Canada (from the Algonquin word "Kanata," meaning village or settlement)

 

Because this is our home and we are rightfully proud of it, we would like to show you around the place...

 

Of course, being typical "Canucks" we are very polite and reasonable people so... we will give you our * "official" view of Canada and a view from "the looking hole" as a sort of ** Canada 101.

 

* Note that our "official" view of Canada changes slightly, each time we change political parties; it's the Canadian way!

 

** For my Canadian friends (and those "in the know"), this is not a reference to ** THAT "101" ... a whole other ball-game in itself!

 

You will find that "touchy" topic discussed on our "Two Solitudes" page situated under the "More" header on the topic banner above. It is strategically placed there and you will soon figure that out because there sure is "more" to this topic than you can shake a baton/stick at!

 

*** Please note the "Two Solitudes" page is not for the faint of heart!

 

Why Invest in Canada? 

 

We seldom blow our "we're the best" horn... but who better to do that than our "governing" pitchmen? (see further below for the reality)   

 

 

 

 

Job quality in Canada dives to record low — and there’s no relief in sight, CIBC report says!

 

The quality of jobs in Canada has dipped to its lowest level in a quarter century, revealing a structural issue that could prove difficult to reverse.

 

This is actually a "deja vu" news item. Unless you have been stranded on a deserted island for the last 30 years, you may have noticed tha we have been experiencing steady erosion of good, middle-class jobs for as long as most anyone can remember.

 

In the early days of "good job" losses, it was bitterly spoken of as the "MC-job revolution"! Maybe we failed to recognize it for what it really is... a heartless, mean-spirited devolution of the "living-wage" workforce in Canada and throughout the USA by corporate management entities in their never-ending quest for more profits for themselves and their shareholders.    HOY March 09. 2015

 

 

 

Tim Horton (1930 - 1974) NHL All-Star, Founder of the Tim Horton coffee chain

 

Tim Horton was born in Cochrane, Ontario on January 12, 1930. He was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1949 and performed as one of the steadiest defencemen on the blueline throughout his 22 years in the National Hockey League.

 

Tim Horton played on four Stanley Cup teams, was an All-Star player six times, and was honoured in 1969 with the J.P. Bickell Memorial Cup in recognition of his outstanding service to the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club. George Armstrong says of Tim, "No finer person, teammate or hockey player ever lived." In Bobby Hull's words, "Few players brought more dedication or honour to the game. He was my idea of a pro."

 

Gordie Howe called Tim Horton "hockey's strongest man". Some claim Tim invented the slap shot, and he could always be counted on to get the puck out of his own end of the ice with his "heads up" skating style.   A great hockey player and a great cup of coffee!   HOY March 12, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terry Fox (1958 - 1981) Athlete, Humanitarian and Activist

 

In 1977, when he was only 18, Fox was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer), and doctors amputated his right leg 15 cm above the knee. Terry decided he would run across Canada to raise awareness and funds for cancer research and started marathon training in 1979, using a prosthetic leg adapted for running.

 

He began his cross-country Marathon of Hope on 12 April 1980, dipping his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean near St. John’s, Newfoundland and proceeded to run about 42 km (roughly a marathon) a day through the Atlantic provinces, Québec, and by the time he reached Ontario, he was a national star.

 

Fox was forced to stop running just outside Thunder Bay, Ontario, on 1 September 1980, as the cancer had invaded his lungs. By this time, he had run for 143 days and covered 5,373 km. Although Fox vowed he would complete his cross-Canada run, he was unable to return to the road; he died less than a year later at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, BC, only a month before his twenty-third birthday.

 

Terry's goal to raise one dollar for every Canadian, or about $24 million, was reached on 1 February 1981, but fundraising has continued in his name.

 

The Terry Fox Foundation     Terry is definitely an inspiration to millions! HOY March 12, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 MPs Still Unconfirmed for 2015 Ballot, and Other Nominations Trivia

 

 

The "As yet Unrenominated Incumbents" list includes MPs from the Conservatives, Liberals, Bloc and one Independent MP who has yet to confirm his intention, but two-thirds of them are from the NDP.   COZ March 13, 2015

 

 

 

 

Provinces Play "Hide the Deficits"

 

 

What B.C., Ontario, Quebec and several other provincial governments are doing is using some theoretically correct accounting measures to hide the walloping faced by taxpayers when debt must be eventually repaid.  

