The general WHAT IN THE WORLD is going on in Canada?

[ITCC_Andrew]

When it comes to hockey we do

since the 70s... Ovechkin...

Our jokes kinda go hand-in-hand with my point that we're more like rival neighbours (whose grass is the greenest?) than warring nations.

 

[Grand Prix]

Haha, I see what you mean.

Interestingly it seems that most of the Americas are brought up to think that Russia is somehow a "natural enemy".... do you find that to be the case in your part?

Many baby boomers likely still distrust Russia in general. Looking for ways to protect ourselves and our southern neighbours from Soviet bombers and ICBMs was a big deal in the 1950s and 1960s. We also hated them in hockey, still do actually for the most part, Unless they're playing for our city's NHL team.

I'm too young to remember when Russia was the big bad USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall, so I'm pretty neutral towards them. Nowadays it seems socially acceptable or even cool for some people of my generation to wear Soviet/Communist memorabilia, or look fondly on the old "Mother Russia" in some way.

Also in the mix, lots of people in the western provinces have Eastern European heritage of some sort. Take from that what you will.

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Two of my friends in high school were both from Russia, too. They both drank vodka and joked about it. Modern Russians, (especially those born after 1991) are great people.

Forget the past... No one blew each other up.


Edit: and, to further add... We love Russian composers... Our symphonies typically play mainly Russian composers, with a few Germans and 0 French/British... Kinda strange.

And, @TheYaShoe's grandad has the best USSR hat ever. to this day, I still find it funny that I recognized him because of a hat... And a few references to rallying, with his son and grandson... But mainly the hat.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Edit: and, to further add... We love Russian composers... Our symphonies typically play mainly Russian composers, with a few Germans and 0 French/British... Kinda strange.

Possibly output-related as much as preference, with the addition of a bit of Elgar (salute!) and a bit of Bach. then that probably reflects the output of Classic FM here

Some Austrian though right? You've got to have a bit of Austrian.

 

[GTracer98]

Two of my friends in high school were both from Russia, too. They both drank vodka and joked about it. Modern Russians, (especially those born after 1991) are great people.

Forget the past... No one blew each other up.


Edit: and, to further add... We love Russian composers... Our symphonies typically play mainly Russian composers, with a few Germans and 0 French/British... Kinda strange.

And, @TheYaShoe's grandad has the best USSR hat ever. to this day, I still find it funny that I recognized him because of a hat... And a few references to rallying, with his son and grandson... But mainly the hat.

There's simply way too many Russian composers in general, just like there are many Italians in music... Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rahmaninov, Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin...

 

[TenEightyOne]

There's simply way too many Russian composers in general, just like there are many Italians in music... Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rahmaninov, Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Dvorak...

That's for another thread, but I'm SO in on that debate!

 

[Rage Racer]

When rebels that look suspiciously like Canadian Forces personnel show up in Turks and Caicos and occupy airports and government buildings while claiming to be freeing ethnic Canadians from the island then perhaps you would be fair to say that.

And if there was a threat of a civil war on this island, yes.

@ITCC_Andrew
As I already posted before...

I wouldn't say that we hate Russia, as I have never heard any anti-Russian sentiment in my life, except from my grandpa, who lived in USSR, and fought against USSR.

Hmm, lemme guess... ROA?

My generation, especially, likes to joke about "In Soviet Russia, vodka drinks you" and so on as much as anywhere else.

Y'know, I like these jokes when they are reasonable and realistic. Like these:

In Soviet Russia, you do homework in the classroom, and class work at home.
In Soviet Russia, car wash makes your car dirtier.
In Soviet Russia, road construction ruins the roads.
In America, election results determine the president. In Soviet Russia, president determines the election results!

And so on.

BTW, what's bad about Soviet Union? IMO, it was a great country. The foreign policy could have been agressive, but the modern-day USA isn't better here. But that's not a reason to hate the United States for me.

