# The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 16, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059 "2011-05-16T03:05:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/482 "2011-09-10T15:19:48Z")
The Bluenose II has been completed - [article from the Chronicle - Herald](http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1262361.html). And now I’ve got the [Stan Rogers song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1IvV6qAWY) stuck in my head… ---
**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:** [September 10, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/483 "2011-09-10T16:04:01Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > There really isn’t that much difference between opera and country to begin with. Revenge, love, adultery… it’s all there. ‘Sola, perduta, abbandonata’ or ‘I’m so lonesome I could cry’, it’s pretty much the orchestration that sets them apart. 😃 That, and adenoidal twang. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/484 "2011-09-10T16:39:40Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > And on the international news front, my little crew of paddlers popped down to Duluth/Superior for a race and did quite well: > Dragons of Hope (Thunder Bay Breast Cancer Survivors) 2:23.19 > Finished second in our Survivors/Supporters category > Faster than the best Survivors’ time by 9.27 seconds (but not in the Survivors category) > Fourth of all the Women’s times (but not in the Women’s category) > Finished 48th in the entire field of 91 teams. Awesome results! You guys might even be better than we are, and we are a community team! ::sets to work erasing most of **Le Ministre’s** post:: > [@](#): > > Anyway, I’m not satisfied with the argument that the Conservatives are ‘no better than they should be’. I demand more from those who represent me. I also believe that until we all demand better, we’re not going to get it. I agree. I _do_ consider the spending issues to be equally bad. It’s not the absolute sum of money that makes it bad, it’s the act itself. The sad thing is that it’s the people who vote for the Conservatives who need to stand up and scream and bitch about misappropriated government spending - fuck, wasn’t that the entire basis of their platform? Harper’s not going to listen to those who didn’t vote for him, but he sure as hell will listen to his own constituency, and I think it’s shameful that conservative-minded voters _aren’t_ asking their government to be true to their word. If you don’t accept scum on one side of the aisle, why do you accept it on yours? As for the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, **Ministre** … [here](http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=25964)and [here](http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/trophies/winners/STC1993.jpg), is all I have to say! ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/485 "2011-09-10T17:27:21Z")
Gah!!! It burns us!!! The unofficial song of Leafs Nation - ‘[You Don’t Know What Love Is](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-n0CCWnV-U)’. ‘You don’t know how hearts burn For love that cannot live yet never dies Until you’ve faced each dawn with sleepless eyes You don’t know what love is’… Seriously, how can you learn the meaning of ‘faith’ from a team that wins all the time? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/486 "2011-09-10T17:54:28Z")
Faith…that Scott Gomez is a top-2 centreman…! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/487 "2011-09-10T17:58:53Z")
It was inevitable, perhaps, that the great, ongoing Canadian current-events and politics thread should end up talking about hockey… 🙂 Beats ranting about that idiot in the Corvette who almost ran down a cyclist in front of my eyes in the parking lot by Value Village today… ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/488 "2011-09-10T18:10:56Z")
What’s that line from ‘City Slickers’? “Even when my dad and I couldn’t agree about anything else, we could still talk about baseball.” I find it’s a little like that with Canadians and hockey… ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/489 "2011-09-10T18:17:45Z")
The anticipation is killing me. Regular season tickets for the Habs went on sale today. We’re holding off for later in the year (the team releases tickets every month, and we may be able to score some from season tickets), but we also bought tickets to a Bulldogs pre-season game for Oct 1st (in Drummondville, of all places). Rookie camp starts on Monday, regular camp late next week, the first preseason game on the 20th…arrgh!! _I want the season to start now!_ Somewhat more political: I think the recognition the US is giving Canada this year for our help during 9/11 is kind of nice. Gander alone was incredible, given as how they handled 2/3 of their population in unexpected visitors that week! Pictures of airplanes lines up on the tarmac at [Gander](http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01317/web-911-gander9_1317923cl-8.jpg)and [Halifax](http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/3954/037ol.jpg)just absolutely amaze me. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/490 "2011-09-10T22:45:46Z")
My friend’s musical ‘[Beacon of Light](http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1050643)’ just closed in Gander - it was a great success. ---
**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:** [September 11, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/491 "2011-09-11T02:06:26Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > It’s as tiresome as kids fighting in the back of the car, and if I were the one driving, they’d all be going home with an arse the colour of a maple leaf. Not specific enough, I’m afraid. Is that red, as in the flag; green, as what grows in spring, orange or yellow, as genuine maple leaves are in the autumn; or blue or white, as the Toronto hockey team has? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/492 "2011-09-11T02:16:54Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > I agree. I _do_ consider the spending issues to be equally bad. It’s not the absolute sum of money that makes it bad, it’s the act itself. A politician manages to wrangle money to do infrastructure projects in his riding (something that IS the job of politicians) and you compare it to a scandal that was designed to line the pockets of the political party, croneys and supporters as if they are the same? [QUOTE=National Post] Mr. Baird noted that all of the spending approved in Mr. Clement’s riding consisted of “appropriate” public infrastructure projects with “every penny accounted for” and the details published on a government website. [/QUOTE] Same can be said for the sponsorship scandal? One scandal deals with corruption and the other is a bypassing the process issue. The first one would never have been approved if proper governance was applied, the latter could well have (and it seems it was actually approved by the government minister). The first one had people going to jail for breaking the law, the later will never have because no law was broken. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/493 "2011-09-11T02:25:39Z")
Mr. Baird is a Conservative MP. Forgive me for not using him as the final authority on what is or is not proper spending by the Conservative government. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/494 "2011-09-11T02:27:09Z")
