AAAAAAAAA GOOD JOB, CANADA
We did it! We didn’t screw it up!
(Source)
Looks like there will be a minority Liberal government.
This election was heavily, heavily influenced by Trump. So thanks, Trumpster Dumpster, you kept Canada Liberal!
I really like Carney; I hope he does great things for this country.
Edit: more fun tweets:
(Source)
(Source)
(Freaking Alberta, man)
Election: Canadian Edition
The much-anticipated 2025 Federal Election is HERE! Let’s do it.
Ugh, god, this thing is invoking just as much anxiety as the little electoral college counter that CTV had for the last several US presidential elections.
I’m too nervous to actually blog about any of this today; we’ll see what the final results are later tonight, but until then, I’m going to try to not puke.
Trumpster Dumpster vs. Canada
This is a really good overview of the Canadian attitudes and thoughts on the upcoming election, the influence of Trump, and the thoughts about America in general. Please watch it, my American friends, so you get an idea of what’s going on up north.
It really has been a huge, palpable surge of patriotism over the past few months. Canada is very different than the US when it comes to overt, visible displays of patriotism. But there is a lot of blatant national pride right now. Flags everywhere, the “elbows up” thing, etc. It’s really, really interesting.
Guess Who VOTED?
ME!
We’re doing early voting because I’m going to be in the ‘Scow on the actual voting day.
But I hope my vote makes a difference!
Hey, I live there!
I’m actually surprised it’s gone to the Conservatives since its creation, actually, mainly because it contains the U of C. But I guess we’re in ‘Berta, so everything tends to swing Conservative here.
I’M SO EXCITED TO VOTE NNNNNNNNGH
Calling
A federal election has been called! Will Carney prevail? Will Poilievre (whose name I still can’t pronounce correctly) win it for the Conservatives??
WHO KNOWS
It’s exciting and scary. But mostly scary.
At least I get to vote this time.
It’s Tariff-ic!
(No it’s not)
(And I’m not sure if that joke will land because now that I look at the title it just looks like I can’t spell “terrific”)
(Whatev who cares)
I mentioned this back when the first wave of crazy tariffs were implemented, but now there’s a CNN article on it so I figured I’d mention it again.
All the Orange Dumpster Fire is doing is uniting Canada – specifically, uniting it against the US.
Products made in (or at least packaged in) Canada are being highlighted in grocery stores.
People are being encouraged (more than usual) to buy local.
And Trudeau, knowing he’s stepping down very soon, has just stopped giving any shits and is overtly showing his frustration over this ridiculous situation.
More:
(Source)
(Source)
(Source. This is actually in Calgary)
And off we go!
It’s tariff time and the responses are pretty much what you’d expect up here.
The US-Canada relationship is going to be damaged for a long, long time. That’s so freaking sad.
Edit: this little mini film popped up in my YouTube feed this afternoon. It originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics talking about the close relationship between the two countries. Watching it now made me cry.
Armageddon The Hell Outta Here!
(I think that’s a joke from MAD magazine’s parody of Armageddon)
Y’know what?
I’m down for it.
2024 YR4 for president 2032.
Man…
We really do live in the dumbest timeline, don’t we?
This Is Actually Chilling
United Canada
I don’t know how much of this you all are seeing down in the States, but all this crap about Trump and his stupid-ass tariffs has really united Canadians. There’s a huge country-wide push to buy Canadian (or just not buy American) and there’s a very vocal agreement across all provinces and territories that there’s no way in hell we want to become Trump’s stupid “51st state.” Stores are going out of their way to clearly label products that are made in Canada, sales of Canadian flags are skyrocketing, Canadians are cancelling vacation plans to the US and/or selling any US property they own, and there’s even been a strong pushback against the UCP because of their lack of response to Trump’s nonsense.
I’ve lived here for (a total of) about thirteen years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this.
DOOM (not the game)
Well, fun.
Yes, there are all sorts of problems with this metric for “ZOMG WE GONNA DIE” time, but regardless of if it is something we should really be using to assess how much time we have left, you can’t argue that we’re really, really screwing things up to the point where there is likely no return from the damage we’ve done (in terms of climate change, disease progression, AI garbage, political conflict, etc.).
I still say we have about eight years before it gets really, really bad.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Man
EVERY
SINGLE
YEAR
My birthday is weather-cursed, dude. WEATHER-CURSED, I TELL YOU!
I get it, to an extent. People born in February can’t expect the best weather on their birthday.
But this is a freaking conspiracy.
I just have one thing to ask:
Why are the majority of Americans so FUCKING STUPID?
