I watch Canadian politics. We went through a few years when Canadian TV made it into Trego, and I found I preferred their political interviews to ours – I recall one Canadian candidate, faced with the question “Do you think the voters have forgotten about you being charged with rape?” for the third time in five minutes answering “I bloody well you would forget about it!” I remember another, angry at their Prime Minister, loudly responding to his comment with “Mulroney, you Frog!” Never could figure that out – an Irish-Canadian born in Quebec, I think he was what they needed at the time.. The intertwined relationship between Canada and the US shows up with Mulroney, who championed NAFTA, dying in Florida. At 48.7 degrees north, I understand snowbirds whether Canadian or US.
I heard Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford – a Canadian commenter referred to him as ‘a fat Trudeau’ refer to his own twenty years lived in the US. It’s hard to run a Canadian business without spending time south of the line. The two nations, particularly at my latitude, are intertwined. Doug may have maintained Canadian residency, but he spent a lot of time Stateside.
So I watched Alberta’s vote to consider independence with interest, and saw that the Canadian pollsters were more accurate than our own. On the other hand, it’s easier to poll correctly when you’re looking at a three to one landslide election.
Still, when a quarter of the electorate votes to leave the nation, it is significant. It’s also significant that three quarters want to stay. Mulroney went in with about three quarters of Parliament in his Progressive Conservative party – and a party that had been out of power for over 25 years came up with a lot of blunders. Now the party in power keeps the majority not so much by election as by political maneuvering.
Here, we have two voting groups, about equally matched, that want to rule. Not govern, rule. A relatively small group gets annoyed with the ruling party and votes in the opposition. The donkeys are a little more cohesive and skilled at political maneuvering than the elephants. I think they’re a little more likely to elect candidates who are bug nuts – but I don’t have statistics to back that feeling. Both parties have their share – and the split isn’t three to one – more like 48 to 52.
Mulroney was probably what Canada needed back in those Reagan years – a Canadian of Irish heritage, born in Quebec, able to get a connection with most Canadians in those years after Pierre Trudeau (does anyone else recall Pierre Trudeau’s comment to the Media: “I’ll bloody well not tell you whom I seduce.”)
So I watch Canadian politics as an outsider who has been a neighbor for years. I kind of prefer the way Canadian journalists interview Canadian politicians – while CBC tosses more softballs than they once did, Rebel News now specializes in hardball questions.
Otherwise, I tend to use a credit card in Canada, letting the banks deal with the exchange rates for me. After all, physically it’s 68 miles from Trego to Fernie, and 50 to Kalispell. The border is usually an inconvenience (excepting when Trudeau the lesser closed it during Covid). I have friends on both sides of the line, and whether Canadian or American, few of us love our governing class – but most prefer our own nations.
Leave a Reply