Mavis Gallant, fathers and daughters, CBC, and fathers and sons

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Fathers and daughters

I happened to be watching the Daytona 500, and the race got red-flagged early on, so I took the opportunity to drive into town for a sixpack, and had the immense pleasure of hearing an interview with the late Mavis Gallant on the car radio.

Canadian literature has always left me a little cold. I think it's that "Canadian" label. Why do we need to have labels for literature? Isn't it enough that it's in a language I can read? As long as you're writing in English should it matter whether you write from India or Ceylon or Nigeria or the US or England?

Or Canada?

It struck me as a way to get some spotlight for otherwise mediocre writers who would have drowned in the big pool but were able to become big fish in the segregated pool we call Canlit.

So Michael Ondaatje came to Canada and is now a great Canadian writer; Malcom Lowry did some of his best work here but was never a Canadian writer. Elizabeth Smart was a Canadian but didn't write here so is excluded from the Canlit canon... it all seems a little arbitrary to me.

Mavis was a Canadian writer who wrote elsewhere and was therefore a Canlit outsider of sorts; proudly embraced after the fact of her international success, which only underscores my point that these labels of national identity are irrelevant if not illegitimate.

Good writing is always universal. Love, death, peace, war...

The father-daughter bond is one of those universals, and it was poignant to hear the octogenarian Gallant reminisce about events in her life from over 80 years ago. The father-daughter relationship was evidently a crucial one in her formative years. It's remarkable that she can wistfully recollect memories even though he died when she was ten years old.

I've had the extreme good fortune of not dying when my daughter was ten. That's allowed me to be a coach and cheerleader as a shy but precocious little girl has negotiated the innumerable hazards that lie in wait for a girl growing up, and I do believe it's tougher for girls than for boys.

For well beyond the first year of her life I walked her to sleep every night to Sing it again, Rod. At some level that hour-long walk every night created bonds that have been strained at times, by divorce and adolescence and all the baggage that goes with that, but have never been seriously threatened.

It's a joy I can scarcely articulate, to drive to the big city and visit with her, an independent and successful young professional making her way in the world.

The last ten years have also gifted me a step-daughter. That relationship did not have the benefit of that crucial first year of being walked to sleep to Rod Stewart tunes. As a result, we had to fight through a lot of that adolescent baggage, a process that had both highs and lows. But we made it.

She too is a fiercely intelligent and independent young woman successfully making her way in the world.

I feel bad for Mavis' dad. He missed so much.

And I am the luckiest dad in the world.

*************

Not sure why it's easier for me to write about the girls than the boys. The father-son bond between me and my boys was always coloured by my relationship with my own father. They say your personality is largely shaped in the first five years of life by what your parents do. 

My parents were dirt-poor immigrants fighting to make a go of it in their new country. For the first five years of my life Dad went to work in a factory every day. By the time I was six my life's ambition was to have the best job in the factory.

By the time I became father to a son, my own father had betrayed his factory beginnings and had reinvented himself as a real estate broker. At some level I was never able to forgive that betrayal. 

Fortunately, the confusion and despair that betrayal engendered made it utterly impossible to dictate the dreams and aspirations of my own boys.

While that may sound generous, the fact of the matter was none of the lads were the slightest bit interested in my insights, ever! Where the girls are high-energy over-achievers, the dudes are all laid-back under-achievers. Between the three of them I've got two cooks and an ed assistant. None of them have been featured in the alumni magazines post-secondary institutions use to brag up their grads!

Is Canada a serious country?

Given the hoo-ha around that EU delegation convening in Montreal, you'd almost think so. Queen Ursula herself has declared that Canada would make a meaningful addition to her stable, although I'm not sure why. Just today Global news has a story about our inability to provide ammo to our armed forces. Ponder this quote; " ... Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan said a flawed inventory management system, dysfunctional data analysis and contracts plagued with inefficiencies has resulted in the Department of National Defence (DND) not knowing how much ammunition it has or needs, or how to get more."

So the EU Strike Force Ursula is building to defeat Putin wants to cosey up to a military that doesn't know how much ammo it needs, or how to get more? Well, we can't really build our own, because Canada's military-industrial infrastructure is but a tiny fraction of what we had 75 years ago. Lucky for the Western Alliance and their warmongering elites, Russia and her allies have also allowed their military-industrial capacity to atrophy... NOT!

Our blonde bimbette of a cabinet minister, recently given the boot out of the Foreign Ministry, has been drawing attention to her ineptitude by picking a fight with the American owners of Canada's largest steel producer. Does Ursula realize the target she is seducing doesn't even own its steel industry? Has zero armament-building capacity other than foreign-owned branch plants? Is decades away from replacing China as a source of rare earths and strategic metals? And she wants to partner the EU with Canada because... of our common values?

