SEPTEMBER 8- 2 MORE NOTIFICATIONS- one a great letter on ABBAS IS SPITTING AT HAMAS...
JUST IN;: HAMAS TERROR GROUP GETTING DUMPED BY PALESTINE- women, girl and gays matter- Middle East and Africas sick of the butchering and plundering of innocent Muslims by Hamas, BOKO, ISIS, Hexbollah, Taliban etc. trash.... JUST IN NEWS Sept 8 2014
IN BRIEF: NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
Abbas threatens to dissolve unity gover nment
The new Palestinian unity government faced a new crisis on Sunday after President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to dissolve his alliance with Hamas if the Islamic militant group does not give up power in the Gaza Strip.
The dispute erupted just over two weeks after Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza ended in a ceasefire. Abbas is looking to regain a foothold in Gaza, which suffered heavy losses during the fighting, and expects to play a leading role in internationally backed reconstruction efforts. His comments, which also included harsh criticism of Hamas’ conduct in the war, appeared to be part of a brewing power struggle over who will control post-war Gaza.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since overrunning Abbas’ forces in 2007. Facing international isolation and a deep financial crisis, the Islamic militant group agreed to the formation of a new unity government with Abbas’ Fatah movement in June, in which it would restore governing power to Abbas in the territory. But it has yet to yield power — even after the devastating war against Israel, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and caused billions of dollars of damage.
“We will not accept having a partnership if their status in Gaza remains this way," Abbas said late Saturday. (AP)
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
Abbas threatens to dissolve unity gover nment
The new Palestinian unity government faced a new crisis on Sunday after President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to dissolve his alliance with Hamas if the Islamic militant group does not give up power in the Gaza Strip.
The dispute erupted just over two weeks after Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza ended in a ceasefire. Abbas is looking to regain a foothold in Gaza, which suffered heavy losses during the fighting, and expects to play a leading role in internationally backed reconstruction efforts. His comments, which also included harsh criticism of Hamas’ conduct in the war, appeared to be part of a brewing power struggle over who will control post-war Gaza.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since overrunning Abbas’ forces in 2007. Facing international isolation and a deep financial crisis, the Islamic militant group agreed to the formation of a new unity government with Abbas’ Fatah movement in June, in which it would restore governing power to Abbas in the territory. But it has yet to yield power — even after the devastating war against Israel, which killed more than 2,100 Palestinians and caused billions of dollars of damage.
“We will not accept having a partnership if their status in Gaza remains this way," Abbas said late Saturday. (AP)
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EUROPEANS SHOULD PAY - AFGHANISTAN- AND UKRAINE- DO UR SHARE NOW
German President Angela Merkel and NATO are trying to tell Canada to increase spending on our military to two per cent of our GDP. Since European countries are located on the same continent as large, well-armed potential enemies, it might be suggested that they need to spend more on their defence than we do. After all, we don’t share a continent with any nations that wish us harm .
Let’s examine the recent German track record in Afghanistan to see which country best lived up to its responsibilities.
The size of the German deployment to Afghanistan (5,400) was about twice that of Canada. But German troops were stationed in the north of Afghanistan in places where there was little combat. They suffered 54 killed and 254 wounded. Low casualties are a dividend produced by selecting a creampuff deployment area. Canada’s deployment in Afghanistan was in the south, in the thick of fighting, in an area infested with Taliban fighters. We suffered a much higher proportion of casualties: 158 killed and more than four times more wounded soldiers for half the number deployed.
I think the German president would be well advised to worry about her own country’s forces and defence spending. Leave Canadians to worry about ours. More significantly, our media should have also taken the trouble to unearth these simple facts and mentioned them to put the NATO bureaucrats’ suggestions into a less damning context. I guess the temptation to indirectly slag Prime Minister Harper was a more attractive prospect.
Jon Coates, Halifax
German President Angela Merkel and NATO are trying to tell Canada to increase spending on our military to two per cent of our GDP. Since European countries are located on the same continent as large, well-armed potential enemies, it might be suggested that they need to spend more on their defence than we do. After all, we don’t share a continent with any nations that wish us harm .
Let’s examine the recent German track record in Afghanistan to see which country best lived up to its responsibilities.
The size of the German deployment to Afghanistan (5,400) was about twice that of Canada. But German troops were stationed in the north of Afghanistan in places where there was little combat. They suffered 54 killed and 254 wounded. Low casualties are a dividend produced by selecting a creampuff deployment area. Canada’s deployment in Afghanistan was in the south, in the thick of fighting, in an area infested with Taliban fighters. We suffered a much higher proportion of casualties: 158 killed and more than four times more wounded soldiers for half the number deployed.
I think the German president would be well advised to worry about her own country’s forces and defence spending. Leave Canadians to worry about ours. More significantly, our media should have also taken the trouble to unearth these simple facts and mentioned them to put the NATO bureaucrats’ suggestions into a less damning context. I guess the temptation to indirectly slag Prime Minister Harper was a more attractive prospect.
Jon Coates, Halifax
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Honorons Nos Soldats Canadians - Honour our Canadian Soldiers
HEADS UP ATLANTIC CANADA- Mark Hartwig and the band are leaving Prince Edward Island 2da and then on2 Nova Scotia and final wrap-up in Newfoundland- Mark is carrying the cross 2 bear of PTSD in the walk across Canada 2 ensure PTSD and Mental Health Matters across our Canada- please come out and give the group and hug, love, support.... IF OUR TROOPS ARE GOOD ENOUGH 2 DIE 4 U... THE LEAST WE CAN DO IS HONOUR AND PROTECT THEM... it's our turn now...
SCHEDULE- INTO NO MAN’S LAND- walking the cross of PTSD troops and vets across Canada
MEDIA CONTACT: Kate MacEachern:Katemac1606@gmail.com
Subject: Schedule
Wednesday Sept 3 Charlottetown, PEI
Thursday Sept 4 Charlottetown, PEI/Amherst, NS
Friday Sept 5 Amherst/Halifax, NS
Saturday Sept 6 Halifax/New Glasgow, NS
Monday Sept 8 Antigonish/Sydey, NS
Tuesday Sept 9 Sydney to Port Aux Basque, NF
Wednesday Sept 10 Port Aux Basque/Cornerbrook, NF
Thursday Sept 11 Gander, NF
Friday Sept 12 Clarenville/Placentia-Castle Hill, NF
Saturday Sept 13 St. John's, NF
Sunday Sept 14 St. John's, NF
He's wearing a rucksack,
and planting a cross at the roadside each day to mark one of our brothers or sisters,
fallen to PTSD. Link to the group below to support.
... 1969, to a nation
decades from diagnosing PTSD, he went straight to the water. ... The film's Executive
Producers are Harvey Gannon, Mark Hartwig and Steve ...
Into No Man's Land PTSD
Awareness March could be coming through your town! Steve Hartwig would love
to meet you all. If you are interested ...
15 Jul 2014 ...
When Steve Hartwig, 44, smells gasoline, he has flashbacks to an
incident that occurred in the former Republic
of Yugoslavia.
4 Aug 2014 ... B.C.
war veteran Steve Hartwig on his march across Canada to raise awareness about PTSD. . Download the
podcast ...
www.montrealgazette.com/health/veterans+walk...ptsd.../story.html
21 Aug 2014 ... Hartwig
says he's been dealing with PTSD for more than 20 years but it was the recent .... Top marks
for these top back-to-school fashion trends.
We are Canadian Vets... if we are brave enough 2 die 4 your basic safety and freedoms at least have the decency 2 honour us when we come home- it's time
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AUGUST 2014- Over 10,000 came out 2 honour Armed Forces Day- CFB Greenwood NS
NOVA SCOTIA - Natal Day 2014: Garden Party draws hundreds
via @metrohalifax
http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/1116120/natal-day-2014-garden-party-draws-hundreds/
WWI - put all ur troubles in ur old kit bag and smile smile smile
Imagine the pride of our Canadians of the Great War... and all the battles... if they could see the faces of our children and how our Canada has progressed...