 

Hmmm... Somehow I think using Enron accounting techniques does not bode well for the future; the government "bean counters" do this all day and go home and look their kids and grandkids in the face. Brutal... Sorry about the future debt kids!    COZ March 12. 2015

 

 

 

CRTC to reform cable and satallite packages

 

Canadian cable subscribers will soon be able to purchase a basic $25 a month package and have pick-and-pay options.

 

How refreshing... the Canadian government finally sticks its nose where it acutally has an oversight and moderating role to play. It will be interesting to see if Quebec buys into this refreshing and long overdue modernization or keeps it's stifiling and annoying "you are required to purchase x amount of french language content as part of your cable or satallite package" concept! Of course it was the federal government who started the "Canadian content" quota fiasco back in the 1970's.    HOY March 19, 2015

 

 

 

National Farmers Union report on land ownership and farm debt

 

The NFU works toward the development of economic and social policies that will maintain the family farm as the primary food-producing unit in Canada. The "Losing Our Grip – 2015 Update" report delves into the relationship between accelerating farm debt, farmland investment companies, lending by input companies and Canada's federal agricultural policy.

 

We are what we eat and "a significant indicator of a healthy society is the stability of the family unit".    HOY March 23. 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitigan Zibi (Anishinabeg), Quebec

 

Chief Gilbert Whiteduck is a former school principal and education has been the cornerstone of Whiteduck's four decades of work in this Algonquin First Nations community in Quebec, 100 km north of Ottawa-Gatineau.

 

Chief Whiteduck recently stepped down as Chief of the Kitigan Zibi Band Council. I hope he continues his lifelong struggle espousing education as the true path to honourable living and personal freedom.  HOY March 24, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harper Rebuffs Legal Concerns Over Bombing Syria

 

The government says it will not seek the Syrian government’s permission to drop bombs, given its view that Bashar al-Assad has lost legitimacy as Syrian president. But the opposition wants to know whether such attacks, inside another country without that government’s authorization, would violate international law.

 

 Things are really upside down when it's the NDP who is the only level headed one asking the right questions. I don't care what the motives are, nor how good they try to make them up to be; uninvited military intervention in soverign states is just asking for trouble and repeating horrible precedents.  All this at a time when we can't afford to deliver the mail any more, nor pay workers 1.32$ an hour ( recent news article about cutting the contract for disabled workers who shred documents).  It peeves me off because my aunt and cousin out west work for places like that (thankfully in the private sector... who still have hearts.) We can't afford to keep the lights on here at home, but there's a cry to drop more bombs on more places (which costs more money....than already being spent on our war involvement). On top of all that... the only one asking the real questions (on this issue) is the NDP, hence the others are for it implicitly. Is this reverso land?   Coz March 26, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

Missing Kids Canada

 

Every year, more than 50,000 reports of missing children are made to police in Canada.  As Canada’s missing children resource centre, MIssingKids.ca offers families support in finding their missing child and provides educational materials to help prevent children from going missing.

 

Owned and operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, MissingKids.ca is a charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children.

 

MissingKids.ca is proud to work in collaboration with Enfant-Retour to provide missing children’s services to residents of Quebec. Enfant-Retour will support MissingKids.ca in offering case management support to Francophone parents/guardians searching for their missing child.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John McCrae - Artist, Doctor, Poet, Scholar, Soldier, Teacher

 

Born in Guelph Ontario, on November 30, 1872, John McCrae was to become best known as a poet. In 1918, McCrae died of pneumonia and meningitis. He was buried with full military honours in a cemetery not far from the fields in Flanders.

 

His poem, In Flanders Fields is widely recognized as the best known poem of the first world war - Written on May 3, 1915, this tribute to his fellow soldiers in WWI has become the remembrance banner throughout most of the world ever since. As we approach the centennial of its writing, both the citizens of Guelph, his hometown, and Artillery Regiments across Canada, have chosen to recognize this remarkable man in commissioning two identical statues of him by Canadian sculptor Ruth Abernethy. One will be erected at the Guelph Civic Museum and the other in Ottawa at the National Artillery Memorial on Sussex Drive, just east of the downtown core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

                     

        Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery    National Archives of Canada (Canadian Press)