Canadian Crossing

2023 Victoria Day notebook: Alberta wildfires starting early

Welcome to Victoria Day 2023, the unofficial start of summer in Canada. We gathered a few recent items of note and reflect on where Canada is at the moment. You don't have to be at the cabin or cottage to enjoy this notebook. Having a Caesar (or a virgin Caesar) and perhaps a bag of all-dressed or ketchup chips wouldn't hurt.

2023 Alberta election preview

CanadianCrossing.com Alberta coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

This should be a serious concern in upcoming #AbElection2023. Will be curious to see what voters think. #abpoli https://t.co/ytS52WQRpW

— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) May 19, 2023

The Alberta election is a week today. Glad we got the decision that Alberta premier Danielle Smith breached the conflict of interest act. Smith's thought process sadly reminded us of the old Steve Martin joke about how he forgot armed robbery was against the law.

The primary story in the province this month is still the devastating wildfires, even with the election. The conditions are unfortunately ripe for wildfires. We've seen them spread beyond the province in Western Canada.

Can't wait for summer, except when wildfires are involved. Difficult to think about voting for Rachel Notley or Danielle Smith (not directly) when you might have to leave your home or already have evacuated.

We will have more on the Alberta election after we find out the results.

2022 Victoria Day notebook: Alberta in the spotlight

2021 Victoria Day notebook

Victoria Day 2020 notebook: Summer of uncertainty in Canada

Canadian notebook: Celebrating Victoria Day 2019

You likely have read about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas receiving luxury gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow. Sadly, this will likely not results in charges or removal from the bench.

Canada Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown has been on leave since February 1 over allegations in Arizona that involve a physical altercation and allegations of unwanted touching of women.

Action was swift in that the incident happened on January 28-29.

We haven't seen updates of late as to how long the leave will last or whether action can be taken against Brown.

The incidents are different in nature but you do get the sense that the Canada Supreme Court cares about appearances on the court while the same is not true in the United States.

Russell Brown and Clarence Thomas do have one intriguing element in common: both were highly conservative judges at a really young age with little judicial experience. Thomas had not been a judge while Brown was only a judge for 2½ years in Alberta.

Brown is 57. If he stays on the court, he can be there until September 15, 2040, his 75th birthday.

Canadian TV notebook: A much longer wait for Season 3 of Transplant on NBC

There are a lot of Canadian TV shows coming this summer and fall to the CW. One of those "old" shows is Transplant, where Season 3 will be further delayed, as in 2024. Some of that is the writers strike in the United States. That strike may open the flood gates for more Canadian TV.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

There is a new Canadian film with a following in the United States. Blackberry is about the Canadian phenomena with a phone with a keyboard.

Matt Johnson directed the film from a screenplay from Johnson and Matthew Miller about the rise and fall of Canadian tech company Research in Motion. American actor Glenn Howerton plays Jim Balsillie while Canadian icon Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis.

Canadians have great stories that should be told by Canadians. Let's hope for more opportunities like Blackberry and fewer like Argo.

Your humble narrator has not seen the film. Just odd that a lot of Americans can easily see this film in theatres.

The End of Sex played in U.S. theatres for a week. The film played in a couple of Chicago suburbs but not in the actual city, where more likely filmgoers would see this film.

Monia Chokri's new film The Nature of Love | Simple comme Sylvain is the lone Canadian film in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. This film follows a wealthy woman who has an affair with a working class man.

The film is in the Un Certain Regard section, the same place as A Brother's Love in 2019. You might recall that Chokri directed and starred in Babysitter (2022). Chokri wrote and directed the 2019 and 2023 films.

CBC News has a nice wrapup of the overall Canadian presence at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

2023 CFL preseason schedule

The CFL preseason starts today at 4 pm Eastern/2 pm Mountain with the Battle of Alberta as the Elks of Edmonton travel to Calgary to play the Stampeders.

The new CFL Preseason Live means all the preseason games are available online in the U.S. (online for 6, TV for 3 in Canada) though there is no on-demand option.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

Gary Bettman's pet project has been a colossal failure in the greater Phoenix area. The latest is a sound rejection of a new arena in Tempe last week.

The argument in Glendale was that fans couldn't get to the arena. The local TV ratings are anemic, barely ahead of what a test pattern (ask your grandparents) would get.

The Arizona Coyotes need a new home and not in the desert. Salt Lake City, Houston, and Kansas City have been mentioned as possible relocation destinations.