Retired
colonel Bruce Gilchrist wants to make sure Canadians remember the sacrifices
made in the First World War. The First World War Centennial Exhibition, The
Road to Vimy and Beyond, opens Sunday at the Halifax Citadel. (CHRISTIAN
LAFORCE / Staff)
Exhibit
at Halifax Citadel commemorates the Great War
These are
the places Nova Scotians endured. Fought for. Died in.
Too wet.
Too muddy. Too bloody.
Body-littered
fields.
Poisoned
air.
And skies
on fire.
Always
fear. And always valour.
Giant
murals and special displays tell the tales at the First World War Centennial
Exhibition, The Road to Vimy and Beyond. Described by the volunteers who have
put it together as a labour of love, it is also the largest exhibit the group
has undertaken — to mark the 100th anniversary of the Great War.
Here,
Canadian soldiers, captured on camera, still attack Vimy Ridge, exhausted from
the fight, forever weighed down by 13-kg Lewis guns and bayoneted rifles.
Pictures
of decorated Mi’kmaq snipers stare out over a rifle, and the hole in a German
helmet shows deadly calculated aim.
A group
of recently returned veterans at Camp Hill Military Hospital pose with their
nursing sisters. The man sitting in a wheelchair has no legs, a reminder of the
massive casualties suffered by Canadians overseas.
All are
frozen in a
distant time.
So
distant that it worries the volunteers with the Army Museum at the Halifax
Citadel.
So
worried that this group of mostly retired military men say they now are on
their own First World War mission, a century after the start of what was
supposed to be the war to end all wars.
“You know
the legion mantra, ‘Lest we forget,’ and we use the poem For the Fallen. ‘At
the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them,’” says
retired colonel Bruce Gilchrist, as volunteers around him unpack boxes of
one-of-a-kind treasures for their new First World War exhibit, which opens
Sunday.
“Well,
guess what? People aren’t remembering. We’re forgetting. Canadians are no
longer connecting with this.”
While the
1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is written in history books as one of Canada’s
greatest military successes and a defining moment for the country, an Ipsos
Reid poll released in April shows fewer than half of Canadians correctly
identified the First World War as the one in which the battle was fought.
And it
gets worse,
Gilchrist says.
“There
are some people who believe Vimy Ridge is a ski hill. Something to do with the
Olympics in Russia,” he says.
“There is
a real misunderstanding about the war and the sacrifices these young men made.
We lost our last World War I vet in 2010. There are no veterans left to remind
us.”
Yet few
Nova Scotians of that time were untouched by the war. And many of today’s
families would find their own connections to the conflict, if only they
checked, he says.
Of a
population of eight million, more than 620,000 Canadians served in uniform;
30,000 of those troops came from this province. More trained here or passed
through the port.
Nova
Scotia’s munitions plants and coal mining operations fuelled the war machine.
Medical units from St. Francis Xavier Univeristy and Dalhousie University
played their part.
And it
was war that
brought a French munitions ship and Belgian relief vessel into Halifax Harbour
with deadly consequences, in a collision that instantly killed more than 1,600,
wounded 9,000 and flattened neighbourhoods.
Gilchrist
says the goal of the exhibit is not just to remind people of facts and figures
and dates.
It’s to
tell the story of war through the experiences of individuals. So museum-goers
will find uniform-clad mannequins, weapons, scale models, photographs and
paintings, medals and even a temporary wooden grave marker once placed on a
French battlefield.
They’ll
also see a carefully detailed, exact, one-of-a-kind scale model of the Vimy
Memorial and models of Canada’s armoured cars.
They’ll
learn the story of the first tanks — the British Army’s new fighting vehicles
that got their name because the builders’ plans misrepresented them as mobile
water tanks to throw off any would-be spies.
But more
than all this, museum-goers will meet the people — many of them Nova Scotians —
who wore the uniforms, wrote the logbooks, carried the weapons and earned the
medals.
Here,
you’ll see Pte. John Croak’s Victoria Cross. Croak single-handedly bombed a
machine-gun nest, taking control of the gun, and taking its crew prisoner.
Wounded,
he then led a charge into an enemy trench, capturing an entire garrison, before
dying of his injuries.
Find
Terry Creighton’s uniform of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
and his logbooks detailing his time with the Royal Flying Corps, during which
his brave actions on the Western Front resulted in a Mention in Dispatches. But
the Dartmouth man’s attempt to save his best friend in the Battle of the Somme
was a failed one. Although he carried him to safety, his friend was fatally
injured and buried in France.
See the
men of the
No. 2 Construction Battalion, the only segregated Canadian army unit, and the
unit padre, Rev. William White, who was the first black commissioned officer in
the Canadian army.
And so
much more.
“There
are so many stories to be told. You just can’t tell one,” says Gilchrist.
“We’re going to build this over four years, so we’ll be changing it. We want
people to come back more than once.”
When the
Army Museum first began in 1952, volunteers displayed items connected to Nova
Scotia’s and Canada’s military past, borrowed items from other museums —
locally, nationally and even from the Tower of London in England.
Today,
more than 90 per cent of the Army Museum’s entire collection is made up of
donations from across the country, but mostly from Nova Scotians. Many of the
items are unique.
Gilchrist
says they are essential to an exhibit that strives to explain the war and to
reconnect Nova Scotians with their past.
And to
commemorate. Not celebrate nor glorify.
It’s a
difference that matters, Gilchrist says.
“Any time
we talk about the First World War, we are commemorating. The only celebrating
to do with the First World War is the end of it.”
THE ROAD
TO VIMY AND BEYOND
Where: Halifax Citadel War Museum
Open: Starting May 4 to June 30, 9-5;
July1–Aug.31, 9-6; Sept.1–Nov.11, 9-5
Admission: Free with entry to Halifax
Citadel
Can’t
Miss: The
largest scale model of the Vimy Memorial in Canada, faithful to the details of
the monument that stands at the highest point of Vimy Ridge in memory of the
620,000 Canadians who fought in the war and the more than 60,000 Canadians who
lost their lives doing so.
Guides: Army Museum volunteers will be
on hand to provide information and answer any questions.
Need to
know: The Army
Museum is run by volunteers. This exhibit is the largest project the group has
untertaken in its 60-year history.
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it's a long way 2 tipperary- WWI
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Diaries open window on WWI for defence chief
By Murray
BrewsterThe Canadian Press
FRED CHARTRAND
General Tom Lawson,
Chief of Defence Staff, is shown in his office at National Defence haedquarters
in Ottawa, Friday, August 1, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand
OTTAWA – Gen. Tom Lawson, Canada’s
top military commander, was thumbing through his grandfather’s First World War
diaries when he had a startling moment of kinship with a man he knew only as a
“tough” old guy.
One of the journal’s entries told of
a soggy day in southern England in 1918 as newly minted flight-lieutenant
Norman Moran endured the rigours of Royal Flying Corp training at the controls
of Sopwith Camel biplane, a notoriously tricky fighter plane.
Moran was preparing to fight high
above the grinding morass of trenches and shell fire, but ultimately didn’t get
the chance.
The war ended before he could get to
France, but even still he lost two dozen friends and colleagues to training
accidents on the Salisbury Plains southwest of London.
One of the under-appreciated legacies
of the war to end all wars is how it spawned a culture of service in succeeding
generations, with many of those in uniform today tracing their ancestry back to
that calamitous time.
Reading through the time-worn passages,
Lawson said he recognized his grandfather buried much of his grief, but the
diaries still gave him a glimpse of an anxious young man struggling to master
what was then a dangerous machine.
