I got the long form, and did it the same day (after a delay until they fixed whatever was broken with the login screen - anyone else have trouble with this?).
Right. At one time, I was fluent in French, and that skill carried me through France. Now, here in Alberta, it is unnecessary. Even at the local Service Canada office, it is obvious that the greeter at the door, despite saying “Bonjour/Hello” will need help if you respond in French. So I’ve lost a lot of my French.
I was also quite good at Russian once. I took an intensive Russian course for some years, involving regular classes, conversation classes, and language labs; and I got to the point where you could have dropped me into Moscow, and I’d be fine. Maybe not absolutely perfectly, but with a few errors along the lines of, “Please to tell me, where is metro station? Go to Red Square, please.” Not grammatically correct, but understandable to a native as to what I wanted to know.
But despite Alberta’s Slavic heritage, Russian is almost unknown here. Admittedly, Alberta’s Slavic heritage is mostly Ukrainian, not Russian, but it is rare to hear Ukrainian, never mind Russian. Best we get is pierogies as a sports bar snack.
So my Russian and French have basically died, here in Alberta.
Compared to the current leadership of the Conservatives? Heck yes. Going back to the days when people hated Brian Mulroney would be a huge step forward for the Conservatives at this point.
It’s too much to hope that they’d actually choose a “terrific” person. They’ve been getting progressively (see what I did there?) worse since Harper, and there’s no reason to think they’ll reverse course any time soon.
I took Russian for a year at U of T, and was quite good at it. That was 22 years ago, though. I wouldn’t be starting over from scratch, but I would expect several months of some serious revision if I wanted to get going again in Russian.
I’ve sung as a ringer in a few Ukrainian choirs in Toronto, and I’ve found the best way to break the ice is to tell them that I speak a corrupt northern dialect of Ukrainian, and that most people call it ‘Russian’. My experience from the Ukrainian diaspora in Alberta, though, is that they want absolutely nothing to do with Russia or Russians, and if you offer to sing something for them, it has to go past a committee that will check to ensure the ‘Ukrainianness’ of your proposed song - anything they deem to be a Russianism will be edited out or the song rejected.
There is a Ukrainian museum here in NYC. My wife had an intern for a time, and that intern came from Ukraine. The intern talked about visiting that museum and enjoying herself, other than the fact that she felt like she was talking to her grandparents the whole time. “It’s like every word out of their mouths came from a Ukrainian grammar book from the 1950s. I’m from Kyiv, and we don’t speak like that any more!”.
As to French, my cousin Sandra, née LeRoux from Rouyn-Noranda, felt like she single-handedly doubled the francophone population of Calgary just by moving there…
Ooh, hot breaking news! A judge ruled that the Alberta separatist petition is invalid and should not have gone forward. Danielle Smith and the separatists plan to appeal the decision.
"In two decisions issued Wednesday, Justice Shaina Leonard found that Elections Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure made an error in law to approve the second citizen initiative petition and failed to consider an earlier court decision that said separation would violate Indigenous people’s treaty rights.
Leonard’s conclusion says there was an error of law, “rendering the [chief electoral officer]'s decision unreasonable.”
Details at this link, which is also the source of the above quotation - Future of Alberta separation petition unclear as judge rules in favour of First Nations' challenge | CBC News
The separatists can always leave but if they want to take the land with them they need to first deal with the treaty holders.
I have strong doubts that the scamming, conspiracy laden separatist leaders will give up. Ultimately they thrive on grievance. Expect that a lot of their focus will shift towards attacking indigenous land rights now. Big money that this is where the anger will flow next.
... tip toes gingerly into this hallowed and secretive chamber and looks around nervously. Disapproving eyes follow every trembling movement. Gulp. OK, hopefully the locals will only bite in a polite manner i.e. after they have cleaned their teeth.
G’day there!
Please put down those cudgels and branding irons. Verily I come in peace. Yes, I was invited. No, I’m not staying long. Really, not asking for much. 
You all are obviously intensely busy with RL and whatnot but may have noticed that for the first time an Aussie is running the 2026 SDMB postcard exchange. And like any neophyte I’d like to do the job well. Empirically that means gathering sufficient participants to make up eight or more groups of four. And I’m a couple shy of that mark. Hence this direct appeal.
In years past Canadians have made their presence felt in representative numbers in this exchange program. Lord knows the global and North American regional ambience has fallen markedly in the four years since this exchange was last conducted. It can’t be a coincidence but this year numbers of the Canadian contingent participating has fallen. Well sunk sans trace. To zero.
