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 If you follow this blog at all, you’ll know I’ve chosen to support finding cures for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, known better as ALS, and colloquially at Lou Gehrig's disease (after the renowned New York Yankees baseball player who was diagnosed with the condition in 1939 and died from it in 1941).
May is ALS Awareness Month and I encourage you to join with me in spreading awareness about the need for research to find multiple treatments for the various causes of ALS. (There are many types of ALS and they all need treatments.) I donate equally to the Canadian and American organizations that are working hard to eradicate this disease. Please consider donating. Just click on the links that follow: Canada: https://donate.als.ca/page/116715/donate/1 U.S. https://www.als.net/donate/?soc=blog509  I’m known for being somewhat anti-royalty. But I’ve changed my tune as King Charlie has shown his support for Canada in the face of repeated insults from U.S. President Donald Trump. You know, like our becoming the 51st state. As reported on the internet, “In mid-February, Charles issued a message commemorating Canada's Flag Day. Over the past few weeks, he has worn Canadian military medals while visiting a Royal Navy vessel, presented a ceremonial sword to his Canadian attendant and planted a maple tree behind Buckingham Palace. Those who watch King Charles closely see an increase over the last little while in signals and royal symbolism in support of Canada.”
This past week, our Prime Minister Mark Carney met Charlie at Buckingham Palace. The king sported a red tie for this meeting. Says Judith Rowbotham, a research professor at the University of Plymouth in southwestern England, "There is no way [King Charles] choosing a red tie was accidental.” Adds royal historian Justin Vovk, “It actually can play a huge role, because it's an expression of what we call soft power.” Meanwhile, Charlie’s daughter-in-law Princess Catherine, appeared at church wearing a red outfit with white pearls, representing the colors of the Canadian flag. During the same service, Charlie sat on a chair made of Canadian birch with maple leaves engraved on its legs. Ralph Goodale, Canada's high commissioner in the U.K., states, "On Commonwealth Day in London [Catherine] wore Canada's colours. And so did the U.K.'s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. In diplomacy, symbols are important." Oh yes, there’s this too: Charlie recently revealed a music playlist that includes a track from British Columbia native Michael Bublé. Even Tom Freda, director of Citizens for a Canadian Republic, a group that wants to get rid of the British royalty as head of state, is softening, saying, "The recent royal performance has blown apart the argument that “an outdated constitutional connection to an overseas royal family somehow offers us protection from the U.S.A.” While in the U.K., Prime Minister Carney met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In a separate meeting in Paris, he met with French President Emmanuel Macron. On returning home, he called a snap election, saying he needs a strong mandate to deal with the threat that Trump’s tariffs pose to our economy. Trump’s open hostility toward his northern neighbour, one of his country’s closest partners, has certainly affected the Canadian political landscape. You know, it’s interesting that after dominating the polls for some time, the Conservative Party of Canada now finds itself the potential underdog. Their leader, Pierre Poilievre, has led the polls since 2023, with analysts predicting a win for his party in the next election. But with the Liberals catching up to him, following Trudeau's resignation and the rise of Carney as Liberal leader, it’s going to be a closer election than expected. The polls have narrowed spectacularly in Carney’s favor since he took over the Liberals, and now analysts are calling this Trump-overshadowed race too close to call. Carney is being hailed for his financial expertise and the defiant stance he’s taken against Trump, vowing retaliation against U.S. tariffs and stating that Canada will never become the 51st US state. As political pundits have pointed out, it was not so much that people favored the Conservatives, it was more they were dissatisfied with Trudeau. Now, with Trudeau gone and Mark Carney in place, the polls have the Liberals ahead: a recent online Angus Reid poll puts the Liberals at 42% public support, with the Conservatives at 37%. “We moved from an election where people wanted change to an election that’s really much more about leadership,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. Carney states, “It's time to unite as a nation. To build our economy. To create resilience and strength that puts the prosperity of Canadians at the forefront of every decision. Pierre Poilievre pretends we have to choose between fighting climate change and growing our economy. His simplistic and misleading Axe the Tax inaction won’t work and would cost families more. We can make Canadian families better off, we can fight climate change together and build the strongest economy in the G7.” Meanwhile, Poilievre has been criticized for his populist style of politics and has drawn comparisons to Trump. He’s now shifting his style, trying to distance himself from Trump. It may be too late. April 28th is election day. I know how I’m voting. How about you?  I don’t typically get over-involved in politics with this blog. Yet, these days, it’s hard to avoid.
