National Pride

[tealin]

THIS JUST IN

CANADA MAKES TOP NEWS STORY ON BBC NEWS SITE


Oh Ottawa and your petty squabbling politicians ... and miserable icy weather, judging by that photo (coldest capitol city!) ... I know I'm out of touch with Canadian news but seriously, what's going on up there? Are they just bored or what?

Comments

[vega-ofthe-lyre.livejournal.com]

That's my theory, at least. Drunken slumberparty between Dion and Layton. Harper's just cranky that they didn't invite him.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but who invited Duceppe? Or did he just crash it?

[vega-ofthe-lyre.livejournal.com]

Please! He brought the booze! (I was going to say fireworks, but realised that might be seen as in rather poor taste.)

[fani.livejournal.com]

Harper's trying to hog all the cake while the Liberals and NDP doesn't want to share with him. (with other conseraties they're OK but they're excluding Harper)

[my2k.livejournal.com]

no one likes Stephen Harper. No one likes his government. He's like "that annoying kid" who hangs around everyone else, eventually, they're going to just ditch him. And that's whats happening now, like, a fucking month after he got reelected.

So yeah they're just bored. I voted Dion because he knows what he wants to do, and what he wants to achieve, and sees shit getting done in the future. He wants to go do things.

Usually I vote NDP but their smear tactics are disgusting.

[mizlobelia.livejournal.com]

It's so interesting that I have been staying up too late to listen to As It Happens (which come on at 11 here). One advantage of living in the Pacific Northwest is that NPR runs the occasional Canadian news show. But, sadly, late.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They do the same here! (Usually, anyway, sometimes it's Tavis Smiley.) It was incredibly odd to hear the theme music come on, completely unexpected, one night. It used to be the show that was on when I'd come home from work ... and now it is again, hahaha. Oh, overtime.

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

Who knows. It feels like our government is jealous of the United States with their fun and exciting politics. A Black president who's supposed to single-handedly dig the nation out of Bush's hole! [ha ha, bush's hole] That's exciting. Plus Stephen Harper is a shifty-eyed, sweater-wearing automaton.

I like this take on it: http://www.rickmercer.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/12/3/Forgive-them-Canada-they-know-not-what-they-do

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

Just look at harper. That's not the type of hair that GROWS. That was placed there. Over top of his aluminum skull.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

In theory a coalition could work. If aliens from outer space landed and were running roughshod over the country perhaps a Liberal, a socialist and a separatist could put their differences aside and work together to defeat the alien overlords. A global economic crisis, however, is probably not enough for these three wildly divergent visions of Canada to gel.

Oh Rick Mercer, never change...

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

Definitely bored. What with having one of the only economies in the world still in relatively good shape, they were feeling left out of all the excitement and bonding-through-hardship experience everyone else has been enjoying.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd kind of got that from what some of the coalition was saying: they seem to be of the opinion that Harper isn't making a big enough fuss about the economy, and that someone in Ottawa should spark panic so that the Canadian economy can fall to pieces like everyone else's and Canada can belong. [eye roll]

(So grateful I left my Canadian money where it is... )

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

Hey, just be thankful you're not holding a load of British pounds! At least the loonie will rebound with commodity prices in a year or whatever. I guess I'll just have to spend it all on gin!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's traditional!

You could still clean up on a visit to the States, though ... not that that's a hint or anything. :)

[avorpalllama.livejournal.com]

What i have gleaned from this article:
It is snowing in Canada :)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Dude, that's not snow, that's ice pellets or something, look at how it's got motion blur and is bouncing off stuff! It's snow with attitude!

[taipa.livejournal.com]

Here's a one-minute synopsis (http://www.virginradio999.com/node/838372).

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

OTTAWA - Almost three-quarters of Canadians say they are "truly scared" for the future of the country and a solid majority say they would prefer another election to having the minority Conservative government replaced by a coalition led by Stephane Dion, a new Ipsos-Reid poll says.

The poll also indicates Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives would romp to a majority victory with a record 46 per cent public support if an election were held today.

The survey suggests Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean was in tune with public opinion across the country when she agreed Thursday to suspend, or prorogue Parliament until Jan. 26 at the request of Harper. Almost seven in 10 of those surveyed Tuesday and Wednesday gave prorogation a thumbs up.

The Tories also were deemed by almost six in 10 Canadians to be the best managers of the economy in these troubling times.

More here:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1032813

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

One must always consider the character of the individual ... Knowing Canadians, I suspect the vast majority of those who could be arsed to take the poll are 'truly scared' (or indignant, or in some sort of funk); the people with more typically apathetic or measured views have better things to do with their time.

A few years ago someone pointed out to me that the National Post, which is run by whatever conglomerate owns canada.com, treats surveys as front-page news an inordinate amount of the time. I love the National Post in many different ways but ... it's true. In fact for a while I think the typesetters (or whatever the modern equivalent is) had two pre-set forms for the top headline, one was 'Bush Vows ______' and the other '__% of Canadians ________' and they'd alternate randomly over the course of the week.

Mery Steyn

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

"There’s been a backroom deal between the liberals, who are sort of the soft left party, the New Democratic Party, who are the hard left party, the socialists, and the Bloc Québécois, who are the secessionist party, to in effect remove the government from the Tory Party, and install themselves as what I called a pantomime horse comprised of three rear ends."

[spectre-general.livejournal.com]

Not so much bored as boring. And also fairly useless.

Cause if you're bored than you're boring! The agony and the i-ro-ny they're kill-ing me yeah!

Sorry.

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

Easy - Canada's one of those toddlers whose parents tend to ignore her in favour of her older brother, USA. Impressionable Canada interprets this as: I don't make enough fuss, so I am ignored. So Canada, feeling sad for being ignored, throws a tantrum, just like her big brother, and lo! She makes front page news on the BBC website.

Lol, I just gave myself the mental image of Canada playing desperately with her dolls and crying herself to sleep every night, starving for attention. XD

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

Haha, this whole post reminds me forcibly of Kate Beaton.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I may or may not have been obsessively stalking her blog.

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

It is to her that I owe my knowledge of Canadian prime ministers and their respective coiffures.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for her to post something about the current situation ... I mean, it's rife with comedic potential. And her caricatures are delightful.