used the levers of power to engage in objectively damaging activities and crass party propaganda that neared Soviet levels of hamfistedness.
As for governments, the role of government is to manage the distribution of power in society, enabling equal agency, which makes freedom for all citizens possible in a practical sense (sorry it’s first responsibility is not to “keep Canadian’s safe”. Keeping the public safe is ONE OF the ways in which the government manages power distributions.)
In this role, Harper failed utterly. He helped concentrate more power in the hands of those who already have most of the money, weakening democracy, and he made life objectively more dangerous for Canadians at home and abroad, thanks to idiotic foreign policy positions.
The miracle of Canada is that it makes it possible for the most diverse group of citizens on earth to live peacefully and (mostly) prosper (though we have far too much poverty, which is why the current rumblings of a minimum income program are encouraging, as is the plan for a fair electoral system which will even out the power distributions at the political level.)
HDS
Sure sure. And Trudeau hates our troops.
Where is Harper anyway ? Hiding ?
Some things never change.
HDS x 2
the role of government is to manage the distribution of power in society, enabling equal agency…
Let’s have a contest to guess the authority for that. The choices are:
a) the Magna Carta;
b) the B.N.A. Act;
c) The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; or
d) Kelly’s local revolutionary commune and book club.
I think the ‘I want my country back’ was started by Idle No More.
I disagree. Canadians might go nowhere(but they do travel and hear back from other people)
and Canadians might not be represented accurately by their govt ( think Harper and many of the policies)
BUT we are completely ruled for 4 yrs by the govt decisions and those decisions affect us, other nations and are reflected in the worldwide media.
So we cant have it both ways, we cant have the conservatives complain about PM selfie embarrassing them on the world stage, and not accept that PM HARPER and his behaviour on the global stage was a negative representation of us as CANADA.
So when a progressive PM comes back to power and implements changes in the first few weeks that made many folks (progressives) happy they might feel a returning of a country they can be proud of.( think Syrian refugees)
Liberals tend to subscribe to this idiotic myth that Canada is some big deal in the world. We’re not. Those of us who actually spend time abroad and aren’t partisan wankers realize that. We’re insignificant, and most foreigners never think about us or care about us. Get over yourselves.
Couldn’t agree more. And please stop sewing Canadian flags on your luggage – it’s embarrassing to the rest of us.
You guys remind me of the self-loathing Canadian columnists who used to write in the National Post during the Conrad Black era…but look where they got the company. Free markets suck, don’t they?
As for the flags, no worries there. Thanks to misguided Conservative policies that turned us into American waterboys, it is now dangerous to wear a Canadian flag in many parts of the world. Maybe that was the idea. I don’t know.
I like my country and I know how fortunate I am to have born here but as soon as you leave our borders you quickly find out how little the rest of the world thinks of us. Not that they dislike us – they just rarely think about us one way or the other. And the Canadian flag on the backpack thing – it’s just silly.
Bingo.
Kelly, I love my country as much as anyone. But I don’t have a delusional, ridiculously inflated sense of Canada’s importance in the world. I guess that’s too complex a distinction for you to grasp.
You can go for days or weeks overseas without Canada being mentioned in the newspapers or the news. The fact that I grasp this reality, and you apparently don’t, has nothing to do with our comparative affection for our home country.
Ok Scott, whenever Liberals are in power, Canada strides the world like a giant, is ceaselessly talked about in the newspapers and salons of Europe and is universally admired. But as soon as Conservatives are in power, we are immediately transformed into pipsqueaks whom nobody in the world ever notices or talks about — except when they express hatred for us. Don’t Stop Believin’.
There was a time under the Liberals and even under the Mulrony Conservatives when in international affairs Canada was seen as an honest broker. Other countries would do what was based on their interest or their ideology, but Canada did what was right.
Other countries would do what was based on their interest or their ideology, but Canada did what was right.
Yes, we’re a bunch of Dudley Do-Rights, aren’t we? That is so incredibly cringeworthy. Do you recommend we say that to people from other countries or should we adore ourselves privately?
“Canada is back” is about as inane as “Its 2015”. A sharper reporter might have asked if there was a month he had in mind that sealed the importance of 2015 over all other years to settling the make-up of cabinet. I would borrow (and torture) an old canon of common law “Canada and the PM (Justin) are one…and the one is the PM”. he now wants the next GG to “reflect Canada”. I would not want my doctor, dentist or lawyer to “reflect Canada” above their attributes to carry out their tasks.
Where were you when your former boss went around the country telling crowds that Conservatives lacked “Canadian values”? About as stupid a line as the “Canada is back” nonsense. Conservatives are Canadian too therefore their values are Canadian.