And hockey, yeah... I've watched a movie, Legend №17 (I don't know if it was translated to English), it's about the famous Soviet hockey forward, Valeriy Kharlamov, and the epic USSR-Canada game in the end (1972 Summit Series), when a Canadian journalist promised to eat his newspaper if the Russians win at least one game (and he did it, lol).

Y'know, I used to see Canada and Canadians as they are shown in South Park.

Terrance and Phillip

And:

Bears
Tundra
Import of Soviet cars
Justin Bieber

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

@Rage Racer, no, he was in Hungary - not ROA - and fought in the Revolution.

Soviet cars aren't welcome in Canada. I've seen one Lada in my entire life.

Justin Bieber is a national embarrassment.

Tundra - only up north. I live in farmland. Rocky Shield is also cool. Like those '72 games, eh?

 

[Johnnypenso]

@Rage Racer, no, he was in Hungary - not ROA - and fought in the Revolution.

Soviet cars aren't welcome in Canada. I've seen one Lada in my entire life.

Justin Bieber is a national embarrassment.

Tundra - only up north. I live in farmland. Rocky Shield is also cool. Like those '72 games, eh?

You did see quite a few Lada's back in the late 70's/early 80's and they were a colossal joke back then too. Just a horrible piece of work but dirt cheap.

 

[1241Penguin]

TDSB votes to delay partnership with Beijing-backed Confucius Institute

It's worrying how little coverage of that we are getting here.

 

[Turbotwin01]

Happy Canada Day!

 

[Baron Blitz Red]

Happy Canada Day everybody!!! 👍👍

Cheers

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Beat me to it.

 

[1241Penguin]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/la-ronge-sask-curfew-bylaw-polices-parents-1.3335805

Surely that can't be constitutional?

 

[Johnnypenso]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/la-ronge-sask-curfew-bylaw-polices-parents-1.3335805

Surely that can't be constitutional?

Not sure what part of the Constitution would cover something that specific.

In other Canadian news, it seems we can't live to the refugee commitments made by Mr. Trudeau during the election...at least not yet anyway. We'll end up being a couple of months behind schedule:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-plan-syrian-refugees-1.3333623

 

[1241Penguin]

Not sure what part of the Constitution would cover something that specific.

I figured it would go against mobility rights or something like that.

 

[Dennisch]

Rob Ford, the greatest major ever has passed away at the age of 46.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Rob Ford, the greatest major ever has passed away at the age of 46.

"Greatest" in the sense that Trump would be the "greatest" President.

It was always entertaining to see what he'd do or say next but it was hard to respect him as a politician. Still, it's a life gone too early and sad news.

 

[ECGadget]

I am afraid I have no idea who this is, but sad to hear of the death of another person to cancer

 

[Dennisch]

Greatest" in the sense that Trump would be the "greatest" President.

Keyword quoted next.

entertaining

respect him as a politician.

Very few of those available.

Still, it's a life gone too early and sad news

And indeed. 46 isn't an age to go.

 

[DK]

I am afraid I have no idea who this is, but sad to hear of the death of another person to cancer

Ford was diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2014, a form of cancer which arises in deep fat tissue.

 

[DK]

I am afraid I have no idea who this is, but sad to hear of the death of another person to cancer

Ford was diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2014, a form of cancer which arises in deep fat tissue.

 

[Vegard]

major

"Ground control to mayor Tom"

 

[Johnnypenso]

"Greatest" in the sense that Trump would be the "greatest" President.

It was always entertaining to see what he'd do or say next but it was hard to respect him as a politician. Still, it's a life gone too early and sad news.

Before Rob Ford, uber liberal mayor Miller had the budget increasing at an unsustainable 6% annually, in large part because he couldn't say no to unions. The final nail in his coffin was a garbage strike that had the city smelling and looking like garbage for weeks. Ford got all the unions to sign collective agreements on his terms and outsource garbage collection in the western half of the city all without work stoppages of any kind. The result was a nearly zero budget increase under Ford's administration and significantly reduced power in the municipal unions. Ford's sound budgeting allowed the city to spend $100 million on repairs to the aging Gardner Expressway without diverting money from other projects as was the favourite method of Miller and previous liberal mayors.

