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.
Want to see the most Canadian news article ever?
“French-Language Leaders’ Debate Moved to Avoid Conflict with Habs Game”
Can’t let politics distract from hockey!
I also love that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
K that’s all.
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.
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.
Hey, American Friends?
Y’all okay down there? It sounds scary.
Man…
We really do live in the dumbest timeline, don’t we?
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.
God dammit, USA
Trump hasn’t even been in office for two weeks yet, WHAT THE SHIT
Edit: this whole bag of nonsense has absolutely united Canadians. The “Buy Canadian” or “Don’t buy American” sentiment is strong. Stores are removing US products and/or clearly labeling which products are Canadian. Canadians are cancelling trips to the US; some others with winter homes in the south are selling them, not wanting to deal with this shit for the next four years. Even the US national anthem is getting booed at sporting events, which is wild.
“What’d I do?”
I still get this song stuck in my head every once and a while. Remember when US politics weren’t quite as insane as they are now?
My dad had a magnet of that shot of Clinton getting slapped, hahaha.
And the Howard Dean scream is great.
Yes, it’s a Matt Walsh video, sorry
So let’s ignore the whole Dylan Mulvaney part of this video (which is like all of it, I know). The thing I wanted to talk about in this video is something that I’ve noticed both conservatives and liberals doing: setting up this “us versus them” idea.
Here, it’s extreme. How quickly Walsh shoves his critics into the “them” group, and how quickly he turns against them, despite the fact that the people calling him “mean” are pretty traditional conservatives that would likely agree with a lot of the other stuff Walsh says. The harshly spoken “they” and “them” emphasizes a divide between an “us” and a “those other people” in such an exaggerated, vile way that it just stokes that fire of “we are two separate species of people, and we should be natural enemies of one another and should never compromise on our views. If you have ANY of the same viewpoints as the “other,” you are a traitor and are just as bad as them.”
I think there’s always been an “us versus them” mentality in politics, but I think everything’s just become so much more divisive than it ever has been, which makes it hard to actually operate as a unified country.
It’s pretty sad, really.
Lirty Dies
So as you all know (if you read my blog and/or if you live in Calgary), this month has been hella cold. This means that I have been consistently wearing my on-ear headphones while walking to help keep my ears warm.*
And of course, if there are headphones, there is music. I like to put my entire music library on shuffle so that I can hear all sorts of types of music as I gun around on the trial.
My shuffle has been giving me a lot of Capitol Steps lately. If you don’t know who they are, they’re a political satire group that takes popular songs and re-writes the lyrics to be about something political/scandalous.
I found them through my dad; I think he knew one of the members and got some of their CDs from that person. We (my mom and dad and I) got to see them live in Spokane back when I was in high school, so that was awesome.
At the end of their shows, they have a guy perform a “Lirty Dies” routine, which is a bunch of spoonerisms focused on one or two major scandals from the year.
Anyway, I’ve gotten a few of these “Lirty Dies” come up on shuffle in the past few days, which reminded me of how funny they are.
Here are two of my favorites, “Falicornia” (from 2004) and “Gush and Bore” (from 2001).
Here’s a newer one, too!
This is a different guy than the guy who used to do them, but he’s still pretty good!
Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see them live (they usually perform in and around D.C., but they did come to Spokane at least once), go see them!
*It works, trust me
Election Day Canada
Yay, it’s election day here! Elections at the federal level are a bit different than they are in the States (for one, elections can be called at any time, not just every x years like we do down there; for another, they don’t spend 50 years campaigning before the votes), but there are still a few similarities. Right now Canada has a Conservative Prime Minister, Harper, but as of my writing this it’s projected that the Liberals will win.
Edit: Yup, Liberals won! Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Trudeau (a former Prime Minister), is going to take the position.
Have a picture of the voting results (Canada uses blue for Conservative and red for Liberal, which is kind of opposite the US party colors…though Canada has more parties (at least more visible/impactful/electable parties) than the US does). And “NDP” stands for “National Democratic Party.”
Sigh of Sighs.
Dear United States:
Are you seriously risking pissing off North Korea because of one dumb little movie? Really? The movie theatre threats are probably something that’s best treated with caution whether they’re real or not, so it makes sense to pull the showings of The Interview, but is it really a threat to your freedom to do so? I mean, really? It’s a movie. It’s a political satire, and probably a bad one at that (if not, then at least one in bad taste). At least Team America was poking fun at US attitudes more than anything else, but The Interview really just sounds like its goal is to make fun of Kim Jong-un. Not the smartest thing to do.
