Poilievre Plays Nice

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Pierre Poilievre has truly put the “con” back in Conservative. In his latest incarnation, Pierre is the peacemaking co-operative consensus building pure-hearted politician who just wants to help the Liberals make life more affordable for everyday hard working Canadians. Gee whiz, claim Pierre and Party, it’s the Liberals who have been slowing things down in Parliament.

Except it’s not.

I went on a fact-checking spree while reviewing some of Mr. Poilievre’s latest claims to the media, and ran an AI Google search on him. Here’s what “no-bias” AI has to say about him:

AI Overview: Canada election: Poilievre takes questions as his lack of security clearance in campaign spotlight | Radio-Canada.ca

Fact -checking of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s attacks on the Liberal government record indicates a pattern of mixing accurate criticisms of Liberal policies with exaggeration, misrepresentation of context, and misleading data. While Poilievre has correctly highlighted high inflation and housing shortages, his specific claims regarding the causes and scale of these issues are frequently disputed by independent fact-checkers.”

Ah … exaggeration, misrepresentation of context, and misleading data. That sounds more like the Pierre we know and loathe. With his approval rating going nowhere quickly, Mr. Poilievre had to shift gears, lose the snarky, create-a-crisis rhetoric, and present an image of the guy who’s going to help Make Canada Great Again.

Observe his con-artist logic. After months of their negative media attacks, delay tactics and obstruction of Liberal bills and policies that would have moved the Government’s agenda forward for Canada, the Conservative Party suddenly casts a unanimous vote in favour of fast-tracking Liberal Bill C-19.

That Bill just happens to address affordability issues for low-income Canadians. Affordability just happens to be the major sound byte in Mr. Poilievre’s media spiels.

Can’t let the Liberals take credit for that, so spin the event. Affordability has come to Canada NOT because of a Liberal Bill, but because the Conservative Party cares about Canadians. Yep the Conservative Party cared enough to get out of the way and let the Bill pass!

Mr. Poilievre claimed, “with humility” that the Conservative Party could save Canada if only the Liberals would “work with us to fast-track results for an affordable, safe, self-reliant Canada.” Sorry Pierre, but it’s the other way around. The tail is not wagging the dog. The Conservative Party needs to work cooperatively as a constructive part of the Canadian Government as you promised after your resounding personal defeat in the last election. If we watch that little puckered mouth closely, we realize it’s pushing out the same old el-toro-pooh-pooh that it always has.

Mr. Poilievre, your new disguise is a clever way to try and stop you from flatlining, but we’re not buying the con. The reality is, that if you and your Party had started cooperating with the government immediately after the last election we’d be well on our way to a more affordable, safe and self-reliant Canada. The way I see it.

***

* Photo from CBC

The Land Has Given Enough

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Prologue:

In the beginning, there was no Swan Lake. No planet Earth. There was only the void.

Thankfully for us, after millions of years of cosmic chaos, one little planet, third rock from a small sun, evolved bacteria and microbes, and water and air, and plants and animals. Those animals evolved from fish to amphibians and reptiles, to birds and mammals, not to mention a myriad of insects. One of the birds became Cygnus buccinator. One of the mammals became Homo sapiens.

As the millennia passed, Earth’s surface formed and shifted. Homo sapiens came out of Africa and  settled on every continent except Antarctica. Cygnus buccinator settled in what is known today as North America. At the end of The Last Ice Age, the retreating glaciers left behind great lakes and tonnes of gravel ground off the Canadian Shield.  This is where our story begins … with gravel. Because if it hadn’t been for a certain little gravel pit in Ontario, Caledon’s Swan Lake would never have come into existence.

The influx of European colonists to Canada after the War of 1812 led to the deforestation of 80% of southern Ontario. At the same time, over hunting led to the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in North America by 1914. But long before that, in 1886, the Trumpeter Swan was declared extinct in Ontario.

The land near Caledon Village known as the former Warren Gravel Pit gave us food,  water, and shelter; in colonial times it gave us lumber, wheat , and most recently gravel.

So, consider what a success story it is that we now have Swan Lake in Caledon.  After years of giving sustenance to our First Peoples, wheat to feed Europe, and gravel to build Ontario, the depleted gravel pit was fully rehabilitated, creating a freshwater lake and lush surrounding habitat. In 2025, it became home to seven pairs of Trumpeter Swans. I bear witness to this event. If we build it, they will come. Or, if we let our Town Council and a developer destroy it, they will fade away.

We have the chance here to give a once extirpated species a chance to breed and fly again over Caledon. Swan Lake is not for sale. The Town’s CEO and the Mayor should be held to account for ever bringing up a motion that would lead the town to even consider the dumping of excess GTHA soil into our Swan Lake. That is beyond the pale. It is ecologically and economically stupid. And morally reprehensible.

The land has given enough. Let her rest. The way I see it.

***

Parts One and Two coming soon …

What’s in a Name

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Obituary information for Rose Flores“A rose by any other name would would smell as sweet.”  Or the well-known, “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.” And how would our perception be swayed if we changed the name of “Rape and Pillage Project Management Corporation” to “Strawberry Fields Forever ULC”?

