O Canada, O Montreal

If you are thinking about visiting Canada, you might want to skip Montreal right now and go to Vancouver instead.

h/t to San Franpsycho for this piece from the Montreal Gazette:

Three people were arrested after pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protesters smashed windows, clashed with police officers, and set vehicles ablaze on Friday evening.

The protest coincided with the arrival of approximately 300 delegates from NATO member states and partner countries attending a high-level summit, running from Nov. 22 to 25 in Montreal, focused on Ukraine, climate change, and the alliance’s future. The protest also came as the second day of the wave of student-wide pro-Palestinian protests across Montreal.

There are a lot of disturbing photos and details at the link.

Gad Saad is a Jewish professor from Lebanon who teaches in Montreal and who has been thinking about moving to the USA. He appreciates that many people are holding Trudeau's feet to the fire concerning the situation in Quebec (some people may blush at his characterization of the sexual dynamics of Trudeau's "type" - nsfw) but there is blame to spread around:

I suppose that the @senateCA chose to ignore my warnings for the past few decades then? https://t.co/hUpBouLxZI

— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) November 23, 2024

He even asks Pierre Poilievre if he will consider mass deportations. He is looking for actual clarity!

How does the situation in Canada compare to our situation here?

History - The Trudeaus

As kids are returning for the holidays, there is an opportunity for some discussion of history. Over at Powerline, Lloyd Billingsley has written America's Trudeau, which some may fault for starting out with a quote from David Frum, who has a history of changing his political stances. But in this case, Frum may be worth heeding. He was born in Canada and it was there that he repudiated leftism (perhaps not permanently):

Pierre Trudeau opted not to serve in World War II, although of age and in good health. He traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities. He wrote in praise of Mao’s murderous regime in China. Trudeau lavishly admired Fidel Castro, Julius Nyerere, and other Third World dictators. The Soviet dissident Andrei Amalrik scathingly recalled Trudeau’s 1971 prime ministerial visit: Trudeau visited the Siberian city of Norilsk and lamented that Canada had never succeeded in building so large a city so far north – unaware, or unconcerned, that Norilsk had been built by slave labor. As prime minister, Trudeau to the extent he could, tried to reorient Canada away from the great democratic alliance.

It’s telling I think that Trudeau came to the edge of endorsing the communist coup against Solidarity in Poland in December 1981. . .

That's pretty extreme.

Billingsley:

And so on, but Trudeau’s service for Stalinist dictatorships never got the attention it deserved. At one time the Royal Canadian Mounted Police handled intelligence matters but in 1984, on Trudeau’s watch, the RCMP was replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 1989, the CSIS “destroyed a Cold War dossier on Pierre Trudeau instead of turning it over to the national archives.” Consider the parallels with the composite character president David Garrow profiled in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama.

There is more interesting information in this piece on parallels between the Trudeaus and Obama, though not all of it is confirmed. There are some things to think about there. I was not aware that Pierre had ties to Stalinists and other communist dictatorships that were quite that deep.

Why would Canadians elect his son?

Billingsley agrees with Steven Hayward that it is time for Canadians to smack down Justin Trudeau.

Quoting more Frum, from 2011, about Pierre:

Canada’s achievement overcoming Trudeau’s disastrous legacy should not inure Canadians to how disastrous that legacy was. Three subsequent important prime ministers – Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper – invested their energies cleaning up the wreckage left by Pierre Trudeau. The work has taken almost 30 years. There was nothing small-scale or parochial about him. As a political wrecker, he was truly world class.

Trudeau believed in a state-led economy, and the longer he lasted in office, the more statist he became. . .

Billingsley:

And so on, inviting a comparison with the record of Justin, in power since 2015. From 2014-22, according to Canada’s Fraser Institute, “Canada’s annual average growth rate declined sharply, ranking third-lowest among 30 countries over the period.” In 2022, “the median employment earnings of workers were lower in every Canadian province than in every U.S. state.”

Like Pierre, Justin Trudeau, is a world-class wrecker. As the anthem puts it, giving him the boot would be a plus brilliant exploit.

We have an entire giant statist machine here. This is interesting. How a small team of attorneys is beating back federal agency overreach

The number of regulations being generated or changed by our government is truly astonishing. Reading part of the Federal Register (and a professional sheet by professional readers of the Federal Register) and sharing my findings with others was once part of my job duties. This kind of activity goes on in companies throughout the country. But ordinary people can also comment on proposed regulations. The link above provides some inspiration and ideas for citizen involvement.

O CANADA, the history

You can't imagine anyone in the Trudeau Regime writing about a plus brilliant exploit in connection with Canada, can you?

O Canada is the National Anthem of Canada.

The music, written by Calixa Lavallée (1842–91), a concert pianist and native of Verchères, Quebec, was commissioned in 1880 on the occasion of a visit to Quebec by John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, marquess of Lorne (later 9th duke of Argyll), then governor-general of Canada, and his wife, Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise. The original French lyrics were written by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier (1839–1920), later chief justice of Quebec. The English lyrics, which are not a translation or rendering of the French, were written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir (1856–1926), a lawyer and recorder of Montreal.

The official lyrics are quite different from the original lyrics, and the original lyrics in French and English are quite different from each other. These are the last two verses of the original French verses:

De son patron, précurseur du vrai Dieu,

Il porte au front l’auréole de feu.

Ennemi de la tyrannie

Mais plein de loyauté.

Il veut garder dans l’harmonie,

Sa fière liberté;

Et par l’effort de son génie,

Sur notre sol asseoir la vérité,

Sur notre sol asseoir la vérité.

Amour sacré du trône et de l’autel,

Remplis nos coeurs de ton souffle immortel!

Parmi les races étrangères,

Notre guide est la loi;

Sachons être un peuple de frères,

Sous le joug de la foi.

Et répétons, comme nos pères,

Le cri vainqueur: “Pour le Christ et le roi,”

Le cri vainqueur: “Pour le Christ et le roi.”

And I like this from the original verses in English:

O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,

Weekend

The Week in Pictures: Dance Craze Transition Edition

Music

French Canadian Fiddle Weekend in Australia

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, November 16, How are lefties you know reacting to the election?

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:07 AM

| Access Comments