I read that tweet and can’t recall if I was part of your battery heat, but I agree completely with your assessments. I went to the Convoy, although I’m ashamed to say, only for the day Feb 12, on my way across the country to visit my daughter in BC. God bless its stalwart leaders who are STILL being denied due legal process. I marched the little last leg to the Cenotaph with James Topp.and marvelled at the sheer physical and mental strength he displayed as I hobbled around on blistered feet for a week after doing only 20 klicks. Finally I feel I can wear my resulting T-shirts with all the defiant political content, without wondering if someone brainwashed sheep will clobber me about my ‘unacceptable views’. These days even an Air Canada stewardess took time to praise one. It’s been a long slow slog but maybe, finally, the sheep are beginning to see the wolves in their midst.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Janet. Absolutely, we're starting to see the emergence of a silent majority on these matters, and that collective voice grows each day. Ordinary conversations with anything but ordinary folk now feature far less political land mines and castigation for wrongthink. An astro-turfed, chattering class has pushed even classical liberals too far. We're headed for a long-overdue course correction. The question will be: how can we make it more permanent, or at least last as long as possible to give a generation or two a shot at anything other than life on the hamster wheel?
It amazed me how easily my colleagues in healthcare both medical and nursing (ER nurse here, 42 years an RN, some grad work in epidemiology) swallowed all that COVID crap propaganda without question. Supposedly we’re familiar with statistics and how academia, pharmaceutical propaganda, and human nature generally works. Not so, it became glaringly clear.
Quite a 'Pulse of the Province' article Alexander. It paints a dystopian picture of life in Ontario these days. I see some of this even in the relative 'utopia' of mid-western Ontario.
Keep it up. Better days are coming. If one can believe to latest polls Poilievre, and the CPC, will absolutely destroy the Lieberals, and the Non-Democratic Party, in the next election.
Appreciate that, Peter, and I'm glad you're outside of the GTA blast radius. My folks are Dufferin County and the ashes of Toronto grow closer with each passing year. Hope the prevailing winds don't shift north...
Fiery. Unfortunately things have be become absolutely TERRIBLE before most Torontonians consider voting other than red or yellow. Because they won't want soldiers on the streets with GUNS!!!..wait...whattt????
There's little saving Downtown Toronto, but the suburbs will start flipping dramatically. Less-insane people living more meaningful lives can't help but notice how awful this has been made for them. If you have a young family, and a car, and you don't own comfortably in 3-4 neighbourhoods, it's a wrap on the failing status quo. I look forward to leaving shortly.
Given the amount of time yet to pass before Canadians have an opportunity to cast their most meaningful ballot in decades, one has to hope that the subject comms brain trust remains as effective as it has been. In the meantime, my head shall be lowered as I meander my neighbourhood - on the look out for petrified poo.
I'd really like to stop cornering the market on the human excrement on our streets, sidewalks, and in our playgrounds beat, but there's no more fitting metaphor for Canadian decline.
May your neighbourhood have significantly less than mine.
That about says it all, Alexander...Well stated. My family and I pray daily for a way out of this insanity, and are counting the days until we can have a say in it.
It also surprises me (and I thought I had moved past ‘surprise’) just how blind to government corruption and unwilling to do anything about it (other than profit from it, sadly) too many segments of our population are. Of course, with immigration ‘officially’ set at half a million annually and the real number likely double that, what with people on ‘student’ visas ‘disappearing’ and more just walking in, and all of those coming from places where corruption is baked in at every level-what do we expect? Cynical Lib ploy, these policies, quite deliberate. Meanwhile our own youth (and not-so-young) prefer to stay stoned taking government handouts and will not work. It no longer makes sense to tolerate the climate here because of some mistaken cherished beliefs in our ‘superior’ social structures. We’re just as corrupt as everywhere else in the world; why not take my economic contribution somewhere warm? And this coming from a daughter of loyalists and other pioneers. I’m looking at Costa Rica.
That sounds like a fantastic option, if you're able. One can still love their country from afar, but choose to not live in misery. We're doing what we can to take a break from Ontario, but in the longer term I'd be happy to end up in warmer, sunnier pastures.
If only it were easier to get an American visa... I'm eternally jealous of the ability to reinvent one's self 50 different ways. Here, we have so few options unless you're willing to settle for -40. And affordability is a problem everywhere.
Oh, yes. Even in the Atlantic Provinces where we lived until I retired last year. (We moved to be closer to grandkids). House prices went ballistic, with a lot of Ontarians fleeing east. Turns out they didn’t look at other parts of ‘affordability’ such as the state of ‘health’ care there on a tax base of 750,000 vs 13,000,000, or long-term care, or road repair (what’s left after paying for ‘health’ care and ‘social development’) in a province where so many take seasonal pogey when forestry and fishery isn’t running. Family needs help plus something in me says not to cut and run when a fight for my homeland looms, so I don’t think I’ll give up our current home (cottage) yet, just leverage it to pay for down south (where I can’t get hit with capital gains tax). You better believe those wastrels would add it to primary residence if they could.