“It was a connection I’d never felt
to my grandfather,” Lawson said of the diaries, which he only received last
Christmas.
“His experiences in flight training
were very much like my experiences in flight training. You (start) with
terrible self- confidence and you have to build that self-confidence to become
a pilot.”
Moran, Lawson’s maternal grandfather,
went on to serve in the Second World War as a squadron commander alongside U.S.
forces in Alaska. Both Lawson’s father and his paternal grandfather also served
in uniform.
Lance Cpl. Thomas Lawson started out
as driver, but ended up serving as a rifleman during the exceptionally bloody
last 100 days of the First World War, when the 100,000-strong Canadian Corps
served as the shock troops of the British Army on the Western Front.
Other soldiers, notably retired
lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie, also trace their lineage back to the war.
Both of Leslie’s grandfathers, former
general Andrew McNaughton and Brooke Claxton, served with distinction in the
artillery. Leslie’s father was also a gunner in Korea.
Historian Jack Granatstein said the
war helped foster a legacy of service in a number of families, but the
phenomenon is most pronounced among junior non-commissioned officers, the
backbone of the military.
“Seems to me I can think of a large
number of sergeants who sent their kids to (Royal Military College) so that
they would keep the connection but do it as an officer,” said Granatstein, who
penned the book The Greatest Victory: Canada’s One Hundred Days, 1918.
“I’m not sure you can do that in the
UK, for example. I don’t think the son of a sergeant could end up at Sandhurst
(Britain’s officer training school). But ours is a more democratic society.
Getting into RMC is a matter of having sufficient grades.”
Being the grandson of a lance
corporal, Lawson, who was appointed chief of defence staff in October 2012,
embodies that spirit to a certain extent. He rose to become Canada’s top
military commander.
On Friday, the military marked the
milestone event of 50 years since the creation of the chief of defence staff
position.
Lawson counts former general Sir
Arthur Currie, the commander of Canadian Corps and the architect of the victory
at Vimy Ridge, as one of his heroes.
The wars Currie fought off the
battlefield, with his allies and most notably with the volatile Sam Hughes, Canada’s
minister of militia and defence, have been significantly instructive for
Lawson.
“He teaches me today that there
things that are far more important than simply following orders,” he said.
“There is ground for a chief of defence staff to die on, so to speak, in
defence of the Canadian Armed Forces, but (also) in defence of Canadians and
Canadian interests.”
There’s another interesting parallel,
Granatstein says.
Lawson is struggling today with a
shrinking defence budget in much the same way Currie and other soldiers from
the First World War generation had to fight to preserve what was built up
during the conflict.
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UK Bagpipes- UK The Brave- British and Canadian Troops
- CANADA- Black Loyalist Soldier prominetntly depicted fighting on British side -John Singleton's Copley's 1782- heroes black loyalist copley
CANADA: Timeline of key events for First World War
By Staff The Canadian Press
A First World War timeline, with key Canadian dates:
June 28, 1914: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo.
Aug. 4, 1914: Britain goes to war against Germany, Canada is automatically included.
Aug. 22, 1914: Canada passes the War Measures Act, giving the federal government the power to do anything deemed necessary “for the security, defence, peace, order and welfare of Canada.” It allows for the internment of enemy aliens. About 8,500 people were interned over the next four years.
Oct. 1, 1914: First Canadian Division sails for Britain.
Nov. 1, 1914: HMS Good Hope is sunk at the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile, taking four Canadian midshipmen down with her. They are the first Canadians killed in action.
Feb. 16, 1915: First Canadian Division arrives in France.
April 22-28, 1915: Second Battle of Ypres. Canadians hit by chlorine gas attack. First Canadian Division suffers over 6,000 casualties.
Sept. 17, 1915: Second Canadian Division arrives in France.
June 1, 1915: Prohibition starts to go into effect, province by province. By 1921, every province except Quebec and B.C. adopted prohibition.
June 2-13, 1915: Battle of Mount Sorrel. Some 8,000 Canadian casualties.
July 1, 1916: Opening day of the Battle of the Somme. The Newfoundland Regiment sent about 780 men into the attack and 684 were killed or wounded. The battle dragged out until mid-November, with the Canadian Corps joining the fighting in September. Canadian casualties: 24,029.
April 9-12, 1917: Canadians storm and capture Vimy Ridge. Casualties: 10,602.
Aug. 29, 1917: Canada’s conscription bill becomes law.
Sept. 20, 1917: The War-time Elections Act becomes law, giving the vote in federal elections to women who were British subjects otherwise qualified as to age, race and residence; and the wife, widow, mother, sister or daughter of any person in the naval forces inside or outside Canada or any person in the military forces outside Canada who was serving or served with Canada or Great Britain.
Oct. 26, 1917: Canadian Corps opens the Battle of Passchendaele.
Nov. 14, 1917: Canadian Corps winds up Passchendaele battle. Casualties: 15,654.
Nov. 20, 1917: Canada’s first Income Tax Act becomes law.
Dec. 6, 1917: Accident involving munitions ship in Halifax harbour triggers explosion that kills 1,630 people.
Dec. 17, 1917: Borden’s Unionist government wins federal election. Union: 150, Liberal 83, three others.
March 28, 1918: Anti-conscription riots rock Quebec City.
May 24, 1918: An Act to confer the Electoral Franchise upon Women extends the vote to women who were British subjects, 21 years of age, and otherwise meet the qualifications entitling a man to vote. It becomes effective Jan. 1, 1919.
Aug. 8-11, 1918: The Battle of Amiens. The Canadian Corps spearheads the attack. German general calls Aug. 8 “the black day of the German Army.” Casualties: 9,074
Aug. 8-Nov. 11, 1918: The Hundred Days, a series of hard-fought battles, Allied advances and German retreats, brings Canadians to Mons, Belgium on final day of the war.
Nov. 11, 1918: An armistice goes into effect at 11 a.m. and the shooting and shelling stops.
CANADIANS ARE POLITE??? PASSIVE???- I DON'T THINK SO... hugs and love folks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEsk8b09cQM
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WE WELCOME OUR EUROPEAN EDUCATED YOUTH, ASIAN, AFRICAN, BALKINS YOUTH, AUSSIES, UK, IRELAND.... COME AND JOIN OUR YOUNG NATIONS... FREE YOUNG AND STRONG....
Port calls on SMU students
Internship program aims to help more international graduates stay in Nova Scotia
JOANN ALBERSTAT BUSINESS EDITOR
jalberstat@herald.ca @CH_JAlberstat
Cultural awareness and networking opportunities: These are two ways in which international students in particular benefit from internships, a Saint Mary’s University MBA student says.
“Someone like me who is trying to enter the Canadian workforce, it’s a very different work ethic," Miguel Bautista said in an interview Thursday.
“For example, I’m not used to coming in to an environment that doesn’t penalize you for being too early or too late. You can be who you want to be."
Bautista, a second-year student from the Philippines, was on hand for the launch of an internship program aimed at encouraging more international students to stay in Nova Scotia after they graduate.
The Halifax Port Authority is partnered with the Halifax university’s Sobey School on Business on the three-year project, which is getting underway this year.
The program will allow two business students per year to have a paid internship at the authority. The work terms will range from four months to eight months, depending on their student and the work requirements.
Karen Oldfield, the authority’s president and CEO, said the new program builds on training opportunities — such as summer jobs and co-op placements — already offered to post-secondary students by the port organization. The international initiative has a specific focus on retaining senior business students at Saint Mary’s, she said.
“Their choice is either to go home or try to find a job here.
“We want to be that bridge that gives them that little edge that enables them to find a job here."
Oldfield said she hopes other organizations establish similar programs to help international students get work experience in the province.