The obvious choice is Quebec City and the Quebec Nordiques 2.0. Beautiful new arena, hockey history, fans who like and will support hockey. TSN's Pierre LeBrun, among many others, mentions that Quebec City doesn't have enough corporate money. The idea that the arena would be filled, lots more merchandise would be sold, and a great rivalry in La Belle Province isn't as valuable as corporate money in Salt Lake City is highly frustrating.

The potential ownership has been vetted when Quebec City put up a bid for an expansion team, a setup that was rigged for another desert city and away from an actual hockey city. Time to right a wrong and bring back the Quebec Nordiques.

Canada has a bit of copycat with corporate names for stadiums and arenas. Rogers has the MLB stadium in Toronto and hockey arenas in Edmonton and Vancouver. Scotiabank has the NBA and NHL arena in Toronto and the NHL arena in Calgary.

There is a satisfaction of referring to the large stadium in Toronto as SkyDome, the original name for the stadium. Exhibition Stadium was the home of the Blue Jays (MLB) and Argonauts (CFL). Its replacement has a corporate name (BMO Field).

Taylor Field in Regina, the long-time home of the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders, was named for Neil J. "Piffles" Taylor, a World War I fighter pilot who served as president of the Regina Roughriders, the Canadian Rugby Union, and the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

Ivor Wynne, as in Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, was athletic director and dean of students at McMaster University.

Mosaic Stadium was also the last name given to Taylor Field. The new Mosaic Stadium is likely to be called that since that field only had that name.

The CFL has corporate names in Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton (field only), Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa.

Vancouver has BC Place and the old Empire Stadium, though one of the Rogers arenas is in Vancouver.

You can find out more about that shirt.

photo credits: Baroness Von Sketch/CBC; uni-watch.com
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
video credit: YouTube/IFC Films

Grocery rebate is helpful for Canadians while Americans struggle without help

We weren't planning on writing about the grocery rebate found in the new Canadian federal budget. BalanceofFood.com, our sibling blog, found the grocery rebate idea as a fascinating topic worth exploring.

Their research took them to Andrew Chang explaining the grocery rebate for the CBC News Explore audience. Chang left The National to do online journalism for CBC News Explore. His explanation of the grocery rebate on the whiteboard was journalism that was simple and informative. A good sign for Canadian journalism if the new service is doing that kind of work.

The money on the table for low and middle-income Canadians is a decent amount ($233 or $467 with seniors getting $225) but won't go too far given the current rising food prices. As our sibling blog noted, the American government with the GOP-led House won't even consider help for Americans unless the Democratic Party wins back the House in 2024.

Grocery rebate is a nice idea but only a short-term solution to rising food prices (BalanceofFood.com)

Food prices are generally higher in Canada than in the United States due to a number of circumstances. Even higher if you consider the cost of groceries in the North, such as in Iqlauit in Nunavut. The Balanceoffood.com story includes links to podcasts that delve into the high food prices in Canada. 

CanadianCrossing.com BalanceofFood.com coverage

CanadianCrossing.com food and drink coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian society coverage

CanadianCrossing.com journalism coverage

You can find out more about how to watch CBC News Explore. Americans can watch CBC News Explore live via the Tubi streaming app.

photo and video credit: CBC News Explore

Joe Biden's visit to Canada as president shouldn't be his last

My friend texted "Roxham Road closed" on Thursday. Joe Biden was on Canadian soil. That sounded about right.

The debate over revising the Safe Third Country Agreement, has been on the table since 2017 with the angry toddler wrecking havoc south of the border. President Joe Biden was in Ottawa and that was the conclusion of the mess that has been border issues between Canada and the United States.

Daily Show explores why refugees are fleeing U.S. for Canada

The speech. The one-on-one meetings. The press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The dinner at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum.

The 27-hour visit had little in the way of side trips for the president but Sophie Gregoire Trudeau introduced Dr. Jill Biden to curling.

The important discussions that won't get the flashy headlines about Biden's crack about the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The chance for those in Ottawa to see the U.S. president, well, from a distance. Supposed to be one of the perks of living in a country's capital.

Joe Biden makes first official U.S. visit to Canada since 2016

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." — Mark Twain

There is a lot of symbolism with the U.S. president on Canadian soil, the first president in a long time to sleep in Canada, and having the U.S. first lady along for the trip. The U.S.-Canada relationship is terribly important. This relationship can survive butting heads in charge, such as Pierre Trudeau and Richard Nixon as well as those who see eye to eye, such as Brian Mulroney and George H.W. Bush as well as Justin Trudeau and Barack Obama.