I read that tweet and can’t recall if I was part of your battery heat, but I agree completely with your assessments. I went to the Convoy, although I’m ashamed to say, only for the day Feb 12, on my way across the country to visit my daughter in BC. God bless its stalwart leaders who are STILL being denied due legal process. I marched the little last leg to the Cenotaph with James Topp.and marvelled at the sheer physical and mental strength he displayed as I hobbled around on blistered feet for a week after doing only 20 klicks. Finally I feel I can wear my resulting T-shirts with all the defiant political content, without wondering if someone brainwashed sheep will clobber me about my ‘unacceptable views’. These days even an Air Canada stewardess took time to praise one. It’s been a long slow slog but maybe, finally, the sheep are beginning to see the wolves in their midst.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Janet. Absolutely, we're starting to see the emergence of a silent majority on these matters, and that collective voice grows each day. Ordinary conversations with anything but ordinary folk now feature far less political land mines and castigation for wrongthink. An astro-turfed, chattering class has pushed even classical liberals too far. We're headed for a long-overdue course correction. The question will be: how can we make it more permanent, or at least last as long as possible to give a generation or two a shot at anything other than life on the hamster wheel?
It amazed me how easily my colleagues in healthcare both medical and nursing (ER nurse here, 42 years an RN, some grad work in epidemiology) swallowed all that COVID crap propaganda without question. Supposedly we’re familiar with statistics and how academia, pharmaceutical propaganda, and human nature generally works. Not so, it became glaringly clear.
I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. I remember being prescribed SSRIs, and even Oxy as a teenager. That sure didn't age well...
Big pharma's influence runs deep. If we're lucky, sometimes it's kind-of, maybe (?) in our best interest.
awesome summary of life in Canada ... well done !
Appreciate you, Carrie! Means a lot that the audience for these columns keeps growing.
We are all THAT mother.
Well said, Lucy.
Yup. Your article sums the current state of affairs in this country quite nicely.
Kind of you to say, Gwen! Thanks for reading, and for your support.
Quite a 'Pulse of the Province' article Alexander. It paints a dystopian picture of life in Ontario these days. I see some of this even in the relative 'utopia' of mid-western Ontario.
Keep it up. Better days are coming. If one can believe to latest polls Poilievre, and the CPC, will absolutely destroy the Lieberals, and the Non-Democratic Party, in the next election.
That can't happen soon eneough.
Appreciate that, Peter, and I'm glad you're outside of the GTA blast radius. My folks are Dufferin County and the ashes of Toronto grow closer with each passing year. Hope the prevailing winds don't shift north...
Better days are indeed coming!
Fiery. Unfortunately things have be become absolutely TERRIBLE before most Torontonians consider voting other than red or yellow. Because they won't want soldiers on the streets with GUNS!!!..wait...whattt????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unNZtCH9Mdo
Fiery... but mostly peaceful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cekj4ceH7WE
I kid, I kid. Thanks for that.
There's little saving Downtown Toronto, but the suburbs will start flipping dramatically. Less-insane people living more meaningful lives can't help but notice how awful this has been made for them. If you have a young family, and a car, and you don't own comfortably in 3-4 neighbourhoods, it's a wrap on the failing status quo. I look forward to leaving shortly.
Given the amount of time yet to pass before Canadians have an opportunity to cast their most meaningful ballot in decades, one has to hope that the subject comms brain trust remains as effective as it has been. In the meantime, my head shall be lowered as I meander my neighbourhood - on the look out for petrified poo.
I'd really like to stop cornering the market on the human excrement on our streets, sidewalks, and in our playgrounds beat, but there's no more fitting metaphor for Canadian decline.
May your neighbourhood have significantly less than mine.
Given that my neighbourhood has as many dogs as humanoids, continued vigilance shall be required.
That about says it all, Alexander...Well stated. My family and I pray daily for a way out of this insanity, and are counting the days until we can have a say in it.
Appreciate that. It's coming soon! Although this final year-and-change may pass particularly slowly.
It also surprises me (and I thought I had moved past ‘surprise’) just how blind to government corruption and unwilling to do anything about it (other than profit from it, sadly) too many segments of our population are. Of course, with immigration ‘officially’ set at half a million annually and the real number likely double that, what with people on ‘student’ visas ‘disappearing’ and more just walking in, and all of those coming from places where corruption is baked in at every level-what do we expect? Cynical Lib ploy, these policies, quite deliberate. Meanwhile our own youth (and not-so-young) prefer to stay stoned taking government handouts and will not work. It no longer makes sense to tolerate the climate here because of some mistaken cherished beliefs in our ‘superior’ social structures. We’re just as corrupt as everywhere else in the world; why not take my economic contribution somewhere warm? And this coming from a daughter of loyalists and other pioneers. I’m looking at Costa Rica.
That sounds like a fantastic option, if you're able. One can still love their country from afar, but choose to not live in misery. We're doing what we can to take a break from Ontario, but in the longer term I'd be happy to end up in warmer, sunnier pastures.
If only it were easier to get an American visa... I'm eternally jealous of the ability to reinvent one's self 50 different ways. Here, we have so few options unless you're willing to settle for -40. And affordability is a problem everywhere.
Oh, yes. Even in the Atlantic Provinces where we lived until I retired last year. (We moved to be closer to grandkids). House prices went ballistic, with a lot of Ontarians fleeing east. Turns out they didn’t look at other parts of ‘affordability’ such as the state of ‘health’ care there on a tax base of 750,000 vs 13,000,000, or long-term care, or road repair (what’s left after paying for ‘health’ care and ‘social development’) in a province where so many take seasonal pogey when forestry and fishery isn’t running. Family needs help plus something in me says not to cut and run when a fight for my homeland looms, so I don’t think I’ll give up our current home (cottage) yet, just leverage it to pay for down south (where I can’t get hit with capital gains tax). You better believe those wastrels would add it to primary residence if they could.