Working in Montréal --Top 10 Canadians

Good morning folks,

It will be working in Montréal today and tomorrow.

The list is out!

The list of Canada's greatest Canadians has been compiled over the last 6 months or so from online entries by Canadians.   This is leading up to Canada's 150th birthday in 2017.  Incidentally that will be my 50th year in Canada, having moved here in Canada's Centennial year 1967.  Yes, Uncle Daniel is an immigrant.

Interesting enough, the list of top 10 Canadians by this online list popularity contains but one Conservative.  Sir John A Macdonald, Canada's first PM squeaking in at 8th place.  I would like to jump up on a soapbox and point out that if the list is any indication Canadian value the accomplishments of the more left side of the Canadian spectrum, but the list was also devoid of women.

Eh?

That's right, no Roberta Bondar, taking STS-42 into orbit as Canada's first woman in space, also no Hockey legend Angela James and also no Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee although I am sure that Avril placed well.

Without further ado, here is the top 10:

Pierre Trudeau

Terry Fox

Tommy Douglas

Lester B. Pearson

Chris Hadfield

David Suzuki

Jack Layton

Sir John A Macdonald

Wayne Gretzki

Romeo Dallaire

The online survey also compiled a list of notable Canadian accomplishments

Medicare was number one, then

Peacekeeping

1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Contributions to the Second World War

The Canadarm (The space arm to those U.S. Readers)

Multiculturalism

Contributions to the First World War

Bilingualism (oui!)

Space Exploration

The Constitution Act of 1982

Sadly, no Red Rose Tea, SONAR, Insulin, Telephone or Standardized Time.

Have a great day, embrace your Canadianism.

Working in Ottawa today --Bolsheviks R Us

Good morning folks,

I will be working in Ottawa today.

I may be a Bolshevik.  Maybe not a card carrying member of the Russian Democratic Workers' Party, but certainly a believer in Social Democracy.   Yeah, I know what you are thinking, "gosh Uncle Daniel, nothing in your writings would have suggested that :p".

What prompted the invocation of the 'B' word?  This morning I was reading an account of President Obama in a Jay Leno interview from yesterday, where the Pres made the statement, "There is no spying on Americans, we don’t have a domestic spying program".  WOW what bullshit.

You see The POTUS was playing a bit of a word game, trying to make a distinction between gathering up banking, phone, email, browsing, purchasing, records of ordinary citizens and the separate process of looking at the records.  Obama's little word game with the outmatched Leno reminded me of a game of cat and mouse.

And then I remembered Tommy Douglas.  And the mice.  And the cats.  Douglas told a story of Mice and Cats to demonstrate the illogic of continuing to elect Black Cats or White Cats to administer and enact laws over the Mice of Mouseland, and how one mouse had the idea of not electing cats, but mice to administer the land and enact laws.  It was a great idea, of course the Cats called the mouse with the idea a Bolshevik and locked him up.  See prior pulp on Sedition (http://pulp.puckett.ca/2013/05/working-in-ottawa-today-sedition-r-us.html).

So to continue on what this Black Cat is up to and also to continue on with the domestic spying program, Obama has cancelled a planned meeting with Russia's Putin 'cause he's ticked that Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum.

Snowden.  You may recall the pulp that announced the exposure of the domestic spying program starting with the news that Verizon was providing phone records to the U.S. gov't (http://pulp.puckett.ca/2013/06/working-in-montreal-today-cover-your.html). Snowden, through an act of conscience revealed to the world the domestic spying program.  What you may not be aware of is that the majority (thin, but none-the-less a majority) of Americans see Snowden not as a treasonous bastard that the White House has labelled him but as a whistleblower.

And that is very interesting.  The U.S. gov't has lied to the population about there being no domestic spying, moreover the U.S. Constitution specifically provides against it (Obama should know that since he is a Constitutional Lawyer, whereas I just blog about Constitutional Law), and Snowden reveals the lie, and the ppl see him as a whistleblower and none-the-less, the POTUS risks diplomatic relations with Russia (another member of the UN Security Council I will add).

For the People, by the People?  No.  By Black and White Cats.

Have a good day folks, you Bolsheviks too.