Second Term for Trudeau?

Many people hope not.

It's frankly unbelievable how he has managed to screw up so many things in such a short period of time.

The following arrived in my Inbox this morning.
It's an interesting--and probably not complete--list of his screw-ups:

Why would anyone want Trudeau back as our Prime Minister

- Your minister of finance engaged in insider trading – should be a 10 year sentence.
- You blew the Asia Pacific deal.
- You blew the helicopter deal with the Philippines.
- You blew the pipeline deal (he's now trying to save himself from it).
- You blew the deal with China.
- You blew the deal with Europe.
- You invited "irregular" immigration and the taxpayer foots the enormous bill for it.
- You alienated the United States – our largest trading partner.
- At the G7 you pledged $400 million to Education around the world along with another $180 million to the Global Partnership for Education in Europe. None of it is going to fix our messed up school systems here at home. Meanwhile education costs are skyrocketing for our youth making university a mountain too high for many to climb.
- You pledged $241 million to Family Planning around the world including a $20 million donation to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation (because they have integrity!). This all happened while you told vets that they were asking too much.
- You pledged $2.65 billion to climate change at the Commonwealth Leaders Summit and now you’re trying to bully the provinces into new taxes to pay for this pledge.
- You pledged $300 million to the Rohingya Refugee crisis while we have a refugee crisis of our own flooding into Quebec that you won't address.
- You pledged $125 million to Caribbean Reconstruction while our own infrastructure in cities is falling apart.
- You pledged $650 million to Sexual and Reproductive health in Haiti and around the globe wanting safer abortions for woman while many women in our own country are left without a family doctor.
- You pledged $50 million to Palestine for flood relief when NB had some of the worst flooding in decades this past spring.
- You pledged $840 million to Syria for Humanitarian Assistance when half the native reserves in our country don't have clean drinking water.
- You gave $10.5 million to a convicted...CONVICTED terrorist in a backroom deal that has lead to another $30.8 million paid out for three others who say they were wrongfully detained.
- You spent $4.5 billion on a 65 year old pipeline, and now the courts have ruled it shut down. Now it's back on (at a delay cost of $250 million) - good investment for Canada you said? (And KM uses that money to build a pipeline in Texas)
- You pressured Jody Wilson Raybould repeatedly & INAPPROPRIATELY with several different high ranking officials to offer SNC Lavalin a DPA instead of prosecution for repeated & sustained corruption AFTER the former AG had determined they were ineligible for such a deal. You lied about the above having ever taken place.
- You replaced Canada’s old F-18s with Australia’s old F-18s.
- Your bizarre love of all things Castro.
- You imposed tough regulations and taxes on oil from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland but not oil from Saudi Arabia.
- Every new project has to undergo strict environmental assessments...except cement plants in Quebec.
- You said that a proposed pipeline must consider “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors” (what does that even mean???)
- You think older Canadians should be replaced. How is that moral?
- You chase foreign companies (and their investment capital) out of the country like they have the plague.
- You chased our WW1 soldiers out of our national anthem... lest we forget.
- You continuously use identity politics...then complain about identity politics.
- You forgot Alberta was a province.
- You called small business owners “tax cheats”.
- People voice concern over money spent on illegal immigration and you call them intolerant racists.
- We have an equalization program, but you give half of it to one province.
- You spent $8 million on a skating rink (vanity project) when Canada's largest skating rink is 500 meters away.
- You added tens of billions added to the national debt while lying to Canada's face about it.
- You groped a woman and when caught - laughed about it (MacLean's interview) and said she experienced it differently.
- You elbowed a female MP while dragging another MP by the arm in a petulant huff.
- You renamed Fishermen to "Fisher-folk"
- Peoplekind? (international embarrassment)
- You got India to invest $250 million in Canada but we have to invest $750 million in India first.
- You compared returning ISIS terrorists to Italian immigrants and said they will be an extraordinary powerful voice for Canada.
- You let terrorists keep their Canadian citizenship.
- You spent $212,234 on artwork for the cover of the 2017 budget report.
- You think Canada is 100 years old instead of 150.
- You spent upwards to $348,000 on food and alcohol in five flights on our government’s plane. On your G20 trip to Argentina, you spent $103,000 on food and alcohol alone. How is that even possible?
- You gave Canadian taxpayers' money to Hamas.
- You voice outrage over fake racist attacks and say nothing about real terrorist attacks.
- You took 10 vacations in a single year. Who does this??
- You spent a little over $1.5 million on the trip to India that did nothing but worsen ties. Plus paid over $17,000 to bring an Indian chef to India to cook Indian cuisine. And to top it off, invited a convicted attempted assassin to dinner and posed for pics with him.
- And you’re the only PM convicted of ethics violations. (multiple times in fact)
- You allegedly destroyed the career of one of Canada’s honest military leaders to cover up possible massive corruption in ship building contracts.
- You invited Joshua Boyle, an alleged perpetrator of sexual assault and unlawful confinement for a photoshoot in the Office of The Prime Minister.
- You threaten to sue the leader of the opposition then chicken out when you realized that your alleged crimes will be exposed in court.
- You offer over $600 million dollars in subsidies to failing mainstream media outlets if they can prove to be trustworthy. You put a union who vows to destroy your opposition in charge of selecting these new “trusted” sources to receive funding. You could school the Russians in election interference.
- You pay off your friends to engage in election ads for you and get Elections Canada to pay for it.
- $200 million to Loblaws for new refrigerators.
- You made public statements of deep admiration for Chinese communism.
- You wore preposterous, inappropriate costumes during a state visit to India, paid for by Canadians.
- What moral, functioning Canadian human could possible justify voting for you?
- As well SNC, interference with Justice and Bombardier ripped off Cdn.Tax Payers for 47 Million Dollars.