Almost half the students at the Sobey School are from other countries, Saint Mary’s president Colin Dodds said.
The program will cost an estimated $23,000 to $26,000 per year.
A local business group, the Atlantic section of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association, was involved in helping the port authority put in place a memorandum of understanding with the university to set up the program.
Bautista, who had an internship last summer at Halifax tech consultancy T4G, said it’s not only international students who benefit from such programs. The perspective that international students bring to the workplace is also an asset for employers, he said.
“It’s a really different way of attacking problems, finding solutions, talking to people," the IT specialist said. “If someone needs a different perspective, that’s pretty much what we are, by definition."
Having a global perspective in the workplace also helps companies looking to do business in another part of the world, Bautista
said.
Their choice is either to go home or try to find a job here. We want to be that bridge that gives them that little edge that enables them to find a job here.
Karen Oldfield Halifax Port Authority president and CEO
Miguel Bautista attends an announcement Thursday at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market of an internship program aimed at encouraging more international students to stay in Nova Scotia after they graduate. CHRISTIAN LAFORCE • Staff
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. very critical 2 mid- 2000s..... and treatment of the monsters??? UN/NATO STYLE- destroy ur troops at home who fought and gave u all ur freedoms... and baby and hug ur Monsters???? Seriously???
One Pissed off Canadian Housewife ON DEVOTION 2 OUR TROOPS... CANADA STYLE
This is very good PLEASE read....
Thought you might like to read this letter to the editor. Ever notice how some people just seem to know how to write a letter?
This one surely does!
This was written by a Canadian woman, but oh how
it also applies to the U.S.A., U.K. and Australia .
THIS ONE PACKS A FIRM PUNCH
Written by a housewife in New Brunswick , to
her local newspaper. This is one ticked off lady...
"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was
it or was it not, started by Islamic people who
brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001
and have continually threatened to do so since?
Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered
that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from
the capitol of the USA and in a field in Pennsylvania?
Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
Do you think I care about four U. S. Marines urinating on some dead Taliban insurgents?
And I'm supposed to care that a few Taliban were
claiming to be tortured by a justice system of a
nation they are fighting against in a brutal Insurgency.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle
East, start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief
of which, is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan .
I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are
sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head, while Berg
screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called insurgents
in Afghanistan , come out and fight like men,
instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in Mosques and behind women and children.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow
themselves up in search of Nirvana, care about the
innocent children within range of their suicide Bombs.
I'll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that
their freedom of Speech on stories, is more important than
the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting
at home, to hear about them when something happens.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a
CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent
terrorist to obtain information, know this:
I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the
head when he is told not to move because he
might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:
I don't care. Shoot him again.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food, that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe, in your heart of hearts:
I don't care.
And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes
it's spelled 'Koran' and other times 'Quran.'
Well, Jimmy Crack Corn you guessed it.
I don't care!!
If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to
all your E-mail Friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to
the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!
If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete
button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't
complain when more atrocities committed by radical
Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering, if
during their life on earth, they made a difference in
the world. But, the Soldiers don't have that problem.
I have another quote that I would like to
share AND...I hope you forward All this.
One last thought for the day:
Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The British Soldier.
3. The Canadian Soldier.
4. The US Soldier, and
5. The Australian Soldier
One died for your soul,
the other four, for you and your children's Freedom.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON,
AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET!
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HUMOUR.... MIND U A FEW YEARS BACK... MILLIONS WATCHING THE BACKS OF OUR TROOPS WERE VERY ANGRY....
A Canadian female libertarian wrote a lot of letters to the Canadian government, complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. She demanded a response to her letter. She received back the following reply:
National Defense Headquarters
M Gen George R. Pearkes Bldg.,
15 NT 101 Colonel By Drive Ottawa , ON
K1A 0K2
Canada Dear Concerned Citizen,
Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces, who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa . You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense, to be called 'Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers' program, or L.A.R.K. for short.
In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided, on a trial basis, to divert several terrorists and place them in homes of concerned citizens such as yourself, around the country, under those citizen's personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence in Toronto next Monday.
Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud is your detainee, and is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint. You will be pleased to know that we will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with your recommendations.
Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his 'attitudinal problem' will help him overcome those character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling, however, we strongly recommend that you hire some assistant caretakers.
Please advise any Jewish friends, neighbors or relatives about your house guest, as he might get agitated or even violent, but we are sure you can reason with him. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless in your opinion, this might offend him. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills either in your home or wherever you choose to take him while helping him adjust to life in our country.
Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters except sexually, since he views females as a form of property, thereby having no rights, including refusal of his sexual demands. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him.
You also should know that he has shown violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire. I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of 'respecting his culture and religious beliefs' as described in your letter.
You take good care of Ahmed and remember that we will try to have a counselor available to help you over any difficulties you encounter while Ahmed is adjusting to Canadian culture.
Thanks again for your concern. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man. Good luck and God bless you.
Cordially,
Gordon O'Connor
Minister of National Defense
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OUR BELOVED USA- Americans Grow their Balls back- and it's a Grade IV teacher who has Made In America written across her American heart.... Sweet Jesus, Mother Mary and Joseph...
HOLY SHEEET SHERLOCK....
The United States of America just got their balls back – and this American
Teacher has done it...
The United States of America just got
their balls back – and this American Teacher has done it...
A TEACHER FROM THE GREAT STATE OF MISSOURI WILL LOSE HER
JOB FOR STANDING UP FOR ALL OF US.
Give this teacher and true American a standing ovation.
This 4th grade teacher has said it all, and she was brave enough to attach her name to it.
This 4th grade teacher has said it all, and she was brave enough to attach her name to it.
... The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Mr. Obama:
I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.
I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.
You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the
Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of
the United States of America . You are responsible to the citizens of the
United States . You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on
earth.
I personally resent that you go around the world
apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do
not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First
World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of
the peoples of Europe ? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan
was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?
Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the
United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read
the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States ? This
country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this
country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do
you not understand this?
Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to
all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of
Saudi Arabia .... You didn't show Great Britain , our best and one of our
oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi
Arabia .. How dare you, sir! How dare you!
You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest
generation because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit
a mosque in Turkey ...... You offended our dead and every veteran when you give
the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from
themselves. What's the matter with you? I am convinced that you and the members
of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud
puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.
You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers
and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves
in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the
Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about
them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.
What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1
million in bonuses to their staff members on top of the $2.5 million in
automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average
House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my
employer. You haven't said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely
didn't!
Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now?
Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now?
I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as
brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you
are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you.
I also want you to know that I personally find just about
everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I
promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to
spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.
Sincerely,
Every real American
P.S. I rarely ask that emails be 'passed around'.................PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST......it's past time for all Americans to wake up!
Every real American
P.S. I rarely ask that emails be 'passed around'.................PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST......it's past time for all Americans to wake up!
Ms Kathleen Lyday
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy . C
Hillsboro , MO 63050
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy . C
Hillsboro , MO 63050
(This woman may lose her job for this letter.. I believe
we owe it to her for expressing the outrage that we feel but fail to address.
Please pass this on.)
THANK U REAL AMERICAN VETS 2014 FACEBOOK PAGE
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Jan 2014- Commemorating 100th Anniversary of WWI – The Great War- Canada
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS- Getcha Canada On folks- check out incredible map of WWI Canada folks – BLOGS- God bless our Canada and the people who keep our freedoms free
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Canada’s most iconic – Lobster- Come Visit Nova Scotia – go fishing with r fishers-church suppers- Canada’s Ocean Playground- recipies- Maritime Lobster Panel Report- Canada’s Atlantic Nova Scotia has the most frigid waters 4 Lobster – why their shells are perfect all year round- Largest lobsters ev-a photos/fisher videos…
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NOVA SCOTIA- Mi’kmaq, Black Loyalists, Acadians, Scots, Irish, Jamaica, Africa, China, India, German, Japan, Dutch – over 200 cultures and 2 official languages- French (Acadian)-English- come visit…CANADA PURE
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS: June26- Come Visit Nova Scotia-history-culture- Music-jazz,blues,hiphop/rap, folk, humour,country, kitchen-check out r cultures-the fun 4 all ages n disabilites-Mi’kmaq,Black Loyalist, French Acadians,Scots,Irish,China,India,Japan,Jamaica,German,Dutch-200 cultures-come visit
OLD NOVA SCOTIA BLUEBERRY GRUNT RECIPE,...