And it’s quite understandable that the really “nice apartment” has whole heartedly, and with exquisite effect put in the boot and boycotted things from the “meth lab” below. Good on you. An example to us non-merkin all.
But, frankly there aren’t many MAGA on SDMB. Methinks most are harmless, if not sympathetic. So if you would consider helping out a an old digger from the Commonwealth by joining this quaint display of international goodwill, it would be personally appreciated.
I can arrange matters so that any Canadian participant will get at least one postcard from a non-merkin. I’d offer more but frankly us overseas furriners are as scarce as rocking horse shit.
A link to the participation thread is below. Acceptances close next Monday.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
PT
It’s okay folks. P-T is harmless. I’ll vouch for him.
Mostly harmless…
(Bolding added by me.) That’s a great simile! Mind if I use it?
Be my guest, it’s certainly not of my originality.
I first heard it in BBC’s New Tricks S2.E1 ∙ A Delicate Touch
Well, the Snowbirds are going away. The Defence minister announced that this will be the last season, likely with Canada Day as the last show. The replacement aircraft won’t be in service before 2030, and will be the Pilatus PT-21 turboprop, so decades of airshow experience gone, with a very different performance by a non-jet replacement whenever it is finally ready.
The Snowbirds would seem a decent summary of things that could be better in the Canadian military. If you have some old rucksacks, those might also come in handy.
I speak more languages than French and Spanish, but a lot would depend on the quality of the conversation. I’m definitely your man if you need to discuss beer and the serving of three portions.
So, I have a concern I want to bring to your attention.
The USofA has this:
Canada has this, which hardly seems adequate to reflect your proud nation:
Even the Philipines has
Won’t someone record a better version of Meow Canada/Meôw Canada?
While it does seem to be a terrible effort, part of the problem may be that trilingual cats are rare.
Regina ads in Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto are trying to sell locals that Regina would be a better place to live. Well, you have to give the Regina mayor points for being cheeky!
Full story here - Halifax mayor says office had 'good laugh' over Regina ad | CBC News
Meh, nothing wrong with Regina. I’ve been there a few times. It is a pleasant city, with one of the best steakhouses I’ve been to anywhere. They do love their Roughriders, and things can get a little hairy in sports bars when the Riders play, but as long as you’re wearing green, you’ll be fine.
As a native Haligonian I’m a little bit biased, but I would love to, at least, visit Regina to see its charm.
It does raise the interesting question of why we prefer one city over another, and what it really means when we say "I could never live in City X’.
I grew up in a small town, and there were many things I hated about it growing up. Why I loved it, and why I still miss it, was the fact that I had a group of misfit friends that I hung around with constantly. We were into similar bands, played board games and D&D together, enjoyed theatre, argued constantly about life, the universe and everything, and we all felt very lucky to have found each other.
So when I hear other people say ‘I couldn’t possibly live there’, on the one hand, I get what they’re saying. (And from what I understand, it’s gone downhill in the forty years since I left…) On the other hand, I think ‘Well, you never know - you might come to like it if you give it a chance’.
Yeah, it depends on getting a job. For some people, the size of the town matters - there tends to be more of the things I like in larger cities than in smaller towns. For some people, it’s the weather - a Prairie winter is not everybody’s cup of tea. That being said, a Vancouver winter, where it’s not impossible that you don’t see the sun for two months, can be pretty depressing. How close are you to nature? How close are you to a nature you appreciate? Politics - I left Alberta in the 1980s, despite having friends and family roots there, partly because I didn’t like how right wing the place was. Everything I read about Danielle Smith just makes me go ‘I made the right call there!’.
My sister married a rancher in '76, and for thirty years lived on a series of ranches near some pretty tiny settlements like Lone Butte, Bridge Lake, Vanderhoof. In 2006, they retired, and sold up, lock, stock, and barrel, moving to a condo at the corner of Yates and Quadra in Victoria, BC. He volunteered for the museum, she volunteered for the theatre company, they saw shows and concerts. After a couple of years of that, they both said that they’d had enough of big city life, and bought a fresh spread that my niece manages. Not everyone would call living in Victoria ‘big city life’, but it all depends on your context. They’re content being the 5 people for their square mile. I visit, but I can’t imagine living there, as I have no idea what I’d do for a living!
What about the rest of you? Are there cities or regions you’d never live in, or places you’d never leave?
It also seems to me Quebecois cats often go miaou or ronron. While this does not justify the terrible version posted, this should be included in its replacement.