The relationship doesn't do well when U.S. presidents have a hatred for Canada (2 leap to mind) and Canadian prime ministers who love the United States a little too much (yes, we are looking at Stephen Harper). Friendliness is encouraged; acceptance is enough.

Vice President Kamala Harris lived in Canada during her teenage years. Instead of that being a source of pride, Harris has to hide that fact among the American electorate.

The impact of the Joe Biden presidency on Canada

President-elect Joe Biden should make his first international trip to Canada

The Three Amigos, when working well, is a way to be a budget version of the European Union, but there is too much distrust. Free trade handled poorly under NAFTA and made terribly worse under the CUSMA (USMCA) trade deal. Borders should be much more open. Those in the United States who want to live in Canada. Those in Canada that would love to live in the United States. That should be way easier.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

CanadianCrossing.com U.S. politics coverage

The president of the United States and the prime minister of Canada meeting in each other's countries should be commonplace. We make them a big deal because they are a big deal. Sovereignty is crucial for both countries but commonalities should also be enhanced between the countries.

Ideally, we would insist on an entire debate devoted to U.S.-Canada issues for all presidential and vice presidential candidates. We know that is a pipe dream and not a pipeline dream.

Thank you, Mr. President and Mrs. First Lady for coming to Canada. You are welcome back, maybe for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and an American team at Scotiabank Arena. You can have some butter tarts and even a little poutine.

video credit: YouTube/White House
photo credit: CPAC

Joe Biden makes first official U.S. visit to Canada since 2016

The president of the United States will be in Canada today … and tomorrow.

Unlike the Barack Obama trip in 2009, Biden is bringing the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and the couple is staying overnight Thursday night.

Biden is expected to arrive in Ottawa later tonight and meet with Governor General Mary Simon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have meetings with Biden on Friday. The U.S. president will address Parliament before leaving Canada.

The last top official from the United States to make a formal trip to Canada was then Vice President Joe Biden at the end of 2016.

Canadians may pick up on the fact this will be the first visit by a U.S. president with an overnight stay in Canada during a bilateral visit for the first time in decades.

Border issues, Buy American, guns, Safe Third Country deal/Roxham Road, Haiti, NORAD, NAFTA 2.0 aka CUSMA. Some of the many challenges that won't get solved by the end of Friday night. The people under the U.S. president and Canadian prime minister work on these issues.

Obama Canadian Parliament speech needs to ignite significant growth in the bilateral relationship

The chant from the Liberals and the NDP in the House of Commons — "Four more years" — might have been the most memorable moment from President Barack Obama's speech before Parliament in June 2016. The experts will monitor the speech for the platitudes and the not-so-hidden messages.

President Biden will have those messages in his speech tomorrow before the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Canada and the United States are allies, neighbours, and friends. Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, will visit Canada to continue working together to advance our countries’ shared priorities: https://t.co/U2vEv4iEO0

— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) March 9, 2023

Three Amigos are back after 5 years but feels unbalanced

Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau meeting virtually is still important symbolically

The impact of the Joe Biden presidency on Canada

President-elect Joe Biden should make his first international trip to Canada

Factoring Canada in the 2020 presidential election

Kamala Harris, Jackie Robinson, and their association with Montreal

Looking back at when Joe Biden was in Canada

Joe Biden reinforces Canadian leadership in state visit

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden goes to Canada

CBC News Network will present live coverage of the President Joe Biden visit with a CBC News Special: U.S. President Biden in Canada starting at 1 pm Eastern on Friday. CTV News Channel will also have live coverage.

CPAC in Canada has extensive coverage. C-SPAN hopefully will cover the speech, likely through CPAC, though its schedule gets updated at the last minute.

MSNBC and CNN might have some related coverage though we wouldn't expect either channel to spend much time on the actual speech.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

CanadianCrossing.com U.S. politics coverage

We will wrap up the visit on Monday.

photo credit: Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press via AP
video credit: YouTube/The Obama White House
Twitter capture: @CanadianPM

Where to visit Canada in 2023

"The ArriveCAN app is optional." That might be the most glorious Canadian travel news of 2022.

We have feigned hope for more travel in the last couple of years but that hasn't been a reality. Canadians, who were vaccinated, were encouraged to come to the United States. Americans to Canada? Not so much.

Let's hope 2023 sees a return of Americans to Canada, swayed by beautiful scenery and landscapes as well as a cheap Canadian dollar.