So, I’ll just say that if I was a Canadian “Snow Bird”, hanging out in Florida for the winter, I’d be out of there and back home by now. And in doing so, I surely do not wish American businesspeople badly in that state. But it’s the incredibly foolish actions of the guy in the White House who is taking what has been a marvelous, friendly history between Canada and the U.S. and throwing it down the drain. We’ve had one of the best bilateral trade relationships in the world. So you really do have to ask yourself why Trump would want to ruin that. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reveals that visits to the U.S. are dropping as we Canucks start to avoid traveling there. Airlines report reservations are down. And I tip my hat to the Canucks who are leaving the warm state and returning home earlier than planned. Yup. I get that it wasn’t what you expected when you headed south a few months ago. But to get through this crisis, we’re all gonna have to suck it up and make alternative plans. Hey, I’ve been checking out Canadian versions of products that I used to order online without a thought to where they were manufactured. But now, I’m researching if there’s a Canadian alternative, say, to toothpaste, and if so, I’m buying it. Yup, it may be a little pricier, but it’s not a huge amount. Yes, we Canadians are being asked to avoid American-made products, but we are not the only ones: Europeans are also calling for boycotts in response to political tensions with the U.S. We citizens are using the one tool that‘s available to us: our power as consumers to buy or not buy from certain brands or countries. And it’s not just leisure travellers who are rethinking trips to the U.S. Canadian businesses are also losing confidence in cross-border travel and trade. My friends at Zoomer point out that since tariffs are taxes on imported goods, many businesses will need to adjust by acquiring materials and products from alternate sources. They will need to prepare for increased costs and disruptions in the supply chain by sourcing from local businesses, provinces or even international markets not affected by Trump’s tariffs. Oh, and there’s another reason for people exiting the U.S. Get this: there’s a new American policy that will impact some Canadians staying in the U.S. for more than 30 days. They’ll be required to register with American authorities, this under a Protecting the American People Against Invasion executive order introduced by Trump. Sure thing: that’s who we are: Nasty Canadians out to take over the U.S. by invading them!! Give me a breakl!! Meanwhile, our new Prime Minister Mark Carney has said, “I’m ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time – under a position where there’s respect for Canadian sovereignty – and we’re working for a common approach.” But he doesn't plan to visit Washington right away, suggesting he’ll likely have a phone call with Trump soon. But Carney has just jetted over to Europe where he’s met with French President Emmanuel Macron during his first official overseas trip, seeking support from one of our oldest allies. Macron noted that tariffs only bring inflation, saying, "In the current international context, we want to be able to develop our most strategic projects with our closest, more loyal partners. We are stronger together, better able to ensure ... the full exercise of our sovereignty." Next for Carney is a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. I’ll close by reminding us that there’s a chance this whole thing might even work in our favour. How? Well, Canada may be a nice alternative for international travellers who previously set out to visit the U.S. Who knows?  Mark Carney has snagged the Liberal leadership with a resounding 86% of the party membership vote (his closest rival, Chrystia Freeland, got 8%).
Talking with some pals, I’m feeling like we did back when Pierre Trudeau got people keen about Canadian politics. With JFK dazzling the crowds in the U.S. in the early 1960s, we Canucks offered up John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson who, despite whatever strengths they may have brought to the world, were just plain boring. Even my mom called them “two old fuddy duddies!” But all of a sudden, Pierre Trudeau entered our psyches, and the proletariat got excited. And now, here in 2025, Canadian politics is becoming anything but boring. An unpopular Justin Trudeau is stepping down after nearly a decade on the job as Prime Minister, his support having dwindled among the public and his own party. In his place we have Mark Carney. Did you happen to catch Carney a couple of months ago, before he’d actually announced his candidacy, appearing with the redoubtable Jon Stewart on the Daily Show? It was an entertaining interview – let’s be honest: career economists aren’t always known for their sense of humour! But I watched as Carney showed verbal dexterity and a splendid ability to promote the light side. “There’s our next Prime Minister,” I said at the time. (You can watch it here if you like: https://www.google.com/search?q=jon+stewart%27s+interview+wityh+mark+carney&oq=jon+stewart%27s+interview+wityh+mark+carney&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgNGIAEMg0IAhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgcIBBAAGO8FMgcIBRAAGO8FMgcIBhAAGO8FMgcIBxAAGO8FMgcICBAAGO8F0gEIOTI1NGoxajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:c2a57839,vid:zs8St-fF0kE,st:0) Bit of background: Before his stints at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, Carney had a 13-year