He found and fixed a whole series of small issues, the things that often go unaddressed in big bureacracies. He merged departments and streamlined programs and services saving the city millions of dollars without any change in service levels. Yes he made mistakes and yes he was not a poster boy for personal self restraint, but IMO he did a damn good job as mayor of Toronto overall and most importantly, returned the city to some semblence of fiscal sanity after many years of unsustainable growth in city budgets.

46 is awfully young to go. R.I.P. Rob Ford.

 

[Turbotwin01]

I find it ironic how the news stations in Toronto basically destroyed him in anyway they could, but now that he is the dead they act all innocent and call him "The Peoples Mayor" and praise him.

I think Torontonians were actually fine with his policies. Of course pretty much all of us agree that his abuse of alcohal and crack was wrong, but he definetly brought the city back with a proper budget.

Its really everybody else that isnt in Toronto that seems to have problems with him. I don't really get why. But then again, I guess the same can be said about people outside the U.S who have bad views of Donald Trump.

R.I.P Rob

 

[Johnnypenso]

I find it ironic how the news stations in Toronto basically destroyed him in anyway they could, but now that he is the dead they act all innocent and call him "The Peoples Mayor" and praise him.

I think Torontonians were actually fine with his policies. Of course pretty much all of us agree that his abuse of alcohal and crack was wrong, but he definetly brought the city back with a proper budget.

Its really everybody else that isnt in Toronto that seems to have problems with him. I don't really get why. But then again, I guess the same can be said about people outside the U.S who have bad views of Donald Trump.

R.I.P Rob

He had the support of the Toronto Sun of course but the lefty Toronto Star and CBC was all over every misstep. Some people only seem to care about what someone looks like and how they present themselves to the public and care very little about fiscal management and governmental efficiency. This is the result of being soft on unions and 7 years of budgetary excess:

The city recently faced the prospect of another garbage strike just last month, but the foundation laid down by Mr. Ford persists and was helpful in reaching a reasonable settlement:

Tough talks in 2012 [by the Ford administration] resulted in the unions accepting concessions. The strategy under then-mayor Rob Ford saw the city start talks earlier, to avoid having them drag on into summer, when a garbage strike is more damaging.

and...

Local 416 has itself been weakened by the contracting out of garbage pickup west of Yonge Street [another Ford victory], meaning that only half of the city’s service would affected by a strike. Contracting out the rest is a future possibility.

Source

The city of Toronto will continue to reap the benefits of Ford's tough but fair administration for many years. Sooner or later complacency will set in, paving the way for another "Ford", perhaps his brother Doug.

 

[Joel]

Justin Trudeau accused of "manhandling" opposition MP, and elbowing a third party MP.

Alternate view of the incident:

 

[TenEightyOne]

 

[Johnnypenso]

Looks like a lot of faux outrage on the part of the NDP and Mulcair. I like the way Trudeau marched into the fray and pulled his MP out, kind of reminds me of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien when he grabbed a guy in a crowd by the throat for heckling him as he walked by:

Canadians being Canadians, Chretien's choking incident is now known as the Shawinigan Handshake after Chretien's home town and is featured in comedy shows:

Here he is choking former Ontario Premier Bob Rae:

Everywhere he goes people want a photo op with the Shawinigan Handshake and the PM usually obliges:

It's been made into a beer as well (6.5%!):

Rule Number One for Canadian visitors: Do not mess with the PM, he'll handle his own business!

The only thing that saddens me about the whole incident is that he apologized for it today.

 

[Joel]

I mean it was probably not ideal for him to go over and try to move the Conservative MP but good lord the crocodile tears from the NDP are insane. You'd swear to god the elbow was from the top rope the way Mulcair went off.