WHY IS TRUMPSTER DUMPSTER GOING TO BE PRESIDENT AGAIN??
Water, Water…Everywhere!
Calgary’s water…HAS RETURNED!
I guess it’s better that all of this nonsense happened in the summer rather than in -40 degree snowy hell.
I mean, I guess it could happen in -40 degree snowy hell, but maybe these repairs will hold.
FOR NOW.
Edit: we actually did a decent job of conserving during this time. It’d be nice if we could conserve like that all the time, though…
Wow
This is such an interesting and important story from the day of September 11, 2001. I can’t imagine how much this man has gone through.
I have vague memories of what flying, airports, and check-in were like pre-9/11, but I do remember that there was so much less security. Fewer checks, fewer rules, and much more “looseness” in everything. That day was something that pre-9/11 travelers probably never even conceived of; there was no reason for this man to be suspicious of anything he saw that day.
It’s so wild what that day must have done to him just because he was doing his job. I hope he is doing better now.
Remembering
This is a really, really well-done film about September 11th.
I can’t believe this was 23 years ago.
Congratulate Me!
I’ve lived in a single place (well, city-wise) for TEN YEARS!
Yes, ten years ago I moved to Calgary. I really love this city and would happily stay here the rest of my life.
My ten-year anniversary for living in the same HOUSE is coming up next June, so that will be even more monumental.
Ha, remember when I moved five times within one year? Hahahahaha never again Jesus Christ
Hahahaha what the hell is going on
Montgomery just can’t catch a break, can it?
(Source is the article linked above)
The hilarious (?) thing is that this is just one block parallel to the major water main break that just got resolved a few weeks ago. Totally different and totally unrelated, apparently, but still.
I know exactly where this is, too. I’ve been running right through that area because my usual running route was closed because of the bigger water main break.
Fun fun.
The Great 2024 Calgary Water Main Break Saga: An Update
So the water’s still off, but it sounds like they’re at the stage where they’ve repaired everything they can see and are going to start flushing the pipes and then test the water quality. If the water quality is good, they can start running the water properly. So we’ll see how that goes!
Here are some fun pictures from around the Parkdale and Montgomery neighborhoods:
Keep conserving, Calgary!
And go spend some money at the businesses in Bowness; they’re losing a lot of business due to the road closures.
A big section of the bike/walking paths are blocked off due to the flushing/testing.
Signs on the fence around the flushing/testing.
A shot through the fence of the part of the pathway that got washed away by the initial break.
Party time!
Well, hell.
So apparently the water main break is bad enough that they’re expecting it to take anywhere between three and five weeks to completely repair.
I don’t know if the city can maintain this level of water usage restriction for that long.
I guess we’ll have to see, though, huh?
Ugh.
OH SHIT
So as I was browsing the Calgary subreddit last night, there was a post about how the neighborhoods of Bowness, Montgomery, and Parkdale (Parkdale being the neighborhood at the bottom of our big hill) had either no water or very little water pressure in their taps. Turns out a water main broke on 16th Ave. and crews were having a hell of a time shutting the water off before finally getting the gushing to stop. After reading this post, I checked our water pressure and it seemed fine, but I decided to fill up the five or so water bottles I had lying around the house just in case.
Fast forward to this morning. I’d forgotten about the broken water main until mile 2 of my run, at which time I got an emergency alert message on my phone saying that the water main break was a critical one, Bowness was under boil water advisories, and that everyone was being advised to conserve water.
I didn’t know quite how bad things were by this point, but in another five minutes or so I hit the part of the river path that goes behind all the athletic fields in Montgomery. The path, the parking lot next to the path, and the road going through the athletic fields were all taped off.
So I had to switch my route around and run up Home St. to see if I could get around the blocked area. Turns out they had a whole section of 16th Ave. blocked off – where the water main break happened, of course – and were already trying to fix things. I was able to run my regular route through Bowness and read more about the main break once I got home.
Turns out it’s pretty serious.
Hopefully they can get it fixed within a week.
Edit: HAHA NOPE (see June 14th’s blog post)
I’m freaking JASON BOURNE
Got my very first Canadian passport today! Now I can go back to the States and not have an issue getting back up to Canada.
Fun fact: I am a citizen of about 80% of North America, area-wise!
Running Swag
I got my Calgary Marathon stuff a while ago, but I waited until my mom was here to open the package. Behold!
Shirt image:
Medal:
It’s too bad they’re not going to be doing the ultra distance anymore after this year. The marathon’s going to be the longest.
Eigenblogger 