tenure at Goldman Sachs. After completing his PhD at Oxford, he worked across multiple global offices, including Boston, London, New York, Tokyo, and Toronto. During that time, he held roles such as co-head of sovereign risk and managing director of investment banking. He’s been labelled the “rock star central banker” by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, as it refers to his navigation of a string of financial crises when he became a leading global voice on the economic risks of climate change as Governor of the Bank of England. Following Canada’s emergence from the 2008 financial crisis as a nation that largely avoided the financial pitfalls that befell others, Carney’s leadership as head of the Bank of Canada was hailed by many, including Time magazine. You know, it's become apparent to me that in Mark Carney, we have a guy who can send Pierre Poilievre packing. In fact, Carney wasted no time, declaring in his acceptance speech the two rogues who are clearly in his sites: “Donald Trump thinks he can weaken us with his plan to divide and conquer. Pierre Poilievre’s plan will leave us divided and ready to be conquered. A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him.” In the same speech, Carney pledged to maintain retaliatory tariffs "until the Americans show us respect", adding “'Canada will never, ever be part of America”. I expect the Liberals will call an election soon (it has to be called by October). Mr. Carney may not be totally known to the electorate right now, but then neither is Pierre Poilievre. What we do know is that "Axe the Tax" Poilievre has refused to support a Liberal tax break calling it a "gimmick". This leaves Canadians wondering how he’d sabotage a law that was advantageous to millions. Poilievre is also being called out for his anti-climate agenda, leaving Greenpeace Canada spokesperson Laura Bergamo asking, “What plan does he have to protect people from climate change? So far he has only said what he will do to protect polluters.” And then there is his stand on healthcare: he’s voted to cut funding for surgery and emergency room wait times by $196.1 billion. He’s also voted to stop a dental care program and the pharmacare agenda that would offer up free diabetes and birth control medications. In my opinion, we need to send Pierre Poilievre packing. It will be an exciting election, something we haven’t had for some time. And knowing that whoever wins gets to tackle that high-flying twit Trump, I just can’t see Poilievre doing that effectively. But I can see Mark Carney facing him down for sure.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made a solemn speech about Donald Trump’s foolish trade/tariff war, vowing a "relentless fight" to protect our economy. Addressing Trump directly, Trudeau called him Donald (and not Mr. President) saying, “This is a very dumb thing to do.” He added that, “We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.”
OK, like most Canucks, I have American friends, and I sure don’t want to blame them for the poor judgement their President is showing. But they need to wake up to the fact that Trump is using totally mistaken and misleading fentanyl data to justify his tariffs program. By his actions, chances are that prices for businesses and consumers wll increase. Result? Damage to the US economy. And wasn’t that the issue that Americans said they care about most when they voted for Trump? In announcing retaliatory tariffs on US exports, Prime Minister Trudeau warned that a trade war would be costly for both countries. Trudeau accused the US president of planning "a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us". He added, "That is never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state!" Trump stated in a post: "Please explain to Governor Trudeau of Canada, [Governor!?? Maybe he ought to take a look at who he’s talking to!], that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!" In trying to find a justification for the new tariffs, the theory being floated is that Trump wants to curtail the injection of fentanyl into his country. But here are the facts: less than 1% of the fentanyl intercepted at the US border comes from Canada. Less than 1%! Indeed, it is reported that some fentanyl seizures attributed to the ‘northern border’ had nothing to do with Canada and were traced to Mexico. The head of the RCMP says that data does not exist showing mass quantities of fentanyl coming from Canada, and that Trump’s stats are highly questionable. Research reveals Canadians are now showing a strong preference for domestic products. A recent poll indicates many Canadians will “absolutely do everything” to avoid purchasing U.S. products. Another poll shows that 56% of Canucks will stop buying a certain product altogether if there is no Canadian-made alternative. Trudeau: "This is a time to hit back hard and to demonstrate that a fight with Canada will have no winners."  One of the things I enjoy about shipboard cruising is the time I end up with to read. Just seems there’s never enough hours in the day to catch up on all the books I want to dive into. But knowing I‘ll be away from the craziness and able to relax a bit, I load up my Kindle reader with 8 or 9 books and consume ‘em while at sea. (Oh yeah, I know some of you are saying, “But don’t you miss the tactile sense of holding an actual book when you read?” And you know what? I do. But not to the point of being able to tote a thin, light reader about rather that filling my suitcase with big, thick books. It’s a matter of practicality.)
