The Maple Leaf Lounge

[DEWLine]

Poilievre's already been on the receiving end of the hundred-plus-candidate ballot once. He wants no repeats, does he?

As for the disability payments? Nowhere near what's truly needed, and the gatekeeping rules for accessing that money are problematic at best. Yes, Danielle Smith and the UCP are intentionally making it worse for the obvious reasons/excuses.

 

[Marc]

As for the disability payments? Nowhere near what's truly needed, and the gatekeeping rules for accessing that money are problematic at best. Yes,

true on the amount though the rules for accessing are trickier. the disability tax credit is applied for a the federal level so the CRA has it it on record but other than they have no idea of who would be eligble.

the provinces would need to transfer that information to the feds and that you start running into privacy issues and would need legislative changes to allow it.

 

[Charlie Xmas]

The anti-vaxxers won't be happy until the first child dies from measles (we're having an epidemic here).

Acquiring measles while in the first trimester means your baby is at a much increased risk of being born with deafness, blindness or cardiac dysfunction.

Thanks, Antivaxxers.

 

[Timewalker]

That faction of Albertan politics has been raised to blame everything wrong on Trudeau Elder and Younger alike, among other targeted people across Canada.

The first generation raised in this way were my classmates in the mid-1970s. Thank goodness we had a Grade 7 social studies teacher who decided that 11-12 year-olds weren't too young to learn how the political system works. We had a provincial election that year, so what he had us do was watch the news every night (only 2 Canadian channels for that available here, so it wasn't a hardship), read and clip newspaper articles about the election, write an essay about it, and stay up on election night to watch the returns (and we had to do this - there would be a test the next day). My normal bed time went out the window, when I informed my grandparents that "Mr. Lemke said we HAVE to watch all of it."

That was 50 years ago. "Mr. Lemke" is still alive and active in politics, or at least he was during the last municipal election, when someone who was running for public school board told me that he was one of his campaign workers. I said, "Please let him know that there are students from my class who remember him well and some of us ended up getting involved with politics and working for Elections Canada (I was a Deputy Returning Officer)."

Oh, and as for my own political leanings in the 1970s? My grandparents voted Liberal, at least as long as Pierre Trudeau was PM. We didn't think much of John Turner, so made the switch to NDP. I've voted for a variety of parties over the years, but not once have I ever voted for any variety of Conservative, either provincially or federally.

like going on about the transfer payments ignoring the fact they there one's set as when favourite sun harper was p.m leading a govt that included both poilievre and form alberta premier jason kenney.

and speaking of poilievre. he had no problems when there was massive number of candidates on ballots for a couple of bi-elections that saw the liberals loose seats - he's not so keen to be on the recieving end.

also the feds introduced a $200 Canada disability payment as an adjunct to the programs like ODSP. the idea was that recipients wouldn't have any offset from current programs. all the provinces agreed with one exception - alberta.

The hoops the UCP are making us jump through are insane. It's gotten to the point where, if Danielle Smith drops dead tomorrow for ANY reason, I will metaphorically dance on her grave. It is my sincere wish that something horrible happens to her, to give her a lifelong disability that affects her motor function, her eyes, and at least half a dozen other issues, and that she goes through absolute hell to get treatment for it. I wish her every indignity the rest of us have had to endure.

Of course she's rich enough to scamper down to the U.S. to have it treated, but I'm still wondering why she's so gung-ho to steal this $200 from us.

Could it really be so simple as making as many of us homeless as she possibly can, because one of her cabinet buddies is part of a family that runs the Mustard Seed chain of homeless shelters?

 

[Owain Taggart]

NOTHING positive came from that. The same can be said for the Coutts blockade of the international border between Alberta and Montana.

Yeah, it certainly seems revisionistic to be claiming something positive from it. Those who have argued for the convoy conveniently forget the position many were in in Ottawa when the convoy occupation occured, and it was anything but friendly. I think the problem is that while initially the intent of the convoy was a good one resting on concerns of actual truckers who had to ferry goods across borders, it had been entirely hijacked by extremists having nothing to do with the industry who were using the moment to thrust their beliefs upon others, which quickly spun out of control. When you have people there that refuse to budge for weeks on end requiring swat teams to remove them, then you know you've gone too far. Those are the ones that need to rethink their priorities.

In other news, I've made my yearly trip to Southern Vermont just this past week. I was honestly dreading the crossing, but it ended up being the easiest crossing ever. Normally they would ask us 3 questions: Where are you coming from, where are you going, and how long are you staying? This time around, they only asked us one question: Where are you going? When my Dad explained we were headed to an astronomical/telescope building convention, they gave us our passports and told us we were free to go.

We had many people come up to us over the course of our trip expressing sympathy for Canada, and they were all very friendly. And we had a great time commiserating with friends we see once a year.