Making up for lost travel time is an ideal goal for 2023, provided you have the time and money.

Experiencing marijuana tourism in Canada

Your humble narrator finally got to be on Canadian soil. As tempting as kissing the ground might be, didn't get that literal in my appreciation for being in Canada. Poutine, ketchup chips, butter tarts, even a decent shawarma were on the menu. All of that went well with legal marijuana in Canada.

Pope Francis I arrives in Canada on Sunday for an expected apology on residential schools

The most famous person who isn't Canadian who came to Canada in 2022 was Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church. The trip was mostly to Alberta with a brief stop in Quebec and an even briefer stop in Iqaluit in Nunavat.

The trip was good in that attention was brought to what happened in residential schools. Unfortunately, after the trip, the issue of reconciliation disappeared from the headlines.

Canada drops all COVID-19 measures at borders as of October 1

Canada to finally lift pre-arrival COVID-19 tests for air and land border crossings

Making travel plans for Canada in 2023 will be a lot easier now that restrictions have been lifted. You should be vaccinated but that isn't a requirement. Just a healthy suggestion.

Touchdown Atlantic 2022 showcased Nova Scotia and its love for the CFL

We are partial to Nova Scotia and happy for those who finally got to see a CFL game in that province. The 2023 version will be in Halifax proper. The donair is a beautiful local food to enjoy as well as amazing seafood.

Stanley Tucci has plenty of love for Toronto

Toronto, among many other Canadian cities, are great eating destinations. We aren't sure how many of those places are still in business. The pandemic did a lot of damage to restaurants.

Greyhound leaves Canada for good

If you want to travel by bus and haven't done so recently, Greyhound abandoned Canada in 2021 with the grand exception of incoming buses to Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. If we travel by bus, we will share our experiences.

How the Canada-U.S. border closure has affected border towns

A trip back to Montréal. A first trip to Saskatoon. A chance to see relatively new CFL stadiums in Regina and Hamilton. The Icefield Parkway in Alberta. Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Gander in Newfoundland. Churchill in Manitoba, though that might be a pipe dream. The interior of British Columbia, a world not Vancouver or Victoria.

I've been to Quebec City but would like to try areas of the city I didn't get to see. Stratford, Ontario as an adult: have been there as a kid. Explore the Acadian part of New Brunswick.

The previous 2 paragraphs look familiar for those who remember our 2022 travel guide. We made a trip to Windsor for the film festival. Would love to go deeper into Canada in 2023.

Where to visit Canada in 2022

Where to visit Canada in 2021

Where to visit Canada in 2020

Where to visit Canada in 2019

Where to visit Canada in 2018

Where to visit Canada in 2017

All Canada national parks are free in 2017

Where to visit Canada in 2016

Where to visit Canada in 2015

Where to visit Canada in 2014

Even if you are able to travel, right now, travel sucks. Not what it used to be or what it should be. Do research. Hope that trip will be what you want that to be. Someday. Please make it soon.

CanadianCrossing.com now has stories grouped by provinces and territories

CanadianCrossing.com border crossings coverage

CanadianCrossing.com travel coverage

Wish the short-term future was better for tourism in Canada. A day trip in Windsor would improve my mood.

Share your Canadian tourism wishes for 2023 in the comments section below. Time to make travel plans.

map credit: Ezilon.com

CUSMA/USMCA punishes Canada for wanting to export baby formula

That media talks about baby formula shortage w/o knowing whats going on is amazing. Trump's USMCA restricted imports of formula from Canada, so we imported no formula from Canada in 2021, leaving us vulnerable to domestic shock. The shock hit when Abbott plant was contaminated.

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 14, 2022

The United States has baby formula shortages. Canada makes baby formula and would want to increase its exports to the United States and please a top trading partner.

Too bad the dreaded, horrible, terrible USMCA (CUSMA) made this impossible.

From Fortune magazine:

"As part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), negotiated by President Donald Trump to replace the North America Free Trade Agreement in July 2020, Canada agreed to impose an additional surcharge of $3/kg if the total volume of its global formula exports—not just exports to the U.S.—broke a certain threshold. That threshold is currently set at 40,480 metric tons for the current "dairy year" of August 1 2021 to July 31 2022.

"The new duties seemingly closed off Canada as a source of infant formula. The U.S. imported a grand total of zero tons of baby formula from its nothern (sic) neighbor in 2021, yet has shipped tons of domestic formula into Canada. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S.-manufactured infant formula made up the largest component of U.S. dairy exports to Canada in 2021, accounting for 22% of all northbound dairy trade."

