# CanadaDope 2017: Celebrating the Sesquicentennial - "... and loving it!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045 "2017-01-01T14:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/101 "2017-01-30T18:04:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > As awful as something like this is, it’s the exception. The world is NOT a terrible place. Don’t fall for the myth that it is. You can’t let every atrocity ruin you on humanity or you end up a Trumpist. > > By any measure, things are getting better for the human race. There is less war than there used to be. The percentage of people living in abject poverty is lower than ever. People are living longer, healthier, and more peacefully. There’s bumps and valleys but it has been a long climb up. Don’t let the pessimists convince you to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I’m going to steal this. It is something that needs to be said more. Don’t get complacent but remember how much better things are now than ever before. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/102 "2017-01-30T18:54:33Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > As awful as something like this is, it’s the exception. The world is NOT a terrible place. Don’t fall for the myth that it is. You can’t let every atrocity ruin you on humanity or you end up a Trumpist. > > By any measure, things are getting better for the human race. There is less war than there used to be. The percentage of people living in abject poverty is lower than ever. People are living longer, healthier, and more peacefully. There’s bumps and valleys but it has been a long climb up. Don’t let the pessimists convince you to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I am also stealing. Tonight, I will explain that amongst the Dopers, we have our own lights, and this came from a pretty wise one. Thank you for the perspective. I needed it today. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/103 "2017-01-30T19:42:51Z")
The Islamic person who was arrested has been cleared by the police who note that he is a witness to the slaughter, not a suspect. The French-Canadian who called the police on himself and surrendered, Alexandre Bissonnette, is an internet troll who is anti-women and anti-Muslim, a fan of the leader of France’s far right populist anti-immigration party Front National, and a supporter of the populist separatist Parti Quebecois which itself has a history of anti-Muslim members. That puts it down to a populist stochastic terrorist. > **[Le suspect Alexandre Bissonnette fait face à 11 chefs d'accusation](https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/attentat-a-quebec/201701/30/01-5064465-le-suspect-alexandre-bissonnette-fait-face-a-11-chefs-daccusation.php)** > > Alexandre Bissonnette, 27 ans, a été formellement accusé de six meurtres prémédités et de cinq tentatives de meurtre, lundi en fin d'après-midi, au palais de justice de Québec. [https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Bienvenue%20aux%20réfugiés%20quebec%20bissonnette](https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Bienvenue%20aux%20r%C3%A9fugi%C3%A9s%20quebec%20bissonnette) > **[Google](https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=parti+quebecois+islam)** > > Search the world's information, including webpages, images, videos and more. Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you're looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/104 "2017-01-30T19:50:16Z")
It’s no coincidence that that the populist murderer of Muslims at prayer would have been enervated by populist Trump’s attack against Muslims the previous day. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/105 "2017-01-30T21:19:34Z")
I should not have been using the term populist. I believe nationalist would be a more appropriate term. By historical analogy, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was a populist party, but its defining characteristic was nationalism carrie to extreme. Both Trump and Saunders are populists, but only Trump is a nationalist, bringing with him the bigoted evils that often accompany nationalism. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/106 "2017-02-02T00:13:05Z")
Coyne has a wonderfully snark filled column in the Post today.[ > [@](#): > > It’s your fault, Canadians. You failed to live up to the standards your prime minister expected of you. You had your chance and you blew it. > > It isn’t that the Liberals promised something they had no intention of ever delivering. The fault is yours, for not making it possible for them to deliver it. ]([Breaking News, Headlines and Stories | National Post](http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/andrew-coyne-its-not-the-liberals-fault-for-lying-about-electoral-reform-its-yours-for-believing-them))Basically the Grits had no intention for electoral reform; after desperately trying to sabotage all honest attempts at carrying it through, they’re happy to kill it and place all blame on the public instead of their own lack of leadership and sense of nation building. I’m a bit more cynical then Coyne, and I’d say that they are also taking full advantage of the recent events/slaughter in Quebec to use this moment to pull off the electoral reform band-aid. That’s why they are quietly announcing this now. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/107 "2017-02-02T04:40:28Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > This “new world” people keep talking about terrifies me. My daughter keeps asking me questions that I have no idea how to answer or reassure her. I just keep returning all we can keep doing is being one of the lights… > > That seems so pathetic in the face of ongoing and senseless violence. ☹ One of my co-workers is originally from Africa and he said that he doesn’t understand why someone would go out and kill a bunch of Muslims and nobody does that kind of thing in Africa. When I pointed out that his home country had a civil war that involved the Muslim region fighting the Christian region, he clarified that killing Muslims for a reason is perfectly sensible but killing Muslims for no reason is weird. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/108 "2017-02-02T11:54:21Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Basically the Grits had no intention for electoral reform; after desperately trying to sabotage all honest attempts at carrying it through, they’re happy to kill it and place all blame on the public instead of their own lack of leadership and sense of nation building. This is about as much of a surprise as the sun rising in the East. I have said it before and will again; anyone who thought Trudeau and gang were sincere about this is a huge sucker. And yes. Trudeau is using the massacre to try to minimize the fallout. Why else announce it now? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/109 "2017-02-02T12:53:00Z")
