It used to be nice to be a Canuck, at least when you travelled. Everybody liked us. We were like “Yanks” but “nice”.
We were politre. In Vancouver, if somebody bumped into you, you apologized : “Sorry…” And they apologized too. It was contest to see who could out-polite the other. But that was long ago. And not everyone was like that either. a
Still, it wasn’t like New York, where if someone bumped into you said, “Watch the fuck where you are going” — unless of course they were huge and nasty looking or maybe armed.
Canadians were popular everywhere.
Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor, who served in Mao’s army was immortalized by no less than Mao himself, and became a cultural icon. His humanity is still evoked by Xi, as an example for all Chinese — and also as a representative of a country that no longer exists. Which country? You decidde.
In Laos during the “Secret War” , I could down and talk to Pathet Lao soldiers or even their Vietnamese advisors. At the same time, I could drink beer with Americans pretending to doing good things for NGOs but actually working for the CIA. O
All I had to do to make friends seemed to be to say, “I’m a Canadian” only the Brits from the embassy, all MI6, looked down on me. They saw my cameras as deadly weapons I guess. Or maybe it was just the conviction that all stringers should be strung up.
These days, the image of Canada has changed. Harper, Trudeau, now Carney are prime ministers of a new Canada. An untrue North
And Idealism seems to have died out.
Nearly three years of genocide, involving some of the most depraved acts of violence and cruelty witnessed this century, has reduced the support Israel receives globally, with a recent poll finding it to be the “world’s most disliked country.” Mass support for Israel among Jewish Canadians, however, has persisted.
Now, we have standing ovations to Nazis in parliament.
Canadians are pretty good haters
Russia: Usually has the lowest favorable ratings among Canadians thanks to Canada’s large, politically active Ukrainian-Banderite diaspora.
North Korea: Usually tied for bottom place, , with only around 11% of Canadians viewing the state positively thanks to years of propaganda.
Iran: Again, propaganda portrays Iran as routinely abusing human rights, especially in the case of women, with many references to the 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, which killed dozens of Canadian citizens and Iranian residents of Canada.
China: Public perception soured drastically over arbitrary detentions of Canadian citizens (the “Two Michaels”), alleged election interference, and trade disputes. Recently, with Canada’s trade disputes with the US, this feeling has reversed direction!
However, in all cases, whether China or Iran or Russia or any other country, public perceptions are driven by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) which flags ‘foreign operators” of selected countries interference in immigrants communities election meddling and threats to Canada’s still nascent democracy.
The CSIS recruits widely but screens narrowly to make sure that candidates conform to “official views”. This ensures a certain mentality that biases all CSIS intelligence and leads to their culture of getting everything wrong.
The Old Canada was not much better, of course, but had a few good things.
Canada, under the first Trudeau, welcomed war resisters during the Vietnam War and supported Cuba. Of course, it also made a lot of money from selling the materials for napalm to the You-All’s as neighbors south of the border are known. Canada recognized China a year before Nixon.
To be fair, every “liberal democracy” these days is less and less “liberal” and “democratic'‘, and more and more bureaucratic.
It is not that the people running your government are “bad” or “corrupt” , other than a few, usually higher up the chain of being — it is just that they have been “institutionalized” — literally—they are locked in into systems that ensure compliance. Their work is not their life; it is something they do for a paycheck and a pension.
It’s survival.
I’ve worked for any number of such institutions, provincial and federal in Canada — briefly only—because I know the scripts and it gets old fast. I have also worked for every major ministry in Japan, including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, the JDF but always as a consultant or in PR. In those days, I wrote the kind of article I write today but always using pseudonyms.
Now, I write under my own name. Life is short. I’m…old. Why not?
I still have to deal with bureaucracies, of course, including Canada’s.
For example….
Death is getting closer for me. Taxes are already here.
Taxes are supposed to help with social welfare like pensions.
I get a small pension from Canada, a fraction of a normal pension, enough to by food for the cats and kitty litter and some cabbage for me
To get that I have to do an umpteen page tax return every year and some a couple of other forms, which shows that I have no income. Now before 2019, the tax return was just a couple of pages, 4 I think. Now, it is at least 12, maybe more. And you need a STEM PhD to figure it out.
Yet, I still pay 15% tax despite being under the poverty level.
I guess I should be happy that my tax dollars are being put to good use — that is a $2 billion pledge for military equipment and economic funding for 2026–2027 fiscal alongside an additional $270 million announced in May and a $900 million medium-term military aid package announced in July.
Also, online access to my Revenue Canada account has been revoked. Revenue Canada is also saying how much they want to hear from Canadians. Does this mean they don’t love me anymore?
Fortunately, I have copies of the forms, and the receipts for registered mail and tracking information to prove that I did do as I was supposed to.
I will probably have to wait some months to get any money from the Canucks. If only I were a Nazi!
Maybe I should start writing different stuff, more in line with CSIS thinking. If I say I love Zelensky, can I get my pension then, Canada?
My government doesn’t care about old guys like me— BUT they want to make sure that when Ukraine disappears, Vladimir Zelensky can retire comfortably., maybe emigrate to Canada.
As for me, there’s MAID — that’s the government’s assisted suicide program! It’s free. Well, not everything is free, but certainly the jab. That’ll stop me writing stuff like this.
My government is always warning people that recreational drugs will kill ya’. So MAID promises that their injections will not be fun or pleasurable. You have to PAY for that!
Cruelty indeed . The Editorial BTW is from Pakistan!
I have to go I would much prefer morpheme or maybe magic mushrooms.
Oh Canada….
And today’s video for SouthFront…
I had an animal video but as I was looking at I ran across Sean Foo’s newest. It’s a must-watch. Seems my predictions are coming true.
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Here in Germany, when you count all mandatory payments, you pay 60% or more from your income for taxes and other contributions to the state (Yes even the state propaganda braodcast you have to pay for; they call it "democracy contribution".)
So I started to combat taxes. I make agreements with owners of worn out old houses (who cannot use them and cannot afford restoration) to renovate them. They get a modern renovated flat, I get the rest of the house. I have not to pay for the house and no property purchase taxes. I have not to pay taxes for my work, and I have not to pay for craftsmen (including their taxes), because I do all the work by myself. I do not sell my soul to the bankers. If I rent flats, the tennants can work for my projects, thereby reducing their rent and my income, which reduces my tax load also. Kind of barter trade.
If somebody asks me, why I do not contribute to my country, I tell them I have contributed five fine children, all working and contributing to the country. That's enough.
It isn't just the old Canada that has gone, the Australia I grew up in has also disappeared. It is an odd but horrible place now except regional, madly importing every Indian they can get on a plane, idolizing gays and transgenders, the whole Woke 9 yards, and yet it has a government that will do anything to protect Zionism. A mix of fake right and fake left, unsure what it it.
I reached pension age and received a letter telling me I was fine to travel overseas but that payments might reduce slightly after 6 months. The day I got on the plane they cancelled my pension, perhaps the money for some useless old bugger was needed to help finance the ever expanding welfare state.
Still as I no longer trusted them I had prepared myself for that over several decades, the extra would be nice but I can get by without it. However I can now never afford to go back.