The crybaby toddler who somehow had a lot of power was rather vindictive toward Canada on multiple fronts. We didn't factor in baby formula.

Abbott accounts for nearly half of the domestic production of the U.S. baby formula market. The U.S. makes 98% of its formula domestically.

That is a problem with a February recall of Abbott Nutrition formula contaminated with bacteria from its Sturgis, MI factory. 4 infants became sick with bacterial infections; 2 of them died.

The irony is that United States standards are much more lax than Europe or Canada in terms of the quality of the formula. This isn't a matter of Canada or Europe formula meeting those standards because their formula exceeds the U.S. standards.

Podcast: Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and the politics of breastfeeding (BalanceofFood.com)

The United States lags behind the Western World on maternal elements, such as leave. Improved standards for women might encourage more breastfeeding. As much as we (and our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com) endorse breastfeeding, there is a reality for baby formula that needs to be addressed.

Cheap pizza comes to Canada but at what cost

Canada milk producers threatened with invasion of cheaper American milk

Canadian milk holds a higher standard on milk, not allowing recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), an artificial growth hormone allowed in American milk. The anger by the crybaby toddler is over this difference in milk. If this were a baby formula shortage in Canada, importing formula from the United States would be a concern over bringing rBST into Canada.

Canada secretly passes heavily flawed CUSMA during the COVID-19 corornavirus pandemic

NAFTA 2.0, er, USMCA is a nightmarish trade deal for Canada

The party of the crybaby toddler is the party that is trying to take advantage of the political ramifications of the baby formula shortages. As little as we think of Canadian journalism, U.S. journalism is the grand leader of cluelessness. Kurt Eichenwald being a grand exception as noted in the top of the column.

Balanceoffood.com Canada food policy coverage

Trade deals can be tricky when all involved parties are acting in free will. The CUSMA/USMCA trade talks were a shambles and the complete opposite of an ethical trade deal process. Innocent people get hurt when a trade deal goes this poorly.

Would Americans get an abortion in Canada?

We noted that Americans might drive to Canada to get an abortion. We can't condone, under any circumstances, the illegal importation of any product from Canada into the United States. We can point out that they sell baby formula in Canada.

American mothers who rely on baby formula should be able to access quality products without a monopoly and heavy-handed political tactics.

Twitter capture: @kurteichenwald
photo credit: Dairy Farmers of Canada

Would Americans get an abortion in Canada?

Canadians can access abortion services, though like most healthcare, getting an abortion is a lot easier if you live in a large Canadian city. The United States, even before the leak of a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, has been a place where getting an abortion was extremely difficult unless you lived in a large urban setting.

Canadians don't have the draconian laws of their southern neighbours.

Karina Gould, Canada's minister of families, affirmed that Americans can access abortion services in Canada. “If they, people, come here and need access, certainly, you know, that’s a service that would be provided,” Gould told CBC News.

This may be notable in states such as Michigan that border Ontario.

Matt Galloway talked about abortion in a recent segment on The Current on CBC Radio One. The emphasis was mostly on Saskatchewan, pointing out that access was easier in Regina than even Saskatoon.

Canada is a safer place for abortion though access should be improved

Prince Edward Island eases abortion restrictions (2015)

Abortion definitely an issue in New Brunswick election (2014)

The Trudeau Government had recent announcements on already assigned funding: more than $3.5 million in funding for 2 initiatives to improve access to abortion services and reproductive health information.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Action Canada would get $2.1 million over 3 years to improve information and referral services. The funding will also cover travel and accommodation costs for people seeking abortions.

The National Abortion Federation Canada will get $1.4 million over 3 years to help train health care providers to perform abortions and ensure facilities have the capacity to provide the service.

The U.S. helped out Canada on the abortion front in the late 1980s before a key decision from the Canadian Supreme Court.

The CBC News report noted the passport concern for Americans traveling to Canada for an abortion. Americans also need to register via the ArriveCAN app and be vaccinated to come to Canada, ideally in a land crossing.

CanadianCrossing.com health care coverage

Canada was a destination for same-gender marriages while the United States did this on a piece meal basis. The dreams of marijuana tourism have been thwarted by a delay on edibles and the pandemic. Plus, if you are an American wanting to do marijuana tourism, a flight to California has better weather at the destination and may be cheaper, depending on location.

