As I said in yesterday’s post, when I first saw the Canadian, Please video my reaction was what the fuck?! My second reaction was that it was going to drive the right whingers bonkers as they sneered contemptuously at the Canadian leftards for not thinking that killing Moooslims and working to keep dark skinned furriners out of our country was what they should be singing about.
Since then I’ve watched the video a few more times and something began to tug at the edge of my consciousness as I did. This morning I watched it again and I think I’ve figured out what is so compelling about it. Canadians have wrestled with the question of what it means to be Canadian for quite some time now and the video directly addresses that question.
The upbeat tempo and satirical approach encapsulates our deeply held desire to be the fun loving kid on the block that harbours no malice toward anyone. It speaks directly to our fierce but shallow Canadian pride that we don’t take seriously. It demonstrates the love we have for our national icons but at the same time demonstrates that they are not vital to our essence as a people. It teases out our flaws; our insecurity, our confused national identity and our often times naive view of the world around us. But at the same time it boasts of our strengths; our desire to get along, our determined purpose and our ability to see the good around us.
In short, this charming little two and a half minute video proficiently captures the zeitgeist of a nation and says this is what it means to be Canadian.
You’re first reaction to this will probably be the same as mine; which was what the fuck?! But listen to the lyrics. They’re going to drive the right whingers bonkers. So I love it.
“We are a multicultural nation; we are proud of the fact that we are made up and built from people from all countries, including the Jewish people.”–Stockwell Day.
That’s really going to piss off the knuckledraggers.
Well I seem to have drawn the ire of a couple of feminists in one of my earlier posts today by commenting that their defeat on the backdoor abortion bill was actually good for them.
The undeniable fact is that Canada’s feminist movement is weak as evidenced by the socon juggernaut plowing through their ranks ever since Harper took over the reigns of power. On issue after issue, be it funding for the SWC or the Court Challenges Program, they’ve been swept aside in defeat.
These defeats should have opened the eyes of feminists to just how pitiful their movement has become. But they didn’t. Nor has their latest defeat. The two feminists I’ve been arguing with–and a lot of others I’ve been reading over the past two days–seem to think a past victory on abortion should have settled the issue once and for all and it’s simply unfair that they should have to fight it again.
They simply have no idea how ineffectual their movement is and how unprepared it is to fight this battle. Consider the following for example. Unrepentant Old Hippie posted this just yesterday after the vote on Bill C-484.
Let the asskicking begin
There are 27 Liberal MPs who need to have their treacherous asses kicked all over Parliament Hill, those who voted for that despicable travesty of a Bill C-484:…Dan McTeague
And this post from today shows how that asskicking is progressing.
Praise for Dan McTeague
Ouch! I doubt Dan will be able to sit for a week after that asskicking.
Here lies the problem. The supporters are not on the same page. Calgary Grit is a progressive Liberal but I doubt it even entered into his mind when he wrote his post that McTeague is on the wrong side of this very important fight. And without the Calgary Grits of the country solidly lined up behind them, the feminist movement is certain to suffer defeat after defeat.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that this latest defeat is exactly what the feminist movement needed. It should serve as a catalyst for the movement to rebuild itself so it can effectively fight the many battles that lie ahead. The only question is whether or not they’ll put their delusions aside long enough to recognize it.
Exactly how are immigrants to Canada supposed to fully adapt to Canadian culture when native born Canadians can’t even reach an agreement on what defines Canadian culture?
While the United States Congress turns up its nose at immigration reform, Canada is poised to start negotiations that would bring even more Mexican workers into this country.
An agreement to strike a commission into increased labour mobility is expected to be among the key accomplishments connected with next week’s summit of North American leaders in Montebello, Que…
Canada currently takes in 12,000 Mexican workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, but is examining ways it could bring in even more people to fill low-or semi-skilled jobs. There has also been talk about more mobility for energy workers, especially for Alberta.
Canada is ranked No. 1 in a new world popularity poll that looked at attitudes toward 12 major nations.
I’m sure that will change under the leadership of PMS. But I wonder who number 12 was.
Israel received the worst rating of the group.
Sucks to be you. Maybe if they grew up they wouldn’t keep coming in last.
But the State of Israel remains curiously (and among Western-style democracies, uniquely) immature. The social transformations of the country - and its many economic achievements - have not brought the political wisdom that usually accompanies age. Seen from the outside, Israel still comports itself like an adolescent: consumed by a brittle confidence in its own uniqueness; certain that no one “understands” it and everyone is “against” it; full of wounded self-esteem, quick to take offense and quick to give it. Like many adolescents Israel is convinced - and makes a point of aggressively and repeatedly asserting - that it can do as it wishes, that its actions carry no consequences and that it is immortal.
Read the rest. It really gets to the heart of Israel’s problems.
Update: No doubt this too has something to do with why Israel is so unpopular.