 

[Timewalker]

Yeah, it certainly seems revisionistic to be claiming something positive from it. Those who have argued for the convoy conveniently forget the position many were in in Ottawa when the convoy occupation occured, and it was anything but friendly. I think the problem is that while initially the intent of the convoy was a good one resting on concerns of actual truckers who had to ferry goods across borders, it had been entirely hijacked by extremists having nothing to do with the industry who were using the moment to thrust their beliefs upon others, which quickly spun out of control. When you have people there that refuse to budge for weeks on end requiring swat teams to remove them, then you know you've gone too far. Those are the ones that need to rethink their priorities.

Some of them brought their children with them, knowing full well that the cops would be reluctant to put the kids in danger. All those huge trucks, all those gas cans around, that could go BOOM if an accident happened, AND THEY BROUGHT THEIR CHILDREN.

They used those kids as human shields. Absolute cowards.

 

[DEWLine]

And they'll never forgive us our recognition of that truth. Never.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Some of them brought their children with them, knowing full well that the cops would be reluctant to put the kids in danger. All those huge trucks, all those gas cans around, that could go BOOM if an accident happened, AND THEY BROUGHT THEIR CHILDREN.

Yeah, I remember hearing about that. At this point, they deserve what they get. They brought their children into a possibly dangerous situation. They set themselves up for a party knowing full well what they were getting into, meanwhile thinking they're a bunch of carebears professing love and togetherness, which couldn't be further than the reality.

 

[Avro Arrow]

So did you all hear about Maine Senator Joe Martin sending a letter to the western provinces outlining the conditions for them joining the US?? If you haven't heard, and want to be infuriated, you can read the text of the letter here. (This is assuming it is real, but it apparently is.)

A BC MLA (a BC Conservative, no less) wrote an open letter in rebuttal that is really quite good. You can apparently find it on Facebook, but for those of us without an FB account, you can read the text on Reddit here.

It would probably be against board rules for me to post a message of my own to Senator Martin.

And then bloviating gasbag Jesse Watters just casually brings up the concept of invading the western provinces to counter proposed gerrymandering by the Democrats. "It will be a mostly peaceful invasion." Yeah... I don't think so.

 

[Timewalker]

So did you all hear about Maine Senator Joe Martin sending a letter to the western provinces outlining the conditions for them joining the US?? If you haven't heard, and want to be infuriated, you can read the text of the letter here. (This is assuming it is real, but it apparently is.)

A BC MLA (a BC Conservative, no less) wrote an open letter in rebuttal that is really quite good. You can apparently find it on Facebook, but for those of us without an FB account, you can read the text on Reddit here.

It would probably be against board rules for me to post a message of my own to Senator Martin.

And then bloviating gasbag Jesse Watters just casually brings up the concept of invading the western provinces to counter proposed gerrymandering by the Democrats. "It will be a mostly peaceful invasion." Yeah... I don't think so.

I've seen it on FB and Guard the Leaf (YT channel) has done a video on it. GtL is so angry about it he actually used the word "fuck" in his video (he's got such a calm voice most of the time).

There's nothing posted on this POS's FB page about it, but plenty by a couple of anti-PP/UCP groups.

So I wonder if anyone can make sense of this. Isn't Maine one of those states whose Congressjerks signed a letter to the Canadian ambassador, whining about our wildfires ruining their enjoyment of their back yards this summer? I know Maine's governor is one of the people whining to the premier of Nova Scotia about not enough tourists coming across the border. And now this Senator wants to invade us and strip us of every cultural thing we have that makes us Canadian.


A few months ago David Gerrold was asking on his FB page for Canadians to please visit his state (Vermont). Please come for a visit, even if it's only a half-day.

I told him no. I told him why we're not coming. I was polite about it (much more polite than I normally am when explaining this to Americans). I said it's not about the tariffs, it's about the annexation threats, which we do not take as a joke. It's about the hostility of the American border guards.

Thankfully he hasn't said anything about it since.

It's getting to the point where if somebody on the Canadian side said, "We need to build a wall," I'd go and help in whatever way I could, disabled or not. And while I was at it, I'd help pitch Danielle Smith over the top onto the American side. I never knew it was possible to hate someone so much. If I outlive her, I will do my best to dance on her grave.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Isn't Maine one of those states whose Congressjerks signed a letter to the Canadian ambassador, whining about our wildfires ruining their enjoyment of their back yards this summer?

It's possible that I just missed it, but I don't remember hearing anything specific coming from any government representative from Maine. I do remember hearing Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York sent letters, and I believe Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota filed a formal complaint against us with the International Joint Commission. (See, there's plenty of assholery to go around!)

