August1991

We Canadians get along. So, I have no doubt that we will survive whoever wins this Apr 2025 federal. Legacy? I reckon that Poilievre, if he wins and forms a majority, it will make us change. If the federal Liberals win, Carney, it will be the same: conservative

Like Joey Smallwood, I Chose Canada. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=smallwood+i+chose+canada

Rather: Carney and his wife, and a voice over of who she is. Where she was born. Compare her to Poilievre's wife. And finish with Sophie.

In 1972, Trudeau Snr totally bungled the Victoria constitutional agreement. (An agreement that would have given the Quebec State a veto of any federal Constitutional change.) Then, Trudeau Snr stepped in and fouled up the far better Mulroney agreement that would have made federal Canada sustainable. ==== Make no mistake: Quebec soverainty will be an issue. Heck, why can't the Liberals win?

Mulroney tried several remarkable policy things/changes: 1. Free trade with the US. 2. GST/VAT 3. Meech Lake, nw. 4. SO2 Environment market. 5. Aparthieid. === IMHO, the GST is the most remarkable Mulroney. ========== Harper, he got rid of the penny. ========== Trudeau Jnr, he legalised marijuana. ========== Chretien/Martin, they reduced spending.

To my knowledge, Pierre Trudeau never had a second citizenship. He retired in Montreal and walked to work. Stephen Harper never had another passport. Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien had condos in Florida - but they were never American citizens. Bourassa sought medical care in the US: his wife was rich.

Alberta should have its own pension scheme. Quebec does.

How do many women choose? They once chose Trudeau Jnr. He was cute.

Poilievre huge Canadian flag, alone, then the wife joining him on stage: Modern Canada. Federal Liberals: no wife.

I am surprised no journalist raises this question. Rene Levesque was a Quebecer - IMHO, a democrat. Pierre Trudeau was a Canadian, IMHO, a federalist more than a democrat. Neither were nationalists.

I know that Americans re-enact Civil War battlefields. I have been to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. It seems small. In Quebec City, there is the Plains of Abraham. Laurier made it a national park with stone monuments. On Chemin Ste-Foy, I used to show American tourists where Bourlamaque fought. Borodino outside Moscow is another level. To see the monuments. markers requires a car. Napoleonic battles are immense. Curious about the Seven Years War, I wound up looking at Austerlitz. (The Seven Years War was largely fought in Saxony between Austria and Prussia. Prussia won and Canada became English. Angry, France (Napoleon) refought the war. (Austerlitz is in, uh, Saxony) Marathon, Thermopylae (it took me three days to find the pass, it exists). Carthage in Tunisia. The landing at Dieppe. I walked up the road to the Commonwealth cementery I have not been to Stalingrad. I have been to Anzio. The Americans bring their dead to one large place. The British/Commonwealth bury their dead nearby. In too many cemeteries, I have seen the standard rectangle of a New Zealander or Canadian. I have been to Compiegne where Hitler forced France to sign. I have also been to the now defunct memorial in Poland where Germany defeated Russia in 1917. I have walked down the remnants of the Great War trenches. (Some still exist. Kubrick's Paths of Glory is accurate.) I have seen where the sappers created this huge demolition in 1917. (It's still a crater.) I walked around the Warsaw Ghetto trying to figure out the walls. I walked around Hue, Vietnam's forbidden city - trying to understand 1968. Many times, I drove across the Green Line of Beirut. ===== My point? I don't know if it's useful going to places where men fought. Some battlefields are immense, beyond comprehension - others are smaller. In Germany, there is a place: the Teutoburg Forest Battle. Romans versus Germans, significant in world history, battlefield understandable - except that it is not clear if the battle took place in the place where the museum exists. IOW, I don't know if going to places where men fought helps to understand why they fought.

Potsdam is a suburb of Berlin. I have been to the room where they met (the building's now a museum). It is a large round table. It is near Sans Souci. the palace of Frederick the Great. Yalta is very different - I have been to Crimea. The famous photo of Roosevelt/Churchill/Stalin in fact is in a small courtyard - within what amounts to a very large, two storey American house. Yalta is no palace. It reminded me of Harrington Lake or Schloss Rosenau in Cobourg. A place that we now would call a cabin, cottage - a normal place to relax.