Abortion tourism won't be marketed but might be a small slice of desperately need tourism money for Canada. As much as any kind of tourism would be helpful, abortion is the type of procedure where you want to be in your own bed after the procedure.

Home is an option for drugs that induce a miscarriage. That can make the process easier on women in Canada, the United States, and around the world.

There are groups of people who will particularly struggle with this not so distant future: poor women; women of colour, especially Indigenous women; and young women.

Women should have the full and complete right to decide when and how they get pregnant and how they deal with the situation should they become pregnant. Full stop.

photo credit: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS
video credit: CBC News

Convoy wants to act out but has no purpose or solutions

My favourite sign from the counter-protest. pic.twitter.com/ie0cnR6piR

— John Ibbitson (@JohnIbbitson) February 5, 2022

Protest is a necessary part of a functioning democratic society. Train strikes in Europe. Picket signs outside a company that you think is doing damage to society. Letting the government know what you feel.

We usually associate protest with liberal or left-leaning groups. After all, they have to work hard just to come up short in opportunities in society. We've seen police crack down hard, especially in recent years, on protesters.

What we've seen in Canada: Ottawa, Windsor, and many other places — this may look like a protest. They have signs, they seem to have a purpose. It's okay to be upset that the pandemic has upset lives. Here are some missing elements to what is happening in Canada.

• The action is being portrayed as a truckers convoy. Most of the people are not truckers. This is like saying "blueberry" on the front of the food label and finding blueberry to be 9th or 10th in the list of ingredients.
• These people are upset at COVID-19 restrictions. Those fall under the jurisdiction of provinces, which is why some provinces have done okay and some have done awful. The federal restrictions involving actual truckers requires truckers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated. Again, most truckers are vaccinated.
• If you are sincerely protesting, which is debatable, you would have clear messaging for what you want to accomplish. Nazi flags, distorted Canadian flags with swastikas, loud noises waking up people who live in downtown Ottawa, blocking traffic so Canadian nurses can't go to work in the United States, setting up an encampment in Ottawa. This is not about protesting, this is disruption.
• The Ottawa police treating these people with much more kindness than people who are protesting on the opposite side of the spectrum. Their performance has been pathetic. The people of Ottawa need to be defended from these people, not sucked up to by the police force.
• The image of using children as shields is standard "way beyond any real sense of protest."

The auto industry is suffering because of the blockades with the Ambassador Bridge in a time where more cars need to be built. Downtown Ottawa, normally a very boring place, has received too much excitement, especially in a negative light. Other areas of Canada are dealing with selfish, boorish, outright illegal behavior.

U.S. groups financially supporting these people should understand the concept of sovereignty. This is literally not your fight.

Erin O'Toole out as Conservative Party federal leader

The Conservative Party of Canada is sucking up to these people. Candice Bergen won't be the leader of the party when the ramifications truly come but she is loud and proud. "The economy that you want to see reopened, is hurting.” The people Bergen is supporting are hurting the economy.

The Conservatives had many reasons to get rid of O'Toole. The timing of his dismissal as party leader seemed to also be a timing to respond as stronger allies with these people.

United Conservative Party Alberta premier Jason Kenney has been critical of protests that interfere with business yet these people, socially and culturally aligned with conservatives, are doing just that.

2022 Canadian politics preview

We know people have short memories. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been slow on so many challenges, including the convoy. Ford did declare a state of emergency but why did this take so long.

The Ontario election is set for June 2. Will this change minds away from Ford Nation that were previously undecided?

Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com

Mick Jagger famously said "Why are we fighting?" at Altamont in 1969. Liberals and left-leaning people are upset at COVID-19 restrictions. We have argued numerous times that Canada is too cautious in pandemic restrictions.

This is frustrating that conservative people are acting out their frustrations, whether that be masks or vaccination requirements or some other kind of "victim" syndrome. We love that Canada acts more as a society and, despite this, Canada is that country.

Those who were tricked into believing the "memorandum of understanding" was a real thing should have to take the test that immigrants have to in order to become a Canadian citizen.

We saw some of this same element, perhaps the same people, with antisocial disturbing behaviour at Justin Trudeau rallies in the election last fall.

Update: Just a few bad apples waving swastika/Confederate flags, stealing food from homeless, dancing on National War Memorial, defacing Terry Fox statue, assaulting journalists, storming Rideau Centre maskless

— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) January 30, 2022

Stop being babies. Stop throwing tantrums. All of us are sick of having to do what we do. Restrictions and mandates should end based on science, not intimidation from those who haven't wanted to play by the rules.

