Posts Tagged by Canadian
Has Obama Taken a Lesson From Canada?
| 10/29/2009 | Posted by Patti under Afghanistan |
President Obama appeared at Dover Air Force base last night as the Americans killed in Afghanistan this week were returned home. He took part in what the Americans call a “dignified transfer” which took place around 4am. He also met with the familes of the fallen heroes. So how is that a lession from Canada?
President Obama is the American forces Commander-in-Chief, almost all of our fallen have been met by the forces Commander-in-Chief, our Governor General. Most often also in attendance is the Chief of Defense Staff, the Minister of Defense and at times, the Prime Minister. Bush never appeared for the return of those fallen heroes of the wars he started.
Those young men and women were okay to go and serve their country and fight wars that were not of their making but for some reason, Bush didn’t feel any need to make sure they were returned as the heroes they were. Maybe now, Obama will consider making the honouring of those soldiers a bit more public and stop fearing any political overtones from giving them the honours they deserve. (more…)
Gutfeld Goes Too Far On Fox News
| 3/23/2009 | Posted by Patti under Ethics, Military, World News |
Fox News network is reportedly one of the highest rated in the USA. I’ve never been a particular fan of it, I’ve generally found a lot of their reporting more along the lines of a national gossip show, sort of like the broadcast version of the National Enquirer. I’m a Canadian, so for the most part, what passes as news south of the border isn’t really my business.
I’ve grown up with an awareness that a lot of Americans have very little awareness of their neighbour to the north. I can remember as a kid encountering other children in Algonquin Provincial Park, (that’s in Ontario) and them asking me what ‘state’ I came from. When I told them I lived in the Province of Ontario, the usual response was “what state is that in”?
I well remember how strange I thought those kids to be that they couldn’t fathom that they were standing in the province I came from. It was later I learned that ignorance came from a lack of information about this country and even less interest in knowing.
Back to Fox News. One of their so called news shows is called “Red Eye” hosted by Greg Gutfeld. For the most part Gutfeld and the cronies who participate on the show with him think they are rather funny in their perspective. Sort of Fox’s answer to the Leno or Letterman. (more…)
Parliament Opens, Let the Games Begin
| 1/26/2009 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
Well, parliament has reopened without a lot of pomp and circumstance. The lack of show was more due to the frigid cold than any austerity move. I’ve been in Ottawa and around the Hill this time of year, it is VERY cold there. The throne speech, written by the government and delivered by the Governor General, was relatively brief as throne speeches go.
The big news of the day wasn’t really the throne speech anyways. The bigger news is the budget that will be delivered tomorrow. Many of the details of the budget has been ‘leaked’, although when the leaking gets done by government officials and ministers, that is deliberate.
It appears there is going to be a $64billion deficit in the next two years. That is a complete 180 degree turn for the Conservatives from just two months ago when they claimed that we first of all were not going into a recession and secondly that we would not be incurring a deficit if a downturn should occur. (more…)
Budget Time Approaching
| 1/24/2009 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
All eyes will be on Ottawa for the next few days leading up to Tuesday’s budget reading. It’s been a bit of an odd path to this budget. First we had an election that Harper called because he claimed that Parliament had become dysfunctional, which was true but largely because he and his people chose to make it so.
During that election, Harper either was blind to the fact that an economic tsunami was bearing down on the world or was deluded enough to actually believe that it would miraculously wash itself around Canada while engulfing our largest trading partner, the USA. He belittled the opposition when they spoke of the need to take immediate measures to offset the coming storm. He did note however that the stock market meltdown that was underway did provide some excellent buying opportunities. He didn’t seem to notice that those losing their shirt to create those opportunities, included Canadians.
More out of an inability of Dion to present himself as a viable alternative to Harper than anything else, Canadians, that is the 49% who decided to turn out to vote, once again gave more Conservative candidates their vote. Basically we gave what appeared to be the lessor of several evils the benefit of the doubt. (more…)
Murder Charge Debate
| 1/6/2009 | Posted by Patti under General |
The new year started off with a Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan being charged with second degree murder in the death of an unarmed presumed insurgent during a battle in Helmand province that took place in October. Captain Robert Semrau, a member of the Operational Mentoring Liaison Team who train and work with the fledgling Afghan army was charged Dec. 31st. He’s in custody and being returned to Canada where he will face a hearing to determine if he will remain in custody until his case is heard.
We all need to remember that Captain Semrau like any Canadian is entitled to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Until the details of the charges and the alleged incident come out, we don’t need to be rushing to judgement.
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