Old Fashioned Blueberry Grunt
1 quart blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Put blueberries, sugar and water in saucepan. Boil gently until they are juicy. Add dumplings (see below), cover tightly, wait 15 minutes and dig in!
Dumplings
2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter or shortening
Milk
1 quart blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Put blueberries, sugar and water in saucepan. Boil gently until they are juicy. Add dumplings (see below), cover tightly, wait 15 minutes and dig in!
Dumplings
2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter or shortening
Milk
Sift flour, baking powder, salt & sugar into a bowl. Cut in butter and add enough milk to make a very soft dough. Drop by spoonfuls into hot blueberries. Cover tightly with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes (no peeking!). The dumplings should be puffed and well cooked through. Transfer cooked dumplings to serving dishes. Ladle berries over top; serve with fresh cream
classified - welcome 2 the maritimes
spinny brothers if u were my brother
Don Messer and His Islanders
HANK SNOW SQUID JIGGIN GROUNDS
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Thursday, July 25, 2013-BLOGGED
NOVA SCOTIA Nouvelle-Écosse PURE
pg2- CANADA HISTORY-FACTS AND HILARIOUS FUN- also One Billion Rising- Nova
Scotia businesses soar- Canada Economy high
AND..
Thursday, July 25, 2013- BLOGGED Page 1...
NOVA SCOTIA PURE-CANADA HISTORY-FACTS AND HUMOUR 1st Classified-Trews Georges Island Nova Scotia weekend- One Billion Rising Canada-break the chains- 2nd CANADA PROVINCE-TERRITORIES- flags-coats of arms, history- and THE BEST CANADIAN JOKES- Federal Government 2003 (smile)- 4 OUR MILITARY AND ALL Canadians- u gotta smile - stellar humour and Canadiana
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/07/nova-scotia-pure-canada-history-facts.html
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CANADA MILITARY NEWS:JULY15-USA TRAITOR- SGT. BOWE BERGDAHL- OBAMA AND NATO BETRAY OUR TROOPS AND AFGHANS AND SHAME THE WORLD- just 2 participate in a white mans war that they have created with Canada and EU. Shame on the lot of u.... u disgrace our troops of our nations and slap the faces of Afghan women and children/Adfghan news updates/troop love/Dr. Abdullah Abdullah - Good Morning Freedom /UKRAINE BEING HIJACKED BY NATO AND USA, CANADA AND EU/Afghanistan and our Nations troops betrayed by American President/Ukraine betrayed by West dogma- $$$ 2 Ukraine NOT Home Nations troop healing and education???
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/06/canada-military-news-june-3-obama-and.html
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NATO/USA/Canada, UK, Australia ETC. u have betrayed our troops coming home needing and NOT having immediate mental health care in place- IT'S NOT ABOUT THE WAR- IT'S ABOUT THE WARRIOR- IVAN LOPEZ is the face of your betrayal. Shame on u/ USA-CANADA ETC. u must get ur medical and mental programs in place up NOW-please u shame us all- April 4th update- see we told u-here's the real story
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/04/nato-usacanada-uk-australia-etc-u-have.htmlBLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS August 1update, From June 2014-Afghanistan-1960s remember- HEADS UP -Pakistani Rebels and Suicide Attackers slither in2 our Afghanistan -Hey Canada n USA etc. Wld u die 2 vote 4 ur countries like r Afghans? - AFGHANS BRING PRIDE 2 NATO TROOPS AND AFGHAN TROOPS AND POLICING APRIL 5, 2014- they are rising up and defiant and proud showing the world how 2 be free at last- no taliban gonna take their world no more... no way- Whilst UN, EU,USA, Canada politicians hijack our world and turn humanity in2 ashes-Ukraine4oil.... Afghanistan rises us up/DAILY UPDATES AFGHANISTAN- Kabul Dreams -Good Morning Freedom
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/03/usa-and-europe-and-un-have-hijacked.htmlblogged:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Why we are in Afghanistan- Why have politicans and United Nations betrayed our troops worse than the Heretic Muslim who kill innocent Muslims by million? Why the betrayal so badly by global politicans of Nato children serving?
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/01/canada-military-news-why-we-are-in.htmlBLOGGED:
Saturday, January 4, 2014
BETTE DAVIS- OLD AGE AIN'T NO PLACE 4 SISSIES- FOLKS OVER 55 ONLY PLEASE- middle age and seniors ONLY- some smiles, some music- life - every day is a good day
Our sixth annual Canada Day survey
(Chris Wattie/Reuters)
It can be hard living next to history’s
greatest cultural, military and economic superpower. But that doesn’t mean the
United States is best at everything. As Canada celebrates its 146th birthday we
dig into the numbers to find some of the many ways Canada is better off–from
sports and sex to politics and entertainment.
Life & well-being
1.
We live longer: Canadians born today will live an
average of three years longer than
Americans (81 years in Canada versus 78.7 south of the border). Not only that,
the gap between life expectancy in the two countries is widening with each
passing decade—it was less than a year in the late 1970s.
2.
We’re more satisfied with our lives: According to theBetter Life Index, an international
quality of life comparison by the OECD each year, Canadians enjoy a higher level of life satisfaction than
Americans, scoring 7.4 out of 10, versus 7.0 in the U.S.
3.
Saying “Sorry” is good for you: Canadians are mocked for always apologizing,
but it’s not a character flaw. Saying sorry has been found to boost happiness
and strengthen relationships. Researchers at the University of Waterloo even
found apologizing to
a cop when
pulled over for speeding can get fines reduced an average of $51. True,
scientists did recently claim that refusing to apologize for your actions leads
to a sense of empowerment, but such short-sighted thinking would only appeal to
self-centred Americans. (Sorry, that was mean.)
4.
Our kids are all right: Canada’s schools take heat from all sides, but they
must be doing something right. Our 15-year-olds routinely score in the top 10
of 65 countries that participate in the OECD’s reading, math and science tests.
Last time around, in 2009, we were sixth, just behind Singapore and ahead of
New Zealand. American teens? A lukewarm 17th. Ouch.
There’s
more: (5) We have a lower rate of suicide (11.1
per 100,000 people, versus 12 in the U.S.), (6) a lower rate of infant mortality (5.1
per 1,000 live births, versus 6.1 in the U.S.), (7) and our health care costs per person are
much lower (US$4,445 per capita in Canada, versus $8,233 in the U.S.). (8) New
parents who work are better off (maternity-parental leave in
Canada is 50 weeks, versus just 12 unpaid weeks in the U.S.). (9) More of our
marriages last: For every 1,000 population in the U.S.,3.6 marriages end in divorce annually,
compared to 2.1 in Canada. (10)
Poor kids are more likely to attend university or college here: By age 19 to 21
roughly 54 per cent of Canadian youth from low-income families are enrolled in
post-secondary education, compared to just 30 per cent of the poorest youth in
America. (11) We’re less prudish: An Angus Reid poll found
83 per cent of Canadians believe sex between an unmarried man and woman is
acceptable, versus just 59 per cent of Americans.
12.
We’re better educated: 48.3
per cent of Canadians have a post-secondary degree, compared to 40.3 per cent
in the U.S.