Bring on the election!

 

Friends' Ireland Trip ... Done

"It is Friday now, and we are back in Canada, visiting family in Calgary before heading the rest of the way home on Monday. I meant to get this written at the airport yesterday but ran out of time.

Our last day in Ireland was spent in County Down, in the company of a fellow named Andy Peters, who we met a couple of years ago at the Canada Day celebrations in Armstrong. This is a slightly convoluted story, but it just brings home what a small world it really is.

Armstrong  BC is a sister city to a village in Northern Ireland called Rathfriland. The connection between them is a woman called Catherine O'Hare Schubert, who was born in Rathfriland in 1836 and wound up immigrating to Canada, marrying, having several children, and eventually winding up in Armstrong and living there before her death in 1918. She lived an incredible story, and by all accounts was a remarkable woman.

Andy and some other members of his community journeyed to Armstrong to commemorate this woman and link the 2 towns on Canada's 150th birthday, and we met him through our friend Chris Pieper.

When Chris heard we were making a trip to Ireland, he encouraged us to look him up, and we were very glad we did. He met us at the lovely B and B I had booked for the night  and drove us around his part of county Down, showing us the lovely sights.

He is very knowledgeable about the history and geography of the area, and very proud of his lovely part of Ireland. He took us out to Newcastle, where "the mountains of Mourne reach down to the sea" (another lovely old song I remember from my mom's records!) and around to several other very pretty spots, most with historical significance.

This is an area of green, rolling hills, lots of rock walls, fields of sheep, old rock houses and many pretty little villages. We even went past a "fairy ring", an area in a pasture with a naturally occurring ring of trees, that no human will disturb due to the superstition of what will happen if they do! Bad luck all around if you disturb the fairy ring!

Andy also knows the woman who runs Kiltariff Country House, where we were spending the night. They have been friends since going to elementary school together. From Catherine we learned some of the history of her stunning home, built in 1880, and in the family ever since then. It is a country manor, with high ceilings, ornately decorated woodwork, old oak hardwood flooring, stained glass windows, and various other Victorian embellishments. Another fun place to stay and think about people and times long past.

We have really enjoyed our time in this country. I will miss the gentle humour, friendliness, and pretty accents of the people, the drop dead gorgeous scenery and iconic sheep around every corner, soda bread, and all the wonderful history and tenaciousness of a people who have had to be tough to survive." 

Glad Hugh and Kathy are back in Canada, safe 'n sound.

 

Intrepid Friends' Ireland Trip -- Last Part

"We left our wee b and b yesterday morning with regret.

What a lovely home, and what amazing people. I felt like we were instantly friends. It is not a long drive to Belfast, so on the way we made a couple of stops on the coast. The rain has passed, for now. It is supposed to reappear this afternoon or evening, and south western England is getting hammered.