People who protest know what they want in terms of solutions. These people want to disrupt without an end plan. They have a right to be frustrated but they are not responding like they have a clue or a solution. This is Canada but a small minority.

Twitter captures: @JohnIbbitson; @TheBeaverton
photo credit: CBC News

60 Minutes tells the stories of the damage from residential schools in Canada

Editor's note: There is definitely language and stories that could be triggering to sufferers of the impact of residential schools in Canada.

60 Minutes and Anderson Cooper came to Canada in October to look into the unmarked graves found at residential schools. Last night, they told the U.S. audience of the atrocities north of the border.

Cooper spoke with Leona Wolf, Chief Wilton Littlechild, and Ed Bitternose. The idea was to speak inside the residential school buildings so they could point to rooms or places where these horrible incidents happened.

Wolf spoke of Father Joyal fondling girls, including her cousin, who was 8. Littlechild came to a residential school in Alberta, where his name was 65 as in "Sixty-five, pick that up stupid." "65, why'd you do that, idiot?" Bitternose said because of his experience, he didn't tell his wife he loved her until they were married about 40 years, "and then I was very careful how I said it."

Cooper covered the basics that have been reported. The exceptions were how the Catholic Church reneged on restitution money as well as how the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said there were thousands of graves long before they were discovered.

“That's where my house was. I would sit here and wonder why I couldn't be home.”

Ed Bitternose was taken to a residential school within view of where his parents lived. He says he was abused by other children and a nun, but began healing when he re-discovered his Cree culture. pic.twitter.com/6Mk8qEZNbZ

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 7, 2022

Archeologist Kisha Supernant weighed in on the multi-generational impact of residential schools, "Our communities still feel the impacts of these institutions in our everyday lives. We're way over-represented in child welfare and adoptions and foster care. We're way over-represented in the prisons. You can draw a direct line with that to these places and the pain of that, that has been passed on from generation to generation."

Wolf spoke to that with her mother and how she treated her and how she treated her children.

Canada observes the initial National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Inuk leader Mary Simon will be Canada's first Indigenous governor general

The segment was about what happened in Canada. The piece did have a paragraph about what had happened in the United States. "The idea for the schools came in part from the United States. In 1879 the Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened in Pennsylvania, where this photo was taken of Native American children when they first arrived. This is them four months later. The school's motto was 'kill the Indian, save the man.'"

There is a trauma in having the interviews inside the buildings where these horrible deeds took place. The cruelty of having their hair cut, being assigned numbers or Christian names, as Littlechild put it, the motto was, "kill the Indian in the child": these are the small but painful traumas deliberately set into a system justified by the government.

Regular readers know we are destined to bring up Lynn Beyak's name in all of this. The former Conservative senator, one of many scandalous appointments by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, spent a lot of political capital on the idea that residential schools weren't so bad.

Beyak retired just over a year ago from the Senate. She might have watched the 60 Minutes story and not learned a lot from the experience. While some Canadians may agree with Beyak's views, at least they aren't in the position of a senator.

Canada Day 2021: A time for reflection and some celebration

Canadian films that might explain a bit about the world of residential schools

CanadianCrossing.com Indigenous coverage

You can watch the 60 Minutes segment. The CBS News program runs on CBS in the United States and Global in Canada.

photo credit: 60 Minutes
Twitter capture: @60Minutes

2022 Canadian politics preview

2021 showed us that Canadian elections early in a pandemic are a different beast than elections later in a pandemic.

We started 2021 knowing 3 provinces had run pandemic elections pretty well. That was an encouraging sign in Newfoundland and Labrador and later Nova Scotia for the party in power.

The Newfoundland and Labrador election started well and ran smoothly until the last week when COVID-19 fired up in the Avalon Peninsula. The simple solution seemed to be have everyone vote on Election Day but those in the Avalon Peninsula. The province halted the vote for everyone and switched to a mail-in format.

That went particularly poorly in Labrador, especially for those who had to learn more English to participate. Andrew Furey (Liberal) won a slim majority government after taking over for Dwight Ball. Furey would have done better if the election had been on time.

The Liberals in Nova Scotia suffered a worse fate being tossed out for the Progressive Conservatives in August. Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin, who took office back in February, ran a poor campaign. Tim Houston ran a better campaign.

Andrew Furey, Liberals get slim majority government in Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia goes Progressive Conservative for the first time since 2009

Heather Stefanson will be Manitoba's first female premier

Manitoba went a year early in 2019; the Progressive Conservatives ultimately voted for Heather Stefanson as the new premier. Former Conservative MP Shelly Glover did not concede gracefully.