To be clear, Like Truman, I would have approved both bombs. If one does not work, the other will. I too would have told Stalin that we have a devastating device. But I'm Canadian. ===== What would Nixon or Trump done? BTW, Churchill had to leave.

Only one method had worked. Truman knew about both methods but at Potsdam, he learned one method had worked. He told Stalin about this horrific device - and then approved both bombings. ===== I am an ordinary Canadian. I would have done exactly as Truman. (I once thought that Truman was a sly poker player; I now understand that Truman was just an ordinary guy.)

For Anglos in Ontario, to understand Trump, he is Mel Lastman. For Nflanders, he is Joey Smallwood. For Albertans, Trump is a Manning. ==== He's no Duplessis. And certainly no Hitler, Mussolini.

I saw this report too. It has little news in the Quebec MSM federal french media. ====== What is Legault doing? https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/825923/legault-achete-paix-terre-neuve-labrador? Note the comment at the end: Le Devoir s’est rendu à St. John’s dans un transport offert aux médias par Hydro-Québec.

I want a prime minister who lives and retires in Canada. After 1984, Pierre Trudeau could have lived anywhere in the world. Instead, he bought a home in Montreal. I remember a famous discussion about Quebec independance in the late 1970s when he was pushed: "I suppose someone will have to negotiate but it won't be me." He wrote somewhere that if he hadn't been born a Quebecer, he would have chosen it. ===== René Lévesque, he had a condo in Nun's Island. Jean Lesage retired to Quebec City. Duplessis lived and died in Quebec. ======= I have no objection to living, working abroad. I have done this. I have had the possibility to have foreign citizenship. I have always refused. My country is Canada. I am not a nationalist but I have only had one passport in my life: a Canadian passport.

I am Canadian but I would have done as Truman. Before, I thought that Truman was a poker player like Nixon - play your cards well. It is true that Truman was a good card player, an ordinary guy, in Truman's decision to drop two bombs? I have been to Potsdam (near Berlin), looked at the table (it is now a museum). I reckon that I too would have approved both bombs, And passed the word to Stalin. Truman was a Canadian at heart.

Disagree. You make a typical point: "I was following orders... " Truman at Potsdam ordered to drop both bombs. He told Stalin about this. I reckon that, at the time, no one knew what would work in a bomb from a plane. They had two methods: plutonium and uranium. Truman learned that one method had worked. ==== Imagine Truman at the time. A salesman, an ordinary American, a Gerry Ford, suddenly put in such a situation to decide.

Indira Gandhi and Elizabeth I inherited power. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir won it. ===== Women are short. Voters prefer taller candidates.

Disagree. Most people don't know him, Poilievre. And they certainly don't know his wife. Carney? No Canadian knows who the hell he is - some banker at most. And his wife? Do you know her name? Where she was born?

Alone on a stage. Mouse and elephant. https://digitalarchiveontario.ca/objects/300440/pierre-trudeau-speaks-to-the-masses-as-20000-jam-the-libera This was the May 1979 federal election.

Make no mistake: One reason Justin Trudeau is no longer PM is because Sophie left him. ==== No one knows Carney. Poilievre. Either guy. Once women know how Mark Carney's wife made him and see and know about about Poilievre's wife, I suspect there may be a change.

In 1988, Margaret Atwood opposed trade with Americans. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/robert-fulford-in-1988-canadians-feared-a-trade-deal-would-destroy-our-country-now-we-barely-discuss-the-tpp Now, Trump wants to stop trade with Canada, and the CBC objects: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump-tariffs-price-tag-global-economy-1.7501340 ===== Wrong if you do, wrong if you don't.

I disagree, Army Guy. We Canadians get along. I live in a city where some people can only speak one language; other people can only speak another language. Everyone knows accents. Our Canada is remarkable in the world. We Canadians get along.