So taking advantage of the sunshine, we head out to the village of Glenarm, the oldest village of the 9 Glens of Antrim. There are 9 valleys between rolling sets of mountains that go from the coast inland, and green is  an understatement! I guess the rain helps! We have seen absolutely no irrigation equipment on this island, unlike at home.

Glenarm has a castle, where the current Viscount of Dunluce and his family still live. The castle is not open to the public, but the walled gardens are, and they were lovely. I have always loved the concept of a walled garden, ever since reading stories like "The Secret Garden" and "The Magicians Nephew". I wish my garden could be walled, especially with a 14th century stone wall overgrown with ivy, espaliered apple and fig trees, and roses. So romantic. And it might keep some of my neighbours weed seeds out too!

Even though I changed the photo orientation, it inadvertently plopped onto the blog this way!  Aaaargh!

 

We spent a pleasant time wandering the garden and the castle grounds (not a tour bus in sight!) and since the weather was holding, went back to Cushendall, where we had been fogged in yesterday, to see Glenariff, the "Queen of the Glens" in the sun. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, again.

A valley, dotted with sheep, stone walls, houses, and all just as green as could be. Another one of my favourite songs, come to life! As we drive towards Belfast, the skies are changing, clouds and wet rolling in, and it is raining heavily as we wind our way to the hotel. A couple of wrong turns, as we miss things with the SatNav, and it is rush hour traffic, but we make it in one piece, and are greeted by a lovely girl whose name is Niamh. If you are wondering how to pronounce it, it is "Neave".

For having to pick a hotel quickly, I haven't done too badly. It has a parking lot! Breakfast is included! The bed is comfy, and we don't have to take the suitcases up 3 flights of stairs. We are right near the university, and there are many students around, and lots of choices for dinner. Find a nice place and the bartender writes us out a list of great pubs to visit in Belfast. Not tourist ones, nice old ones.

It's raining when we leave, and still raining when we get up in the morning. Niamh is serving breakfast, and Hugh has boiled eggs with soda bread "toast soldiers" just like his mom used to make!

We take the train over to the Titanic Quarter to visit the Titanic museum and get soaked through in spite of raincoats and umbrella.  At first it is very crowded and I want out, but it turns into sort of a Disneyland ride, and people spread out.

There are many interactive venues all about Belfast when the ship was built, and the whole process of designing, building, outfitting the ship, and what happened to it in the end. It was very interesting.

Of course, we dried out while inside, and luckily the sun was out when we got out, about 21/2 hours later. The downtown core of the city is very small, and we were able to walk and find a couple of the bars our guy from last night had told us about.

We came upon McHugh's, circa 1711, and Kelly's Cellars, circa 1720. We also stop in to Maddens Bar, no date on it, but wee, and cosy, and full of people with nothing to do but drink. I have to wonder about the alcohol and cigarette consumption in this country.  It must be record breaking.

A 30 minute walk back to the hotel is easy with the help of google maps on my phone, and we find Italian for dinner. Tomorrow is our last day.

We are heading to Rathfriland, a small village in County Down, between here and Dublin. It is the city sister to Armstrong, near Vernon, and we will be visiting a good friend of Chris Pieper's, the mayor of Armstrong. Andy has volunteered to show us around a bit of his lovely part of the country.

We just have to get out of the city first. Wish us luck!"

Apart from the screwy--and unrepairable--photo orientations, what a lovely travel blog Kathy has written!  Thanks, Kathy.

Intrepid Friends' Ireland Trip Part 10

"Well, we knew the glorious weather wouldn't hold forever! On Saturday a.m. I checked the forecast, and rain, and lots of it, was moving in by Saturday night so instead of taking a detour around to see Glenveigh National Park (and another castle!) we decided to just hotfoot it over to the northern coast, as we did want to see the Giant's Causeway.

It is about a 2 and a half hour drive from Donegal, and part way along we cross the border into Northern Ireland, leaving the Republic of Ireland behind. There was no actual way of knowing this had happened, except all of a sudden, the street signs were in tiled per hour instead of kilometres, and prices were in Pounds instead of Euros.