Bishops equate Israel’s actions to Holocaust
Hours after historic visit to Jerusalem holocaust museum, group of German bishops tour Palestinian Authority, say Israel behaving like Nazis…
While crossing one of the checkpoints into East Jerusalem the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, told reporters: “This is something that is done to animals, not people.” Meisner, a resident of eastern Germany, said that the fence reminded him of the Berlin Wall and that in his lifetime he did not believe he would see such a thing again.
As most of you probably know, there’s currently a gasoline shortage in Ontario. This shortage has caused some filling stations to post limits on the amount of gasoline their customers can purchase. Early yesterday I filled up my car with gas and did so at a station where this limit was in place.
The sign on the pump read (paraphrased): Due to a shortage at this station there is a limit of 50 litres per fill up.
While I was filling up another car pulled in behind mine. A man got out of the car, read the sign on the pump and then remarked to me, “Fucking Albertans are hoarding their gasoline.”
I wonder how widespread this attitude is and if it will spread as we head into the summer when people drive more often and begin to encounter even more effects from the shortage. I also wonder if this will become a ticking timebomb in Ontario for PMS, the Alberta Prime Minister.
In any event, many Albertans who fear Ontarians will vote Dion into power and thus destroy their economic security again, as they did when the National Energy Program was imposed upon the oil industry in Alberta, are enjoying watching Torontonians line up for gas.
“To quote Ralph Klein, ‘Let them freeze in the dark,’” wrote one reader. “It’s a good lesson for them.”
There seems to be a lot of censoring going on in Canada lately.
Censorship in Ottawa!!!
In November, I decided to start a new Conservative Film Society here in Ottawa, and as my first film, I picked a film called Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.
I went to the Rainbow Cinema at the St. Laurent shopping centre and I rented a theatre for January 29th. It was all set. I paid a deposit…and then in January I paid the last half of the rental charge. I gave the maanager all the pertinent details about what I was exactly showing.
Well, this week, the manager received an e-mail from a retired professor of history in Ottawa who said that the movie maligned muslims…and within two hours, they cancelled the film!
Rachel Corrie Story Banned In Canada
The play about Rachel Corrie has been banned in Canada. Corrie was the American activist who was killed by an Israeli Defense Force Bulldozer. Compare and contrast these stories. The Canadian Israel Lobby again engages in censorship through the back door, as in the theatre’s backers backed out.
TORONTO — The Canadian production of a play about an American human rights activist who died under the tracks of an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 has been canceled.
Daily Variety reported on December 23 that the production of My Name is Rachel Corrie has been pulled from the 2007-2008 line up in Canada’s largest non-profit theater, CanStage. The play was originally produced last year at London’s Royal Court Theatre.
A board member for CanStage said that in his view, “it would provoke a negative reaction in the Jewish community.”
Since neither side is willing to call a ceasefire they should stop whining about it.
Rarely do I ever encounter a comedy that continues to entertain me even after it has aired, but Little Mosque on the Prairie is doing just that. As I drift through the blahgosphere reading commentary on last night’s debut, I can’t help but hear the voice of Zaib Shaikh–who plays the character of Imam Amaar Rashid–delivering the line he deadpanned so beautifully in one of the show’s first scenes; “Muslims are known for their sense of humour.” Brilliant. How often do you ever see the writers of a comedy series deliver a pre-emptive flick of the nose to their critics? Seinfeld for instance, didn’t address their critics–who caterwauled that it was a show about nothing–until episode 43. When Zaib then goes on to do the hand over the head thingy which is the universal signifier that someone has missed a joke, he wasn’t directing it at the paranoid airport security guard. He was directing that right at all the viewers sitting in front of their television sets with dour faces already grumping about the show not being funny.
As for all the gassy windbags grousing that the show was a ripoff of Corner Gas, all I can say is this. Cheers was just Taxi in a bar? The Family Guy is not much more than an edgier version of The Simpsons? And everyone could see that The Flintstones was a blatent animated ripoff of The Honeymooners? Truly groundbreaking comedy is a rarity on television. I am quite surprised Little Mosque couldn’t pull it off though. After all, Muslims are known for their sense of humour.
Don’t forget that Little Mosque on the Prairie debuts tonight following the Rick Mercer Report on CBC. Blahgger Neil Crone is one of the actors on the show.
And if you think it’s not important to watch it and continue watching it every week, keep this in mind. Every time you watch Little Mosque on the Prairiean angel gets its wingsa right whinger cries.
Update: Loved it. There were some rough edges but that will work itself out as the actors grow into and define their roles. They did however, nail the right whingers perfectly.
Of course, not everybody felt the same way. Margaret Wente had this to say about it.
In fact, the only possible offence in this show is to the intelligence. Its running gag is that most Canadians see terrorists under every bed. Frankly, most Canadians (even in small towns) are not so dim. And it is a slur to pretend they are.
The first three photos above are FBI pictures of Adnan “Jaafaral the Pilot” G. El Shukrijumah, described by Time Magazine as “an accomplished Arab Guyanese bombmaker and commercial pilot”. (Time Magazine, August 23, 2004). The fourth photo on the right is a picture identified in the McMaster University 1998 Engineer and Physics graduating class as graduate Ciro Vitolo.