You’re a big boy now, United States. Calm down, think before you act, and play nice with North Korea. Maybe just sit by yourself and read a book or something. Or go play hopscotch with Canada.
Edit: DID THE U.S. JUST GET IN A FLAME WAR WITH NORTH KOREA? Good lord.
Go-Go-Gadget Democracy!
Did you vote, fellow U.S. fools?! Better do it.
In the spirit of reminiscing about elections past, I bring you this:
Also, here’s some good ol’ Capitol Steps. Because Capitol Steps is awesome.
Jajaja
Oh, politics. Politics, politics, politics.
“My dog is on the roof! My dog is on the roof!”
I freaking lost it.
Gotta love this time of year.
Hahahaha, oh my god.
*Someone’s* getting a raise…
So I just saw the laziest political slogan/catchphrase ever.
My mom and I were driving to go look at kitties this afternoon. One of the little political yard signs we passed was this:
“It’s time for a new sheriff.” Say it in your head just like that, not putting the natural emphasis on “new.”
My first reaction was, “well, yeah, technically. Since it’s election time and all…”
Then I laughed for about half an hour straight. It reminded me of that news story headline a couple years ago: “Plumbing Store’s Inventory Destroyed by Flooding.”
Life’s hilarious sometimes.
BOOBIES!
Now that I have your attention: POLITICS! Same thing, right?
This afternoon I discovered VotingAid.com, on which there is a little quiz thingy you can use to determine which Republican candidate aligns best with your values. I decided to give it a shot.
Some of the questions were easy for me to answer; for example:
While others I was quite unsure of:
But regardless, it looks like I’m a Gingrich girl.
Huntsman was a close second at 64.6%, Romney was third at 55.8%. Santorum was last. Looks like most people get Huntsman.
Who’s your best match?
Politickin’
Well here’s something I’d never thought I’d say: I have respect for a Republican politician.
Today I had nothing going on but TA-ing Logic for an hour in the afternoon, so I spent the morning and afternoon watching CNN. I happened to catch New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s speech announcing that he wasn’t going to make a run for the President of the U.S.
I don’t know much background about Governor Christie, but I have to say that I was impressed by his speech and his overall presence at the news conference. He’s a very eloquent speaker and, though he disagrees with Obama and gives him a few jabs, I don’t think he ever went out of line when criticizing the President. I also think he handled the barrage of “are you SURE you’re not running?” questions the reporters kept throwing at him very well. He didn’t get too frustrated and actually had some fun with a few of the reporters.
Anyway. This was the first time I’d actually been impressed by a politician in awhile, though that is probably in no small part due to the fact that I don’t follow politics in general. Governor Christie’s poise and lack of scumballness impressed me.
Haha, okay, that’s all.
30-Day Meme – Day 4: Your favorite book.
As much love as I have for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and, more recently, Nobokov’s freakishly enchanting and incredibly well-written Lolita, my favorite book still has to be Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny. For a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, I’m shocked at how few people have even heard of it. The Caine Mutiny tells of a fictitious mutiny on the USS Caine, a minesweeper/destroyer deployed during WWII. Wouk paints the drama of the mutiny with a palette of quirky characters whose interactions with each other seem simultaneously forced (after all, the crew of the Caine is dealing with a mentally unstable captain) and completely natural. The mutiny itself, the way it’s written, will make you speed read through it as you’re carried along by the drama. The fact that Wouk has several lines of “wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” and “whooooooooooooooooosssssssssssshhhh!” to simulate the storm the Caine gets caught in makes the book that much more enjoyable. Haha, it’s hard to explain exactly why this book rocks my socks, but it does.
So go read it.
“Hell no! Hell no! Hell noooooooooooo!”
Way too catchy. I never thought I’d be singing about Michael Jackson’s death in the shower.
As if there aren’t enough things to make fun of in Idaho
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a prime example of why I love Capitol Steps:
Capitol Steps is a musical performance group that re-writes songs with lyrics about current political issues. Their songs from the early Bush administration are extra gold.
Seriously, check these guys out.
Eigenblogger 
