Former prime minister Stephen Harper, despite his self-promoted brilliance and his self-perpetuated aura as being the smartest guy in the room, has never in his life met a mud puddle he didn’t want to step in.  I guess, as they say, old habits die hard.  Maybe without Ray Novak living in his garage, Harper doesn’t have the guidance he once did, not that Novak’s much better in the political principles department.

Harper, who is now the chair of the the International Democrat Union, heads an organization that encourages right-wing entities, government and organizational, to come together to collaborate on right-wing principles.  These “principles” usually involve some sort of open hostility towards vulnerable populations that live within the borders of nations controlled by conservative-minded governments.

The federal Conservatives are but a shadow of their former selves.  I would know because I was once one myself, at least one of the progressive conservative variety.

But we were labelled “Red Tories,” as if that was something to be ashamed of, and all but chased out of the party after all the anger and grievance of the Reform Party came to town, resulting in a merger with what was left of Canada’s traditional Conservatives.  From those days forward, the new amalgamation of hard-right western (read mostly Alberta, the province that most stirs the angry drink) bitterness has resulted in a party that has tasted power for nine of the last 31 years, and only four as a majority.

There is no party more responsible for the cavalcade of perpetual Liberal governments than this one.  So if you hate Trudeau, these are the ones to blame.  Year after year after year, and election after election, more people vote against the Conservatives than for them, and the Liberals are the chief beneficiaries of this.  The number of people who vote Liberal to keep the Conservatives away from the levers of power is staggering, again something I would know of as I’m one of them.

The lines have been drawn, and so have the sabres.

In keeping with threats previously made, tech titans Google and Meta have declared that no Canadian content will be available on their platforms beginning sometime this autumn.  This is the direction the two companies are following after Ottawa’s “Online News Act” takes effect, legislation that compels the monoliths to strike deals with Canadian media companies for the sharing, posting, and previewing of content on their platforms that originated with those Canadian companies.

The creep of political polarization has been incremental in the past decade or so on both sides of the border between Canada and the United States.  But that’s changed, particularly in America, where what was once a stream has now turned into a torrent.

People are moving, something people have always done, usually in pursuit of education, economic dreams, opportunities, or their dream geography.  But now, when people pick up and relocate, it’s often for political reasons.

People who identify as red (Republican) are moving to red states, while people who are blue (Democrat) are relocating to blue states.

It wasn’t always this way.

Punishing heat, from 28° to 35° Celsius, day after day after day, almost biblical in proportion, oppressive, life-altering and dangerous for person and pet alike.  Throw in runaway out-of-control fires, the new normal it seems, and you’ve got what we now know of as summer.

I hate it.

I hate to sound like grandpa here, but in my lifetime, the prevailing climate conditions have changed for the worst dramatically.  Yes we had temperatures like those listed above, but they were exceptions, and certainly not the norm.  Summers could be hot, sure, but they were mostly moderate, and going outside was something that was thought to be pleasant, not hazardous.  Yes, this is climate change.  But it’s a climate transition that’s taken place over the lifetime of a man of 64 years, a truly dramatic and alarming turn of events, where the Earth’s climate changes dramatically over a period of maybe twenty years, maybe even only ten.  I hate to get overly dramatic, but if not already so, this is a situation that can become legitimately existential for us.

For some people, it already is.

As heat domes and incessant heat events become more the norm,  more and more of society’s most vulnerable people feel the effects in a way that’s exponentially greater than the rest of us who may have the luxury of working and living in places that can offer respite from the harsh conditions outside.  For the homeless, and those who make the streets their life, there is no escape, save death or significant heat-related illness that causes intervention and hospitalization.  These people are always at the forefront of the effects of calamity, and this is no different.

You know, I was just starting to warm up to the idea that, despite his foibles, Doug Ford was an okay guy.  And I guess I can still retain some of that warm and fuzzy feeling for Ontario’s premier, and I will, but one of those foibles has reared its head and made me sort of wonder.

At the end of Friday, as all of Ontario geared up for a long Canada Day weekend, Ford and the provincial Tory government slipped an announcement into the media stream proclaiming the reinstatement of the King’s Counsel designation for the province’s lawyers who excel in the legal sphere.

One catch.

You don’t have to be particularly good at the job, you just have to be politically connected to the folks in power.  So all sorts of party hacks, who happen to be lawyers by profession, some of whom are not even practicing law, can now apply the KC designation after their names.

The differences between Canada and the United States are many despite the two nations having the appearance of being essentially the same.  But they are, of course, not.

And one area where the differences are extremely marked is in the area of how they conduct their respective democracies, and the processes by which they govern themselves.

American founding fathers are mythologized, worshipped even, and their creation of American democracy is seen as perfect, absolute, and sacrosanct.  Canadian founders, though, are largely unknown, save for the first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, and even he’s had his past policies held up to critical scrutiny, sometimes resulting in his statue being defaced or pulled down.

NOTE: Current information is different from what was initially made available yesterday. As it turns out, the perpetrator was not a member of the class, and is currently under investigation related to the possibility of the commission of a hate crime. Also, the class is listed at having 40 students, not 20 as previously reported.

As a former teacher, I can recall how difficult it sometimes was to generate a class-wide discussion on a topic that students would be, by default, disinterested in.  Sure, you’d always have a few gamers who’d be up for just about any topic, but there was a consistent reluctance or wariness on the part of many others that would result in a class discussion that was really a conversation with one or two students in front of crowd that was either disinclined to participate or even reluctant to participate as they didn’t want to speak in public.

They don’t have that problem at the University of Waterloo.

Hey Galen! Wake up! We’re gonna fight back!

The Competition Bureau is after you again. Remember that restrictive covenant clause you grocers insert into lease agreements that prevents other food-related businesses from occupying properties that you no longer use? How you can prevent other grocers, independents, family grocers, etc from setting up shop where you once were? Kiss it goodbye, baby. Kiss it goodbye.

Just another underhanded move by Canada’s grocers in cahoots with real estate companies. You close down a store, but make sure no other store can locate there. It creates what’s called a food desert, where neighbourhoods and communities lose their access to nearby grocery stores and must travel further afield, all because you guys can’t stand competition.

What makes it an even tougher day for Weston and his other grocery titan robber barons is the fact that the Competition Bureau is recommending to the government that international grocers be allowed to set up shop to compete with the Big Three, who currently have what’s called a monopoly, another word for protected greed. The idea, Galen, is that more grocers having nothing to do with you or the other Big Two will offer a greater degree of competition in the market, thereby driving down prices so consumers can afford to eat again. It’s almost like, gulp, free enterprise. And free enterprise is the very core of capitalism, is it not?

So suck eggs, buddy. Right now you’re the only guy who can afford them. But when your little monopoly comes to an end, and the rest of us can afford eggs too, don’t be surprised if your limo gets tagged by egg projectiles thrown by the peasantry.

Please, just make sure you drive with the windows down.

I have to admit that when I first heard of the trade made between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks, I kind of panicked a bit because I, at first blush, thought we may have traded some draft picks to Boston for….what?

Boston has almost no picks in this year’s draft, so the idea of them looking to get some, even if in the second round, made sense.  And the Hawks have four picks in the second round, to go with two in the first, and a bunch more in the later rounds.  So that made it a good fit.  The question was, for me, what could Chicago possibly get from Boston that would in any way be attractive?  It just didn’t make sense that way.