14.
We have more sex: According to a survey by condom-maker Durex,
59 per cent of Canadians say they have sex weekly, versus 53 per cent of
Americans.
16.
We’re richer: Canada’s
average household net worth of $363,000 is higher than America’s, at $320,000.
17.
We accept homosexuality:
80 per cent of Canadians say society should accept gays and lesbians, versus 60
per cent in the U.S.
18.
More of us give to charities: Roughly 64 per cent of Canadians donate money to charities,
compared to 60 per cent in the U.S.
19.
We have better work-life balance:
More than 11 per cent of U.S. employees regularly clock 50-hour workweeks,
compared to 3.9 per cent here.
20.
We brave the cold better:
Our climate is colder and our population smaller, but relatively fewer of us
succumb to the cold. Where Canada has 5,644 excess winter deaths (relative to
average non-winter deaths), the U.S. sees 108,500.
Money & work
22.
Canada has greater economic freedom: So says the U.S.-based Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.
Canada scores 6th place, while America comes in 10th. Credit our sounder public
finances.
23.
We have less income disparity:
While the gap between rich and poor has become more marked in both countries,
it’s more like a canyon in the U.S. Between 1966 and 2011, the average
inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90 per cent of American workers grew by
a negligible $59. Meanwhile, the income of the top 10 per cent of workers
soared by $116,071. Among OECD countries ranked for worst income disparity, the
U.S takes fourth place, behind only Chile, Mexico and Turkey. Canada comes in
12th out of 34 nations.
24.
Our young workers are doing better: Yes, Canada has a lower unemployment rate than
the U.S., but while the overall gap is narrowing, young workers here are more
likely to find work. Canada’s youth unemployment rate is 13.5 per cent,
compared to 16.8 per cent in the States.
25.
Our banks are better: Earlier this year Bloomberg ranked the world’s strongest
banks. Four of the top 10
were Canadian, and all scored higher than the top U.S. bank, Citigroup, which
came in 9th.
26.
We have more social mobility:
If you want to live the American Dream, move to Canada. Social mobility,
measured by intergenerational changes in income between sons and their fathers,
is twice as high in Canada as in the U.S. In other words, a son born to a poor
father in the U.S. is twice as likely to remain poor throughout his life than
had he been born in Canada.
27.
The money in your wallet is safer: Canadian currency once had a terrible
reputation for being easy to counterfeit, but new polymer bills introduced by
the Bank of Canada have hi-tech features that make them almost impossible to
reproduce. Of the 500 million notes circulated since 2011, only 56 fakes have
been seized. In the U.S., out of every one million bank notes in circulation,
an estimated average of 6.5 are fakes.
There’s
more: (28) Our corporate taxes are lower (PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks Canada
8th out of 185 countries for its advantageous corporate tax structure while the
U.S. is 69th). (29) We embrace transit: Seven of the 10 North American cities
with the most people taking transit to work are
in Canada. (30) We get more paid holidays:
America has no mandated paid holidays or vacation time, so 23 per cent of U.S.
workers get no paid time off, compared to Canadian workers who get at least two
weeks and nine paid public holidays. (31) More women work here: For most of the
past 40 years more American women have been in the labour market than in
Canada, but after 2000 that changed—62 per cent of Canadian women are
in the labour market, compared to57 per cent in the U.S. (32)
More of our immigrants strike it rich: In both the U.S. and Canada the majority
of millionaires are self-made, but a larger number in Canada are immigrants, according to a BMO study—in
Canada nearly half of millionaires are immigrants or second-generation
residents, compared to just one-third in America.
Arts & entertainment
33.
The biggest summer movies of 2013 have Canadian DNA: Aside from the
Canadian-packed comedy This is the End,
Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific
Rim was
filmed in Toronto. The
Wolverine features
everyone’s favourite mutant Canuck. Kick-Ass 2 features
the dark return of Jim Carrey of Newmarket, Ont. And really, Star
Trek Into Darkness would be just a glimmer in J.J.
Abrams’s eye if it weren’t for William Shatner, native of Côte Saint-Luc, Que.
34.
Our opera house is tops: There’s no city in North America with an opera house
to compare to the Four Seasons Centre in
Toronto. Jack Diamond, who built it, was promptly handpicked by Valery Gergiev
to build the new Mariinsky II theatre
in St. Petersburg, Russia.
35.
The best small-screen sci-fi is secretly Canadian:Revolution may
be keeping on the lights at NBC andThe
Walking Dead may be an American creation, but the
best small-screen science fiction—the series that thrill both critics and
audiences—are secretly Canadian.Continuum, Lost
Girl, Haven and Orphan
Black are
all capturing both record ratings and critics’ notoriously fickle hearts—and
all are filmed here, funded by our networks and starring a host of talented
Canadian actors (albeit some of whom are masked in layers of monster makeup).
36.
Our broadcast TV doesn’t have to treat adults like children: Maybe it’s because
Americans are such sensitive folk, or it’s our ill-defined role as cultural
bridge between the U.S. and Europe, but Canadian TV regularly gets away with
showing things broadcast networks south of the border can’t: nipples, F-bombs
and the like. When The
Sopranos aired
unedited on CTV, executive producer David Chase said that could never happen on
U.S. network TV: “It’s just not possible, we have rules against that.”
37.
We’re funnier: Hollywood and American network television have known it for
decades. Wayne and Shuster, Lorne Michaels, Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey—all examples of our comedy
supremacy. And a new generation of Canadian comics is keeping the tradition
alive. Vancouver slackerSeth Rogen has
become one of Hollywood’s most bankable comedians, along with Brampton, Ont.’sMichael Cera and
Montreal’s Jay Baruchel (all
three star in this summer’s apocalyptic comedy This
is the End).
38. We’re better at special effects:
While demand for blockbuster visual effects in movies skyrockets, California’s
special effects industry is collapsing. Why? They can’t keep up with Canada (or
Britain or Asia or New Zealand, but that’s beside the point). In Toronto,
Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg, visual effects artists have been taking over
the design of explosions, gore and CGI monsters as our technical schools pump
out skilled graduates, and movie studios outsource to take advantage of
Canada’s generous tax breaks.
39.
Hollywood is taking advice from . . . Quebec? Not content with ripping off
their own ideas, Hollywood is now so desperate for fresh-ish material that it’s
turning to the biggest and brightest Quebec auteurs for help. Montrealer Ken
Scott is currently remaking his 2011 Québécois hit Starbuck,
this time called Delivery
Manand starring Vince Vaughn. Scott is so in demand that
he was originally hired to direct the English-language remake of Jean-François
Pouliot’s comedy La
grande séduction, now being filmed by fellow Canadian Don
McKellar, and starring B.C. native Taylor Kitsch.
There’s
more: (40) Canadian musicians rule the charts:Michael Bublé, Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen—and those are just the
mildly tolerable pop stars Canada has produced recently. This year will also
see releases fromArcade Fire, the Weakerthans and
the reunited critical darlings, Death from Above 1979. (41) Our
filmmakers are wilder: David Lynch, eat your heart out. Canadian
movies are wilder and weirder–necrophilia in Kissed,
David Cronenberg’s car-crash fetishism and twin gynecologists, and Atom Egoyan’s
films about father-daughter incest, a schoolgirl stripper,
and a wife who hires a young hooker to test her husband.
