North of 49

  A smiling Justin  Trudeau  stepped up to the podium and said   " You  are sending us back to work with a clear  mandate  to get Canada through this pandemic, and to  brighter  days ahead,"  (Scott Neuman NPR sept 21/21) In 2019 62% of the population went to the poles  of those ballots cast 32% went to the Liberals so just under 25% of Canadians brought this party to power! From the numbers I do not see a "clear"  mandate from the population . M ore  votes were given to the conservatives! So how  does this work?  You don't need the most votes to lead the country?   No   you need the most seats to become the leading party in parliament and you must get at least  170 seats in order to be a majority government. So the Liberals got 160 seats and the next closest was the Conservatives    (big surprise) with 119 but the Conservatives had more votes by 1 percent yet didn't get more seats. It's confusing and it happens all the time both the Conservative

 So there is a lot going on right now. From the end of Covid restrictions to the "freedom" convoy to the muscle flexing of Russia to the rapid erosion of the value of your dollar. Let's start with the "freedom" movement.  The cry went out early in the pandemic that the numbers were not right! It was Donald telling the press that the numbers of his own staff can't be right and that meme has been stuck in the gut of the internet to this day. Truthfully I even wondered about the numbers but rather than relying on cable TV or the Donald I went to sites on the web, mixed in some off shore news coverage and came away with  this: Deaths were not the really important number it was the number of cases that was the issue. It was preventing the death of tens of thousands who caught this virus but were alive only because they had a ventilator.   In year two the train was coming off the rails. It seemed as though the public was being sold a new and improved virus every c

I started writing this on Oct 19 2020 and I couldn't help but think we  have so many fires in the world and a shortage of buckets! So  I'm going to look at a few of the issues which I think are important to North Americans specifically and the world in general. It'll be over a half dozen posts and this one has been very educational and that is what I aim to do educate myself.  LOL Today  I'll focus on the history of racial violence in the USA and why? Because I started to look at this subject starting with the Watts riot of 1965 and just kept going back and my lack of knowledge embarrassed me .  As  a white Canadian boy the history of the black population to the south was not in my frame of reference. The only thing I knew about black history was that the civil war freed the slaves and the modern condition of the Afro-American was shown to me through sit coms like The  Jefferson's . I had no reason to explore the inequities of blacks in America because from what I

                                  I listened to audio clips from the last debate                                                                  between President Trump                                     and                                               Vice President Biden                                                                                             it made me cringe!                                    Biden made me feel sad for the American                                                          voter specifically the young voter                                                                                  who wondered                         if                                                   Joe knew where he parked his car.                                     Plainly he was easily flustered by Trump                                                                                who was as respectful as he has ever been                         and