 

[Timewalker]

It's possible that I just missed it, but I don't remember hearing anything specific coming from any government representative from Maine. I do remember hearing Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York sent letters, and I believe Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota filed a formal complaint against us with the International Joint Commission. (See, there's plenty of assholery to go around!)

At least I got the first letter right. It must have been Minnesota I was thinking of. Maine is the one whose governor took her self-pity party to the premier of Nova Scotia and scolded Canada because we're supposedly their "cousins" who aren't visiting any more and they "love" us.

It's fascinating sometimes to read the Americans' comments on YT. Charlie Angus has a short one on this latest. It's short and to the point.

Charlie Angus:

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Here's what Guard the Leaf says (he's from BC):

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There are some others.

It's interesting that Tyler Bucket (YouTube guy from somewhere in the U.S. - Indiana, I think) - does a lot of reaction videos on Canadian topics. No doubt he's discovered that he gets a lot more hits and comments on the political ones than the ones about humorous Canadian memes. What annoys me is how he airs his uninformed, uneducated opinion about things he knows nothing about. Like he thought PP was the 'reasonable' one in the video where PP ate the apple at the reporter who was trying to get him to answer a few questions.

The last one I watched of his was a reaction to a NFB video of William Shatner's take on O Canada. This one was filmed before the most recent lyrics change (from "true patriot love in all thy sons command" to "true patriot love in all of us command"). Of course the comments got overrun by misogynists whining about women being acknowledged as patriotic, with the absurd claim that "all thy sons" includes women.


Anyway, I wonder how Janet Mills is dealing with this. It's bemusing and infuriating, actually, how many Americans post in these comment sections, asking Canada to please accept them as provinces. I got very blunt with one of them and was told I couldn't be Canadian - that I sounded like a Trump supporter.

I'm just fed up. Trump said Canada has nothing he/the U.S. needs. Canadians are being treated like shit down there, at the border, and/or being denied service at gas stations, grocery stores, being told to "go home", having their vehicles vandalized... so why the hell should we spend money in that country, and why should we accept anyone who wants to come here because it's a convenient place to hang out for 3 years before they scamper on back?

 

[Ovation]

I just read each letter.

Senator Joe Martin: and

BC MLA Brennan Day: and

I feel I should make a small detour to Martin’s office when next I go see my dad in NH (only reason I go to the US at all these days) and show him my two passports. Could make his head explode a la Scanners. What an insignificant, puerile load of runny excrement he must be.

 

[Marc]

And then bloviating gasbag Jesse Watters just casually brings up the concept of invading the western provinces to counter proposed gerrymandering by the Democrats. "It will be a mostly peaceful invasion." Yeah... I don't think so.

watters needs a an t at the start of his name cos he's completely and utter <expletive deleted>.

(never mind him be okay with the fact the gop have gerrymandered the U.S up the wazoo).

 

[Timewalker]

I just read each letter.

Senator Joe Martin: and

BC MLA Brennan Day: and

I feel I should make a small detour to Martin’s office when next I go see my dad in NH (only reason I go to the US at all these days) and show him my two passports. Could make his head explode a la Scanners. What an insignificant, puerile load of runny excrement he must be.

No reasonable person would consider that pile of dictatorial crap to be an "invitation."

I've long been a pacifist, but some time back, I did some serious thinking about what it would take for me to actually fight.

I concluded that it would have to be the U.S. invading us, because why would any other country bother? Someone on FB mentioned yesterday that they took their neighbor's American flag they were flying, cut it into pieces, and left it on their lawn.

Vandalism? Yep. Illegal? Yep. Morally the right thing to do? Depends on how you feel about flags. We didn't start the disrespect.

 

[Avro Arrow]

We didn't start the disrespect.

The administration seems to be willingly ignorant on that point. Listened to a clip on CBC of Hoekstra being interviewed by some right-wing podcast, where he whined (again) about Canadians endangering CUSMA with our “unjustified counter-tariffs”. As the CBC panel pointed out, we didn’t start the trade war… calling them “counter”-tariffs says right in the name that we are just responding to their actions!

They assume they should just be able to do what they want, and the rest of the world should just passively fall into line. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened in most cases: the only countries to really put up any resistance so far have been Canada and China. If the rest of the world had banded together to co-ordinate countermeasures across the globe, it could have had serious impact… but most decided to just capitulate.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm honestly surprised at why I haven't been booted from Smith's FB page yet. Others have been, for saying things a lot less emphatic than I have.

 

[Owain Taggart]

That Senator from Maine... I think his letter only reinforces why Canadians feel so strongly in the first place. The arrogance and posturing is dripping from that letter. Great response from the MP.

 

[Timewalker]

Guard the Leaf is showcasing some of the responses people have emailed to this senator (they either cc'd or forwarded a copy to GtL). Even people from other countries are emailing this senator.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The one thing I appreciate about him is how calm and soothing his voice tends to be