If Ciro Vitolo is not Osama bin Laden field commander Adnan El Shukrijumah, then it’s his twin.
Judi was forced to write a retraction the very next week when Ciro Vitolo contacted this freeper retard to set her straight. But that didn’t interfere with her continuing to see terrorists under every bed one little bit.
Anyway, I’m not much of a pop culture critic so I’ll simply repeat that I enjoyed the show and will be tuning in to see it again.
The Tyee has a good article outlining 7 solutions to homelessness in Canada; a problem that is costing Canadian taxpayers a small fortune.
Homelessness is not cheap. Provincial taxpayers spend up to $40,000 annually per homeless person, according a 2001 study. That money is spent on police calls, hospital visits and other emergency social services. If there are only 2,174 homeless people in the Vancouver area (an official figure everyone in the field assumes is well below the actual total) and if each person uses $40,000 in services (a figure that did not include all local services), then British Columbia taxpayers are spending $86.9 million a year just to help people living on the streets stay alive.
Housing them all would cost less than half that much money, and numerous studies show that people who live indoors go to jails and hospitals far less than people who live on the streets. The average Canadian spends only $11,200 a year on housing. Even government-run supportive housing — where residents get social services, such as counselling — costs only $28,000 a year.
Anyway, lets show those self proclaimed most charitable of hobbitses how to get the job done progressive style. Drop a buck or five into the next Sally Ann kettle you come across (and repeat at the next one) or make a donation online. Do it now. The 5th most popular Canadian political bloggers command it. Oops, did I say that wouldn’t go to my head…
Busy, busy, busy. No time to blog. So go amuse yourselves at these fine establishments.
Canadian Cynic on MADD’s fiscal incompetence. Dawg’s Blawg takes the National Disgrace out behind the woodshed. NDP Outsider on Dion’s naughty secret. Then go vote for Meaghan (the purple girl…hey, I said the purple girl. Get your eyes off that chick’s crotch you dirty old bastard) in the 25 peeps thingy and for My Blahg in the 2006 Weblog Awards.
Over at Dumbnation, Mark C. asks the following question after writing about the US/India peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement; which he calls a good thing.
I wonder what our Liberals, so strong on making nice to China, would say if the Conservative govenment followed this US lead?
Well Mark, I don’t speak for the Liberals but I’d bet the first thing they’d say would be to point out that they had plans to do this themselves that were put on hold by PMS.
Canada will review the understanding on civilian nuclear cooperation reached with India by the previous regime of the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said.
“This is a decision made by the previous government, obviously my new government would want to review the decisions that have been taken. We are against nuclear proliferation,” Harper who arrived on a visit here on Tuesday said after his talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday night. Harper apparently was referring to the understanding reached between the Foreign Ministers of India and Canada last year to strengthen cooperation in civilian nuclear energy and dual-use technologies.
If I were Mark though, I’d be asking what the NDP would say if PMS were to follow the US lead on this. Because they’d have a lot more to say, beginning with pointing out that India is a nuclear power in the first place thanks to Canada supplying them with the technology in the 70s.
[Canada] has a special responsibility in this matter — more than any Indian scientist, this country can be called the true mother of the Indian nuclear bomb. In 1955, Canada agreed to build a 40MW research reactor for India, known as the CIRUS (Canada-India-Reactor-United-States).
India promised that both the reactor and related fissile materials would only be used for peaceful purposes. Canada supplied half the initial uranium fuel for the reactor; the U.S. supplied the other half, plus heavy water to moderate the nuclear reactions. Canada signed two co-operation agreements with India: Many of its nuclear reactors, both operational and planned, are based on CANDU technology and designs.
All were supposed to be exclusively for peaceful use. But in 1974, India cheated on its commitments. It took fuel rods from the CIRUS reactor, extracted the plutonium and detonated its first nuclear test. India called it a “peaceful” nuclear explosion, but the country now admits it was a test of a weapon design. In response, Canada ceased all nuclear co-operation with India.
Selectively applied non-proliferation and disarmament rules are not only hypocritical (”Country X is bad, so it should be forced to follow the rules, but we and our friends are good, so we don’t have to.”), but also dangerous. The Ploughshares Monitor article puts it this way:
It is this “picking and choosing” policy of selective non-proliferation – a strategy that worries less about the spread of nuclear weapons than about who gets them – that is spawning the most serious threat of horizontal nuclear proliferation that the world has faced in several decades. States on good terms with the US, and strategically important to Washington, can seemingly pursue nuclear weapon capabilities with impunity. Others on less favourable terms face a variety of challenges, including threats of regime change. But who will respect the double standard?
And no doubt both parties would be looking for any past quotes from PMS on the matter that are hypocritical. Considering the number of political landminesPMS laid while in opposition that he’s already stumbled onto, it’s highly likely there’d be another one awaiting him if he did follow the US lead on this.