Now, if a company is called Greenfields Farms Lid. you would be forgiven if you thought it was an organization devoted to farming and sustainable food production. Alas, this fictional company is owned by an ambitious developer and is a landholding and development company with no attachment at all to agricultural endeavours. If it looks like a scam, and it hides in doublespeak like a scam, it must be a scam.

The owners of Greenfields Farms Ltd. are obviously very successful and wealthy businesspersons, able to donate tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to  local politicians and charitable causes. They may even have their family names on medical centres or libraries or food banks for at risk families. These charitable endeavours would have cost millions, expenses that , fortunately for the philanthropic developer, can often be claimed for tax breaks.

When you hear a politician suspected of being too close to a wealthy developer say, “Mr. Doofensmertz makes financial donations to all political parties, and has contributed generously to our community’s charities and community groups, as well as to private political fundraising events.”  Why, when we hear this, we’re more than happy to stop our protests against Doofensmertz and Company’s plan to clear-cut our heritage forests.

When you look up Greenfields Farms Ltd., or any similar greenwashing company, on Google, it’s AI will tell you the “family” who runs the company will often be listed as “Philanthropists and Developers”  … go ahead, try the search on any company you may suspect is pulling the wool over your community’s eyes.

The deceptive headline would read: “Ms. Flim-Flam, a philanthropist and developer, denies any allegations that she has been bribing public officials. ‘I donate equally to all political parties,’ declared Ms. Flim-Flam

Note that “philanthropist” comes first in that descriptor. It creates a halo of goodness around the negative traits often associated with developers and their numbered or quaintly named companies. I confess, I have never used Google AI before so it was fascinating how quickly it cut through the BS (much like Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos) and informed me with cool robotic logic that:

Philanthropy can act as a cover for ill-gotten wealth when it is used strategically to sanitize a donor’s reputation, shield assets from taxation, or exert undue influence to protect the immoral or illegal business practices that generated the wealth in the first place. This phenomenon, often referred to as “reputation laundering” or “impact washing,” allows individuals to appear benevolent while obscuring the source of their funds. 

I was shocked! How could AI so coldly smear some developers and their philanthropic gifts with such allegations of impact washing and ways of obscuring the sources and amounts of their wealth. Shame! It’s a good thing none of the politicians or developers operating in our little Town are guilty of reputation laundering.

However, as my old Dad used to say, “Son, sometimes when it looks like a cat, it’s really a skunk.”  And if it smells like a corpse flower, it’s probably not a rose.

The way I see it.

*****

*image, fittingly, from Maxwell P. Dunne Funeral Services

 

 

Prime Minister Carney Stands Up For Canada at Davos

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The old order is not coming back,' Carney says in provocative speech at Davos | CBC News

The rare standing ovation from the audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was a thunderous acknowledgement of the straight truth and inspiration of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech.

As I listened to the delivery, to the straightforward and intelligent content, to the acknowledgement, finally, that this is the “turn of the tide” in geopolitics, I smiled. Finally a leader who stood up in front of his peers and simply spoke the straight truth.

And, as always, Mark Carney was the consummate professional – literate, eloquent, well-informed, and focused. In sixteen minutes he called out the state of the world and declared Canada was a key player in achieving a new cooperative, sustainable world order that was culturally and  economically respectful.

He also called out the hegemon who attempt to disrupt the progression to a sustainable new world order through military bullying and economic terrorism. Without saying any names, he called out the biggest bullies on the world stage and basically said, to quote from The Who’s rock opera Tommy: “We’re not gonna take It anymore!”

My favourite quote of the speech was a caution for all the middle powers, like Canada, who were attending the forum,: “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

But  most of all, he closed with a clear message of what it is to be a Canadian:

“Canada is a pluralistic society that works. Our public square is loud, diverse and free. Canadians remain committed to sustainability.

We are a stable and reliable partner in a world that is anything but. A partner that builds and values relationships for the long term.

And we have something else. We have a recognition of what’s happening and a determination to act accordingly.

We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is.”  Prime Minister Mark Carney, Davos Switzerland,  January 20, 2026.

Oh Canada ! We are proud for thee! The way I see it.

*****

*image from CBC

 

The Real Reason

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The real reason President Trump is angry about Doug Ford and Ontario airing the Ronald Reagan speech warning about the dangers of tariffs and his support for fair and free trade has nothing to do with his trade policies. The public domain speech simply illustrates how a President can deliver an articulate, factually informative speech in five minutes. No dancing, no ranting off topic, no one hour diatribes of meaningless drivel – just the need to know, clean and clear.

President Reagan was no saint (then CIA  director George Bush and the Contra Scandal) but he knew how to read his lines with dignity and eloquent authority. Now, someone else may have written those speeches, but they also were literate members of staff. It appears that literacy is no longer an employment standard, only loyalty to the Emperor Who Has No Clothes.  Wake up America!

The real reason President Trump is angry is because he can’t compete with the class act that surrounded Ronald Reagan. “Garbage in, garbage out”, Donald.

And it’s time to take out the trash, the way I see it.