Tag Archives: Canada

What Are Canadian Values?

There is an ongoing debate in Canada these days over just what constitutes “Canadian values.” The discussion was started by a Conservative Party leadership candidate who suggested potential immigrants be screened with a values test. Needless to say this brought much disdain. There was the suggestion that there was no need to define such values, […]

March For Life 2017 – III

The annual March For Life received more media attention than usual this year. Normally the media ignores the event completely. Thursday though there was a tempest in the Ottawa teapot. A pro-life flag was raised over Ottawa City Hall.  It was quickly removed. Accusations were hurled. The Mayor was blamed (he’s pro-choice and says he […]

March For Life 2017 – II

I had this nagging feeling I shouldn’t accept the request to speak to the seniors’ group at church on May 11, but I couldn’t remember why. So I said yes. That was yesterday, the day of the annual March For Life. Because I was speaking in the late morning I didn’t get downtown until after […]

March For Life 2017

They are going to be on Parliament Hill this afternoon, thousands of people with a cause trying to make their voices heard. For the most part, what they are saying will fall on deaf ears. Today is the annual March For Life, a celebration of humanity and a rejection of abortion and euthanasia. It is […]

Tax Time Woes

If you are Canadian, the deadline to file your income tax is this Monday. We get two weeks more than the Americans do. I’m not sure if that is because our government needs the money less or if it is because our system is so complicated it take us longer to figure things out. I […]

Not With A Bang But A Whimper

I had planned on sharing more pictures of the Kingston Penitentiary today, but decided those can wait until tomorrow. I am a political junkie and the hot Canadian political news takes precedence. More of the Kingston Pen tomorrow. As I predicted, Canada will not be following the American model and selecting a reality TV star […]

American Refugees

A couple of weeks ago I heard someone on a radio newscast suggesting it was perhaps necessary to call out the army to deal with the problem. I’m surprised no-one is suggesting it is time to build a wall across the border. Maybe that suggestion has been made, and I missed it. The question remains […]

The Ambulances

I was curious, but not curious enough to ask. I figured it out later I was visiting Skeppsholmen, an island in Stockholm’s harbor downtown. It was gray and overcast and, because it was a Monday, the Asian museum and other buildings were closed to the public. So I couldn’t figure out why three ambulances were […]

Walking Vimy Ridge

Just a photo essay today, a supplement to yesterday’s post. The indoor pictures were taken in the tunnels around Vimy. There are, if my memory is correct, hundreds of kilometres of tunnels in the area as well as a similar number of trenches You really should visit as the pictures really don’t tell the story.

Vimy Ridge Centenary

It was one hundred years ago today that Canada became a nation, or so the social historians like to put it. Nationhood is an elusive idea. Canada became a country on July 1, 1867. We were not completely independent though. It wasn’t until 1931 that our Supreme Court actually became supreme. Before that you could […]