Justin Trudeau, Liberals win a third government with back-to-back minority governments

The federal election that the pundits desperately wanted became the election nobody wanted once the campaign started. An odd Willy Wonka ad, only having 3 debates, a Green Party leader who barely traveled, and guns in the campaign were the highlights or lowlights. Justin Trudeau ended up with a similarly strong minority government.

The excitement in most provincial elections are limited to that province. The Ontario and Quebec elections will seem louder than the others. The power base living in Toronto and Ottawa as well as those in Windsor, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay are affected by what happens in Queen's Park.

CanadianCrossing.com Ontario coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Quebec coverage

On paper, Doug Ford would seem to go down easily as a 1-term leader for the Progressive Conservatives in Ontario. A few factors to consider: voting against someone is easy but the question is where those votes will go. The NDP is in opposition with the long-time leader Andrea Horvath.

The PCs will bring up Bob Rae and the 1990 election (NDP). The NDP could bring up Mike Harris but smartly won't. There is plenty of ammunition in what Ford has done and not done as premier.

The Liberals were reduced to third party status at Queen's Park with new leader Steven Del Duca. If the NDP win a minority government, the Liberals could make the difference. Would progressive voters pick red over orange?

The Quebec election will be more difficult to measure since the relative Coalition Avenir Québec popularity. Predicting is always difficult, especially in La Belle Province.

What did we learn from pandemic elections in Canada?

Amita Kuttner is the new interim Green Party Leader, replacing Annamie Paul. Kuttner runs the Moonlight Institute, a non-profit that deals with climate crisis solutions.

So much went wrong for Paul and the Green Party. No one apologized for the anti-Semitic accusations from Paul's senior adviser Noah Zatzman against NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Green MPs. The loss of Jenica Atwin before the election and Paul Manly's loss at the election did a lot of damage to the Green Party.

There were high hopes for the Green Party of Canada when Annamie Paul was elected by party members. The stubbornness to run in Toronto Centre, the reluctance to travel to key ridings: these were some of the downfall for Paul as leader of the Greens.

Paul, who is Black and Jewish, was the first Black permanent leader of a major federal party. She was only the second Jewish person in that role; former NDP leader David Lewis also had that role.

The Conservative Party decided to keep Erin O'Toole. This puts him a step ahead of Andrew Scheer, who did not stay around as party leader. Scheer is still an American citizen, a secret we discovered in the 2019 election.

Ontario and Quebec are up to the plate in 2022.

Here are the tentative election dates for the provinces in 2022:

• Ontario — June 2
• Quebec — October 3

Here is the list of the provinces and the year of their last provincial election.

Newfoundland and Labrador — 2021
Nova Scotia — 2021
British Columbia — 2020
New Brunswick — 2020
Saskatchewan — 2020
Alberta — 2019
Manitoba — 2019
Prince Edward Island — 2019
Quebec — 2018
Ontario — 2018

2021 Canadian politics preview

2020 Canadian politics preview

2019 Canadian politics preview

2018 Canadian politics preview

2017 Canadian politics preview

2016 Canadian politics preview

2015 Canadian politics preview

We now have 3 women in the opposition leader role in the Canadian provinces: Andrea Horwath (Ontario), Rachel Notley (Alberta), and now Dominique Anglade (Quebec). Anglade, former deputy premier of Quebec (Liberal), has been in that role since May 11. She represents the Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne riding.

Manitoba has its first female premier: Former PC cabinet minister Heather Stefanson defeated former Conservative MP Shelly Glover.

Sonia Furstenau (British Columbia Green Party), Manon Massé (Québec solidaire), and Alison Coffin (Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party) are female leaders of a provincial party with legislative members. Coffin lost her seat in the St. John's East-Quidi Vidi riding in 2021.

Amita Kuttner, the new interim Green Party Leader, identifies as transgender, non-binary, and pansexual, using they/them and he/him pronouns. Kuttner are the first transgender person and first of East Asian descent to lead a federal party in Canada.

Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig finally on their way home

Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com

Having Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on Canadian soil was the biggest story of them all.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden will be busy with getting the border to be truly open in 2022. At least there is a permanent U.S. Ambassador to Canada in David L. Cohen.

That makes a great difference in the Canada-U.S. relationship.

photo credit: CBC News
video credit: This Hour Has 22 Minutes/CBC