Now, because I’m working on preproduction elements of the movie we’re looking to produce based on my book about the celebrated Ruth Lowe (“Until I Smile At You”), including writing a script draft, I’ve been reading up on the life and times of Frank Sinatra, who was a pal of Ruth’s. I’m a Sinatra fan and I’ve read several biographies written by friends and associates of the man, including books by both of his daughters. But one I’d missed was by my fellow novelist Spencer Leigh, “Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life”. Spencer’s a guy who appreciates researching and then sharing just about everything there is to know about the subject he’s writing on. In this case, it includes all sorts of historical facts concerning Sinatra’s progenitors and their lives in Italy and then in America. If this kind of detail makes a significant impact on the star being immortalized, well, I suppose it’s fair game to include it, if only in passing. But knowing how readers are lacking in time and reading less these days, I tend to keep a pretty tight focus on “what matters”. Spencer seems to want to catalogue every album Frank made with details on virtually each song. Some of this is interesting, I suppose, but it really does end up being a bit irritating. I mean, even Frank wouldn’t want to know all there is to know about each and every song he’s singing in laborious detail. When I wrote “Until I Smile At You” about Ruth, I figured there was plenty to reveal about her life in Toronto, Chicago and New York, as well as on the road with her family and later with her “Mellowdears” band mates. I took the attitude that her European ancestors who came before did not contribute to her amazing showbiz career, so why go there? I’m comfortable that I made the right decision, and certainly several readers have sent me messages confirming this. But I’ve also tried to consider what was going on musically at the time that Ruth’s song appeared: what other songs were scheming for the public’s tastebuds that even collectively could not defeat the incredible popularity of “I’ll Never Smile Again”? Now, that, to me, is interesting and adds depth to Ruth Lowe’s accomplishments. To each his own, I suppose.  Well, Donald Trump has now taken the oath of office, so the U.S. will have 4 years of this President. It will be interesting to see how far Trump goes with his threats.
And as for us Canucks, there will be a general election coming on or before October 25th this year. The Liberals are picking a new leader, which will take place on March 9th, following which whoever is selected will lead the party into a general election. I originally figured Chrystia Freeland had this sewn up, but then she went and quit her government posting which may come back to haunt her: they are already saying she shows no loyalty to a government she’s part of, a label that will be hard to shake. And she has to somehow break from the Trudeau policies which she was a part of, but now wants to say are problems. Hmmmm… Meanwhile, Mark Carney gets to say he was not a part of the government that made these policy decisions, which may mean he has a clear path to the leadership. Have to say after watching him on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show last week, he’s impressive. If you missed it, you can catch the YouTube event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs8St-fF0kE Of course, Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party will be doing his "badmouth" things against the new Liberal leader. However you look at things, it’s gonna be an interesting year!!  In the current issue of Maclean’s magazine, they feature an interview with Canada’s former health minister Jane Philpott – a trained family doctor herself – who is about to lead Ontario’s new primary-care “action team”. When asked about her own sick-person personality, she answered “I’ve never taken a sick day.” To which the interviewer gasped in amazement, “What?!”
No gasp of ”what!?” here. Because that little exchange reminded me of my own upbringing. My late mother (who died a couple of years ago at age 100), was pretty stoical: me and my sisters were raised to apply mind over matter to our lives, and not complain about our health unless it was really serious. I’m not sure if I totally understood the value of that at the time, but now, I have to tell you, when it comes to my own health, I support this 100% and consider myself lucky to have been raised that way. Our healthcare system is overworked. Go to the Emergency Department of any hospital and you’ll find waiting lines of people complaining about one thing or another. But too often, the folks who work at my local hospital tell me, they have people complaining about “minor things like headaches”. Now, I’m not wanting to boast, but I’ve never had a headache in my life, let alone the migraines people grumble about. Sure, I feel sympathy for those with really bad headaches (indeed, migraines must be devastating, and I’m lucky to never have had one), but if ever I experience any assault on my health, I’m pretty good at changing my focus to something else and ignoring the insult to my health. I get on with getting on. So, I hear ya Ms. Philpott: well done! Keep your no-sick-day record alive and kicking!!  I enjoy watching Bill Maher’s show Real Time. Bill’s no fan of the Republican party, nor does he respect their leader, Donald Trump. Still, in remarking on the routing the Democrats took in the recent election, he says it’s too easy to react negatively about everything Trump does. So, let’s relax, give him his due (let’s face it: a lot of people obviously voted for him) and see just what he does once in office in January. “When we see for real what he has planned, then will be the chance to react, one way or the other.”
As a Canuck, I have no vote, no sway. But I am saddened by the wide gulf that is separating the U.S.A. at the moment. Listening to Maher’s reasoned approach seems to be a sensible way to proceed. |