^ Agreed. Plus, I never wanted electoral reform anyway. I’m fine with first past the post. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/110 "2017-02-02T13:49:51Z")
Incidentally, just to be sure, I did a search; my first statement on the matter on the SDMB was on October 21, 2015: [QUOTE=RickJay] Of all the Liberal promises, this (electoral reform) will be the first one they break, though they’ll be more clever about it than the Conservative government would have been. [/QUOTE] Whether it was the first promise broken or not is obviously questionable - we don’t know when Trudeau torpedoed it, though I am confident it was a long, long time before this week - but it was broken, as of course it was inevitably going to be. They were more clever about it than the Conservatives would have been, too. Not SUPER clever, but the Tories would have just said “Nah” and told anyone who objected to shut up and then bitched when they were criticized for it that no one was being fair to them. The Liberals did several songs and dances. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/111 "2017-02-02T14:40:26Z")
Quite frankly all serious desire for it died when the Grits won their majority. I mean, who needs stronger legitimacy and increased public confidence in our national/shared democratic system of governance when “our guys” received [8.6% more votes than the “other guys”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18788598#post18788598)! We rule (and thus will always rule) due to this system! Woohoo!!1! Trudeau is clearly not the farsighted nation builder that his father was; he’s just a flash-in-the-pan savoir of the Liberal brand. I hope whenever he loses his majority (and sooner or later it’ll happen) he can be satisfied with that meagre legacy. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/112 "2017-02-02T15:03:38Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > [8.6% more votes than the “other guys”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=18788598#post18788598)! 7.6% more votes then the other guys. Jeez, my math needs work. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/113 "2017-02-02T15:17:36Z")
It was really nothing more than the usual discovery, once in power, that changing a system than no one minds too much requires a lot of political capital and effort. The Liberals would rather get their carbon pricing system into place and work on reducing interprovincial trade barriers. Oh and now deal with the man child down south. I still like my idea of using by-elections as small scale test runs of some of the more feasible voting systems. The scale is small enough that the House’s power structure wouldn’t change much. Even if, for example, my MP wouldn’t have won via first past the post but did through a test election I’d be fine. Honestly I’d trust almost any party’s candidate to do a decent job. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/114 "2017-02-02T15:40:40Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > It was really nothing more than the usual discovery, once in power, that changing a system than no one minds too much requires a lot of political capital and effort. You will understand if I find it exceptionally hard to believe that they, or anyone whose brain is receiving oxygen, did not know this prior to October 19, 2015. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/115 "2017-02-02T17:47:53Z")
I think of election reform as a nice to have, but am not bothered if the current government wants to place their priorities on more urgent matters, especially given the lack of public consensus on the issue. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/116 "2017-02-02T19:19:29Z")
People I know are middling indifferent to reform, but beyond pissed their tax dollars were spent on such an asinine survey that failed, in design, to accurately measure anything. Wasteful government spending could not be more clearly represented, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/117 "2017-02-04T04:19:29Z")
[Ontario to provide life-saving health care to children affected by U.S. travel ban Health minister says province will take on surgeries for critically ill children barred from entering the U.S.](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-surgeries-travel-ban-1.3966380) ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/118 "2017-02-04T05:54:19Z")
Kevin O’Leary needs to be stopped in his attempt to rule Canada. He refused to participate in the Quebec debate, and now, [while a mass funeral is being held for Muslim victims of a nationalist shooter, he has released a vid of him happily shooting off an automatic weapon](http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/869122115734). ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/119 "2017-02-04T22:21:02Z")
He’s just visiting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045/120 "2017-02-07T08:52:58Z")
Okay, why is our defence minister Harjit Sanjjan, holding his hand over his heart during the playing of the US National Anthem? > **[The first meeting between Harjit Sajjan and ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis was a real love...](https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/06/us-secretary-mattis-says-hes-fond-of-canadian-troops-cites-afghan-experience.html)** > > When the two defence officials met at the Pentagon Monday, it went so well that there was already talk of kissing and hugging within a few seconds. The meeting covered a broad range of topics including military co-operation at home and abroad. He’s Canadian. We don’t hold our hands over our hearts during the playing of any national anthem, much less ours. Nor do we have any laws requiring such. Why did Mr. Sajjan do what he did? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadadope-2017-celebrating-the-sesquicentennial-and-loving-it/776045.md?page=7)