My dear **Uzi** , when the Auditor General says > [@](#): > > the **lack of a paper trail justifying project selection** , adding he had \*\*never seen anything like that in his entire career as an auditor. > \*\* > “ **It’s very unusual and troubling** ,” he said. (all bolding mine, taken from the National Post article cited above) then I no longer care what Mr. Baird has to say on the issue, unless it’s ‘We’re sorry; mistakes were made.’ ---
**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:** [September 11, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/495 "2011-09-11T02:36:45Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > My friend’s musical ‘[Beacon of Light](http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1050643)’ just closed in Gander - it was a great success. The Star’s video link isn’t working, so here’s the YouTube link: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIMIKtTwZI4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIMIKtTwZI4) ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/496 "2011-09-11T03:07:37Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Mr. Baird is a Conservative MP. Forgive me for not using him as the final authority on what is or is not proper spending by the Conservative government. Mr. Baird also said all the facts about the spending was on the government website. Should be easily proven by those of you who are doubters. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/497 "2011-09-11T03:13:47Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > My dear **Uzi** , when the Auditor General says (all bolding mine, taken from the National Post article cited above) then I no longer care what Mr. Baird has to say on the issue, unless it’s ‘We’re sorry; mistakes were made.’ A government official says one thing and another says something else. You believe one over the other based upon your political preference. You ever worked with auditors? Their job is to find things. If they don’t find things they aren’t doing their job. See the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/498 "2011-09-11T04:13:09Z")
I interrupt your ongoing political and hockey thread to let you all know about our vacation - we have seen Little Manitou Lake in Saskatchewan\* and the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg, the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, and Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg now, and I highly recommend all of them. We got to lift a solid gold bar at the Mint - how cool is that? (And yes, there was a security guard sitting right there. 🙂 ) \*Everyone is supposed to float there, because the specific gravity is 1.06 - Jim, my extremely dense husband, got close to floating, but not all the way. Sigh. It was a lovely experience for me, though - I was floating and swimming vertically! ---
**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:** [September 11, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/499 "2011-09-11T04:49:21Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > We got to lift a solid gold bar at the Mint - how cool is that? (And yes, there was a security guard sitting right there. :)) I got to do that at the Perth Mint, in Australia. Gosh, those things are heavy! Nowadays, I kind of look awry at any heist movie where they throw pallets of gold bars around as if they were nothing. I doubt that could happen in real life, with real gold. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/500 "2011-09-11T06:14:01Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I interrupt your ongoing political and hockey thread to let you all know about our vacation - we have seen Little Manitou Lake in Saskatchewan\* and the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg, the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, and Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg now, and I highly recommend all of them. We got to lift a solid gold bar at the Mint - how cool is that? (And yes, there was a security guard sitting right there. 🙂 ) > > \*Everyone is supposed to float there, because the specific gravity is 1.06 - Jim, my extremely dense husband, got close to floating, but not all the way. Sigh. It was a lovely experience for me, though - I was floating and swimming vertically! My family went on a vacation to Manitou once. I was unfamiliar with the concept of mineral spas, and like any stupid kid, went underwater to be shocked by a mouthful of salty water. Never again! ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059/501 "2011-09-11T14:46:05Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > A government official says one thing and another says something else. You believe one over the other based upon your political preference. As do you. Are you seriously unwilling to admit _at all_ that the Conservatives may have fucked up? What would it take to get you to do so? $100 million misspent? $200 million? A billion? Is there absolutely no way they can ever mess up, or is that only something Liberals do, in your mind? > [@](#): > > You ever worked with auditors? Their job is to find things. If they don’t find things they aren’t doing their job. See the problem? I have worked with auditors, including government ones. I’ve had my paperwork handed back to me with a smile and a handshake and a thank-you for my thorough, clear and accurate work. I’ve had auditors admit that they’d call dibs on my work because they knew it would be easy and involve barely any corrections/clarifications (though I did make mistakes, they were honest ones). But maybe that’s just me, and no one else in the country can do their jobs properly without breaking any laws. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-canadian-current-events-and-politics-thread/582059.md?page=26)