(42) Our filmmakers are more worldly, too: Unlike Americans, who wait for the
rest of the world to learn English, Canadians get Oscar nominations for
foreign-language films, and not just ones in French—Deepa Mehta’s
Hindi-language Water was
nominated in 2007. (43) We know our art: When museums want to tour their blockbuster
exhibits, they know to stop here first. From the Picasso show at the AGO to
Sebastião Salgado’s work at the ROM, Canada is the stop for top-tier
North American premieres. (44) Our festivals rule: TIFF is
by far North America’s most important film festival, and the world’s
second-biggest after Cannes. Hot Docs is North America’s biggest documentary
festival. Contact is the continent’s biggest photography festival. Just For Laughs is
the biggest comedy festival. Montreal’s Jazz Festival is
still the largest, with the most free concerts, the largest purpose-built
downtown outdoor concert space and the most audacious programming. And
Toronto’s Caribana is the continent’s biggest Caribbean
carnival.
Sports & leisure
45. We dominate hockey: Stanley Cups
aside, hockey is still Canada’s game. While the percentage of Canadians playing
in the NHL has declined since the 1980s, Canadians still make up more than 50
per cent of all players in the league, compared to Americans, who account for
just one-quarter of players.
46. Better football: Since the late
1970s, the National Football League has been tweaking its rules to encourage
more passing—that is, to make the U.S. game more exciting. Up here, we got it
right the first time: a three-down game on a great, big field. So on second and
10, you can bet that ball will be in the air.
47.
We’re actually better at tennis now: While most Canadians have been preoccupied
with hockey, a young man from Thornhill, Ont., has quietly become one of the
most successful men’s tennis players in Canadian history. As of June, Milos Raonic’s ranking was No. 15 among
singles players and, statistically speaking, he has the strongest serve in the
world, serving more aces per match than any other professional player in 2012.
America’s current top male singles player is Sam Querrey, whose
ranking, as of June, was No. 19.
48.
We were first to the races: When it comes to sporting events, Canada got off to
an early start. Established in 1816, the Royal St. John’s Regatta is
North America’s oldest annual sporting event. Hamilton’sAround the Bay Race is
North America’s longest distance road race, which began in 1894, beating Boston
by three years. And this July Toronto plays host to the 154th running of the Queen’s Plate, the
oldest continuously run stakes race on the continent.
49.
We have better skiing: Canada’s most popular ski resort, Whistler, trumps America’s most-visited
resort,Vail, with more trails (200 vs. 193),
longer runs (a total of 36,960 feet vs. 15,840 feet) and more snow (469 inches
vs. 348 inches)
50.
We see more of the world: Last year Canadians took close to 10 million trips abroad
to countries other than the U.S. Despite having a population nearly 10 times
that of Canada, Americans made just 30 million trips overseas. The poor showing
from U.S. travellers shouldn’t be a surprise. While 65 per cent of Canadians
hold a valid passport, only 35 per cent of Americans do.
There’s
more: (51) We’re more plugged into the Internet: In Canada, 83
out of every 100 people surf the web, compared to 77.9 per cent in America.
(52) We invent more sports: Canadians invented lacrosse, ice hockey and
basketball. Oh, and five-pin bowling. What did Americans invent? Baseball.
(Football doesn’t count since it’s just a mutated form of rugby). (53) We get
outdoors more: A survey by the Canadian Tourism Commission found
that more Canadians (30 per cent) consider themselves outdoor adventure
enthusiasts than Americans (26 per cent). (54) We spend less time on the couch:
Americans watch 34 hours of TV each week, four more than Canadians.
Environment & geography
55. Canada has earned a poor reputation
when it comes to fighting climate change, but if you believe the globe is about
to undergo a catastrophic shift in weather patterns, Canada is the best place
to ride it out. UCLA geographer Laurence Smith has argued that by 2050 warming
will unlock vast new resources and transform Canada into an economic
superpower.
56.
Carp-eh diem: We do not yet have to contend with the dreaded Asian carp, a species of fish that has
invaded U.S. waterways, killing off competing species wherever it goes. The
fish are big—up to 40 kg—and they’re crazy, literally throwing themselves into
passing boats. Natural resources officials believe we’ve so far avoided the
onslaught, but really, if this mini-monster reaches the Great Lakes, our rivers
are doomed.
57.
Less spin: Americans mock our weather, but come late spring, we can only look
south with pity. Weaverage just 60 reports of
actual tornadoes per yearcompared with the 1,200 confirmed
tornado strikes in the U.S., the most of any country in the world. Only five
per cent of our storms reach the EF-3 category of intensity, the level where
winds of more than 220 km/h start tearing up buildings and trees. The U.S. gets
about 37 such tornadoes annually, costing the country 80 lives.
58.
We help them repopulate their endangered species: When the U.S. wants to help
an animal species come back from the brink, they call on Canada. In 1995,
dozens of grey wolves were captured in Alberta and shipped south to be let free
in Yellowstone National Park, 72 years after
the park’s last wolf den was destroyed under a federal extermination plan. Next
year Alaska will reintroduce wood bison, North America’s largest living land
mammals, into the wilderness. The animals come from a captive herd started with
Canadian animals.
59. Niagara Falls: Canada’s horseshoe
falls vs. the American side. Enough said.
60.
Water, water everywhere: With less than half a per cent of the world’s
population, we have seven per
cent of its renewable water supply—the most per
inhabitant of any developed country. The supply for an average American is just
11 per cent of what’s available to us.
There’s
more: (61) We have more beautiful coast to enjoy: 243,000 km of shoreline compared
to 153,000 kmin the U.S. (62) According to the OECD Better Life Index our
air is cleaner (16 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic metre here
compared to 18 in the U.S.) and (63) . . . so too is our water (89 per cent of
Canadians report being satisfied with the quality of local water, versus 87 per
cent in the U.S.).
Politics
64.
We’re more peaceful: This year, Canada was ranked the eighth most peaceful country in
the world. The U.S is ranked 100th.
65.
Our election turnout is more fair: While voter turnout may be higher in the
United States, it’s much more equitable in Canada, with broad social inclusion
of both high-income and low-income voters. In Canada,voter turnout for the richest 20 per
cent of
the population is roughly 63 per cent, whereas the participation rate of the
bottom 20 per cent is only slightly less, at 60 per cent. In the States, roughly 79 per cent of the wealthiest
voters turn out to cast ballots, compared to just slightly
more than half of the poorest voters.
66.
Federally, our politicians are (slightly) more representative of the gender divide:
Federally, women make up 24.7 per cent of Parliament, compared to the U.S.
Congress where women account for just 17.8 per cent of representatives.
67. Provincially, our leaders are
(much) more representative of the gender divide: The governments of Ontario,
Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut are
all led by females who are responsible for governing more than 87 per cent of
Canada’s population. By comparison, America has just five female governors, and
the vast majority of Americans live in male-governed states.
68. We have far fewer assassinations:
Since Confederation, only three Canadian politicians have been assassinated,
including two Fathers of Confederation: Thomas D’Arcy McGee was shot by a
Fenian sympathizer in 1868; George Brown was shot in the leg by a former Globe
employee in 1880 (the wound led to a fatal infection). Quebec minister of
labour Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and assassinated by the FLQ in 1970. In the
United States, a staggering 44 politicians have been assassinated, including
four sitting presidents.
69.
We’re fine with gay politicians: While former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey might
be called the first (and only) “openly gay” governor in American history, it
doesn’t really count if you resign as soon as you come out of the closet. In
Canada, not only is Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne openly
gay, but her sexual orientation barely factors into coverage of Ontario
politics. With all the scandals to beset Queen’s Park, the premier’s personal
life is the least shocking thing about Ontario’s government.
There’s
more: (70) We attract more immigrants:
Canada gets 5.65 per 1,000 people, compared to the U.S., with 3.64 per 1,000.