We bypassed the city of Derry, which might have been interesting, but nevertheless is a city, and 4 lane roundabouts are not what we enjoy. We travelled the coastal route to the village of Bushmills, and then tried to access the causeway. Along with a zillion tour buses and any number of other cars and people. The carpark was full, and so was the car park for the shuttle bus in Bushmills, a couple miles away. Screw this! was the general agreement, and we decided to take a tour of the Bushmills distillery instead.

Nice big parking lot with lots of room. Got tickets for the 1:30 tour, had a really crappy sandwich in their cafeteria, and then went on the tour and had a wee whiskey tasting afterwards. Yummy stuff I must say. Bought a bottle of a 12 year old reserve which is not sold anywhere but here, to bring home.

Then we went to find our b and b. No one answered the door! And all the lights were out, but check-in was anytime after 3 and it was 3:30 now, so I was confused. Caught poor Valerie in the shower did we! She heard the door bell, and came dripping wet in her bare feet! She far surpasses any of the other hosts we have had so far- so funny, bubbly, outspoken and down to earth!

And what a beautiful b and b she has. Our room is huge, with a lovely big bathroom and a shower you can actually turn around in! And turns out it's a good thing we gave up trying to park near the causeway. She is full of all sorts of useful information and saved us a bunch of money by telling us of another place to park for less than half the price. On her suggestion we waited until about 5, then went back, and by this time all the tourbuses, and most of the people are gone, and there is ample room to park on another road for way less money.

A short walk and we are heading down the road towards the causeway, or part of it at least. She says that since Game Of Thrones has been filmed in this area tourism, while always prevalent, has become unbelievable.

The sun was starting to go down as we walked among these amazing stone formations, and although it was very different from anything I have ever seen, I do think the whole thing has been over hyped. And instead of thinking about the volcanoes and eruptions which caused these geological formations, I would rather dwell on the legends  of Finn MacCool, the great giant from Scotland, who threw the rocks over to make a path between the two lands.

In fact, from this point, you can see the mainland of Scotland in the distant east, over the water. The weather held for about an hour as we walk around, and then the wind comes up, the mist moves in, it is almost dark, and it is time for dinner! Found a great pub very close, and wound up chatting with some folks from Florida while we ate.

A windy and wet drive back to the very lovely, comfortable bed at Valeries! This morning was definitely wet, although it did let up at times. We are the only guests here right now and we wind up chatting with Valerie for at least an hour after breakfast. She is a wealth of information about the area, having lived here her whole life.

On the mantel is a picture of her with Prince Charles and Camilla (and a bunch of other people) when she attended a gala a couple of years ago. She has attained, and managed to keep, a 4 star rating for her b and b, and was invited with others who have done the same to a reception at the manor where Charles and Camilla stay when they are in Ireland. So she had some good stories to tell about that evening!

The sky was clearing up, so we headed out to see the ruins of Dunluce Castle (raining again!), and drive along the coast, through several wee villages, to the harbour at Ballintroy. Very small and picturesque, and turns out to be another GOT filming sight! But no tour buses- they can't make it down the windy road.

We followed the coast road around, almost all the way to Cushendall, through farms, sheep, villages, but by this time the rain was coming down in sheets, and the fog was thick. This is the area that the Green Glens of Antrim are in (another song from my past!) and I was hoping to see them, but it was enough work to just see the nose of the car and the oncoming traffic.

Turned around and made it back to Bushmills, where a late lunch was a delicious wee cheese plate with a few crackers, just to tide us over until suppertime. On Sundays a very popular meal is the Sunday Roast, but the pubs and restaurants have them just until 2 or 3 o'clock, and seems way too early to eat dinner for us!

I have noticed a couple of differences between here and southern Ireland. There is no Irish anymore on the signs, only English. This part of Ireland is an extension of England, and it is obvious. We have seen pictures of the Queen here, not in the south, and the accent has changed too. It has taken on a decidedly Scottish tone, as well as different words, like "Aye" for yes creeping in.

This is a very interesting and complex country, for sure. It's too bad the weather was so poor today, but we can perhaps try again tomorrow on our way to Belfast. An email from the b and b I had reserved in Belfast arrived Friday informing us they had had to cancel our reservation due to circumstances beyond their control, so I had to scramble and find a replacement quickly. Had to settle for a hotel, but that's ok- they have free parking! And that is a must!

Time to brave the rain again and find dinner. Hope there is some thing that doesn't have "chips". So totally sick of those!"