(71) We have fewer lobbyists: We’ve seen an explosion in lobbying, but in
Canada the ratio of lobbyists to senators and MPs is still 12 to 1, while in
the U.S. the ratio of lobbyists to members of Congress is 23 to 1. Some estimate the U.S. ratio is
as high as 65 to 1since many
lobbyists don’t register. (72) We mandate a time for holding the government’s
feet to the fire: Sure, question period has degenerated in recent years, but
nothing like it exists in the U.S. political system. (73) You don’t have to be
rich to run for the highest office in the land: U.S. presidential elections
cost an estimated $7 billion to
mount, while Canada’s top five parties were allowed to spend a combined $90
million, thanks to Elections Canada spending limits.
Science & Technology
74.
We have the “most social astronaut”: Eight North Americans have commanded the
International Space Station over the last four years, but only Canada’s Chris
Hadfield became a household name worldwide. His photos, duets from space and
that cover of Space
Oddity helped
catapult @Cmdr_Hadfield to
one million Twitter followers. @TheRealBuzz (Aldrin)
has 806,000.
75.
Holy crap, we’re discovering a miracle cure: Canada is a leader in fecal
transplant therapy (it’s exactly what it sounds like). By transferring healthy
bacteria from a donor’s stool into patients suffering from potentially fatal
gut infections like C. difficile,
doctors believe it could one day cure all sorts of ailments, maybe even obesity
and allergies.
76.
We lead in quantum computing: What’s that, you ask? Rather than calculating
with ones or zeros as conventional computers do, quantum computers can
theoretically harness subatomic particles to process more complex calculations
in a fraction of the time. And scratch the word theoretical. In May, Burnaby,
B.C.-based D-Wave said one of its quantum computers, the
only such machines commercially available, will be installed at the new Quantum
Artificial Intelligence Lab, a collaboration between Google, the Universities
Space Research Association and NASA.
77.
We’re wiring the oceans like no one else: Canada’sNEPTUNE and VENUS projects
off the coast of B.C. have installed fibre-optic cables that transmit data from
the bottom of the ocean. In 2011, Popular
Sciencenamed NEPTUNE
one of humankind’s “top 10 most ambitious science projects” alongside the Large
Hadron Collider and the International Space Station.
78.
Our dinosaur discoveries are cooler: Not only did archaeologists uncover the
largest-ever bed of dinosaur bones near Medicine Hat, Alta., in 2010, since
then scientists re-examining old fossils identified a new species of
spiky-headed dinosaur called Xenoceratops foremostensis—or
“alien horned-face from Foremost.”Wired recently listed the
world’s 10 best new dinosaur discoveries. Four came from Canada, while just one
was dug up in America.
There’s
more: (79) We’re more rational: Most Canadians (61 per cent) accept evolution,
compared to just 30 per cent of Americans. Incidentally, the same percentage
believe Bigfoot is “definitely” or “probably” real. (80) We’re world leaders in
space robotics: There’s theCanadarm, of course,
but also Dextre, which lives on
the International Space Station and is the most advanced space robot ever
built–a “space handyman” that fixes up the station. In January, Dextre
performed the first demonstration that a robot could refuel a satellite in
orbit, which could give our satellites longer lives in space.
Crime & calamity
81.
We don’t have out-of-control prison
sentences: Last year 38,700 people were serving time in
Canada, roughly 114 for every 100,000 citizens. That’s nothing. In the U.S.
2.24 million Americans are locked up—716 for every 100,000 citizens, the
highest incarceration rate in the world. Canada ranks 136th.
82.
Our government doesn’t kill people: Canada officially abolished capital
punishment in 1976, but no Canadian inmate has been executed since 1962. By
contrast, the U.S. put 43 prisoners to death last
year alone, while 3,125 inmates continue to wait on death row.
83.
Our judges are appointed, not elected: While some believe Canadian judges
should be picked directly by citizens, as is common in American courts, the
idea has largely been written off as inconsistent with the Constitution, which
could be for the best. Studies showjudges have difficulty being
impartial on the bench, when, as candidates, they rely heavily on donors and
special interest groups for support. As well, a study showed judges increase their sentences when facing
re-election. In fact, electoral zealousness added six per
cent to overall prison time for aggravated assault, rape and robbery sentences.
That helps explain America’s crowded prisons.
84.
We’re more relaxed about pot:
In both countries, support for legalizing marijuana is at all-time highs. In
2012, 66 per cent of Canadians supported legalization or decriminalization,
compared to half of Americans.
85. Mass shootings here are rare: Since
1982 in the U.S. there have been at least 45 shootings in which at least six
people were killed. In total, 434 people were murdered in those incidents, and
another 384 injured. During that time, there were two such events in Canada—the
bodies of eight Bandidos gang members were discovered in a Ontario farmer’s
field in 2006, while in 1989, 14 women were gunned down at the École
Polytechnique.
There’s
more: (86) We have far fewer murders: Our homicide rate is 1.73 per 100,000
people, compared to4.7 in the U.S. (87)
Our roads are safer: The number offatalities from
traffic accidents in Canada is 8.8 for every 100,000
people, compared to 13.9 in the U.S. (88) Our youth are safer: America has the
highest mortality rate for young people ages 10 to 24 among developed
countries, with a death rate of 60 per 100,000 of
the population, compared to less than 40 in Canada. (89) We’re less likely to
get robbed: Canada’s robbery rate is 86 per 100,000, far below America’s rate
of 114.
General Canadian awesomeness
90.
We’re more popular: Backpackers knew it for years, but studies confirm the
Maple Leaf really is beloved around the world. In 2012, the Canada brand held top spot in
the Reputation Institute’s ranking of
countries based on people’s trust, admiration and affinity for them. America’s
reputation rank: 23rd.
91.
Our taste in chocolate is better: Everyone knows we have loads of chocolate
candy varieties you can’t get in the U.S.—Coffee Crisp, Aero, Smarties—but
earlier this year Hershey’s said it re-engineered its chocolate recipe to
better appeal to Canadian palates. A Hershey’s spokesperson said Canadians
prefer smoother and sweeter chocolate compared to the “grittier or even
cheesier flavour” chocolate found in America.
92. Our national symbol is a worthier
animal: Yes, eagles soar high, have incredible eyesight and razor-sharp talons.
They’re also carrion-eating louts. As Ben Franklin once noted, “I wish the Bald
Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of
bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly . . . like those among
Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very
lousy . . . a rank Coward.” The beaver, on the other hand, is a rugged, humble
and industrious little creature (okay, rodent).
93. Roadside wonderland: Canada has
more than 1,200 roadside attractions. The U.S. may have more in sheer numbers,
but nothing compares to our giant duck, perogy, sausage, Easter egg, hockey
stick, moose, apple, dinosaur, nickel or lobster.
94. Our Canadian bacon is better than
their Canadian bacon: This can get confusing, but try to follow along. When
Americans buy “Canadian bacon,” they get a package of fully-cooked processed
slices of ham, which Canadians don’t actually eat. Canadian bacon, on the other
hand, isn’t called that by Canadians. Instead it’s peameal bacon, a Toronto
creation of pickle-brine-cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal. It’s a travesty
most Americans can’t tell the difference.
There’s
more: (95) Giant American corporations associate with our unofficial mascot: Up to 80 per cent of the world’s polar
bears are
in Canada—Americans have to make do with polar bears in Coke commercials and on
pop cans. (96) Our lobsters taste better: It’s an endless debate between
fishermen and chefs in the Maritime provinces and Maine. We claim the cooler
waters of Canada spawn tastier crustaceans. Americans disagree. But most Maine
lobster is processed in Canada anyway, so we dominate both ways. (97) Better
sea monsters: Both Ogopogo and the lesser-known monster in Lake Champlain have
been captured on video in recent years. The U.S.’s most famous sea monster,
Jaws, isn’t even real. (98) We’re record-setters: For our population size, no
other country breaks more Guinness world records.
(99) Our national anthem is better: Musicologists in Britain analyzed eight anthemsto
see which drew listeners to join in most—O Canadaranked 5th ahead of the Star-Spangled Banner (6th)
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