Ms Joly has stated loudly and publicly she will on no account entertain a face-to-face with the CEO of the company handing out layoff slips to the Hamilton steelworkers until he brings them all back. She's extra pissy because the dude once said Trump's tariffs were a good idea, and now she's gonna hold him accountable for that outrage!

What a moron! What clout does she imagine she has? Does she not realize CC would just as soon shut Stelco down?  That's a time honoured tradition in Canada - sell our success stories to foreigners who shut 'em down to eliminate the competition. Champion grader in Goderich and the GM Diesel locomotive works in London were both sold to Caterpillar and shuttered.

All this is bad enough, but we ain't seen nothing till we marvel at the truly bizarre take our official propaganda outlet has on matters pertaining to Canada's role in this world-on-the-brink. Long-time CBC staff writer (and I note that only to underline he is not a recent TMU grad dropped into a temp internship funded by Meta and Google) Evan Dyer, whose editors blessed his long-winded expose with the title, "Trump's increasing support for Russia carries existential danger for Canada."

Yup, Evan found at least half a dozen academics and think-tankers who missed the Mueller investigation's final report, and the lot of them are still banging on about Putin's seizure of American democracy. The reality is that they're half-right, but the folks who call the shots reside in Jerusalem, not Moscow.

Congrats to Steve Liebig on his re-election win!

Hey Steve, good to see you prevailed in spite of  my endorsement!

I've got nothing but respect for the folks who try to make a go of governing at the local level. Insofar as our democracy has any claim to authenticity, it's found at the grass roots of local politics. That's gotta be a thankless task. In one of my previous lives I occasionally had dealings with local officials around minor zoning variances and such, and it was always a little disheartening when county councilors began to audibly snore during my presentations.

Once you go up the value chain in power politics, you soon realize actual democracy is limited to that very elemental "grass roots" level... anything beyond that, well by golly, thank God we've got some sensible mayors who appreciate their "strong mayor" powers. That ain't democratic, but at least it gets things done! Benito would be proud, and Doug Ford is too!

God bless the folks who give up their evenings to attend council meetings. You're keeping democracy alive!

Canada joins Eurovision in bold display of solidarity with Israel

Not that I ever paid it a whole lot of attention, but after Conchita Wurst won, I had to admit it was way too avant-guardy for my simplistic level of art appreciation, and I've been blissfully oblivious to it ever since. That's why the announcement that Canada would be joining Eurovision for the 2027 season came as a surprise. What possible motivation might the Carney team have for taking this decision at this moment in time?

Here's my theory. What's been the most controversial issue for Eurovision since Conchita? That's hands down the inclusion of Israel in this European contest. While the Ashkenazi elite may disagree, Israel is not actually part of Europe. Furthermore, certain participants geographically present in Europe take exception to the inclusion of the non-European genocidal state, on the grounds that the contest is being used to cool-wash Israel's war crimes. Exhibiting the rare trait of taking a stand on principle, five European countries boycotted the 2026 competition.

Which brings us to Mark Carney's surprise announcement that Canada is gonna kick ass in Eurovision 2027! We're even further from Europe than Israel is, but hot damn, we're keen! Why?  Carney has been dogged by claims he's not doing near enough to push back against the rising tide of antisemitism that has hogged news headlines non-stop. Frankly, a lot of those headlines are horseshit. I'd be utterly shocked if any authentic Torontonians, anywhere along the Bathurst Street downtown-to-King Township corridor, and its many tributaries into the the most prosperous and consequential neighborhoods,  EVER move to Tulsa to escape rampant antisemitism in Toronto! Nevertheless, I've been treated to multiple stories across mainstream Canadian media claiming we're on the cusp of exactly that! 

So what better way to make a very public display of our support for Israel than by going all-in on Eurovision '27!  And naturally, our official government propaganda network is gung-ho! For what it's worth, it costs big bucks to enter.  How many big bucks we taxpayers are expected to fork over to this

brazen attempt to normalize the genocidal state isn't something our leaders  want us to know. Apparently it's all covered by the CBC's budget, so look for their government subsidy to rise sharply as we deploy them to do blatant PR and narrative management.

Anyway, CBC remains my default soundtrack in the car, and today they're already pushing the beejeezus out of five fresh new Canadian talents, all of them hoping to become the next Conchita Wurst.

Our tax dollars at work!

 

Tense times in the freedom & human-rights-loving democracies

 My news feeds are staggering under the sheer volume of clashing pro and not-so-much narratives around who's the fascist and who's the commie and who's the patriot and who's laughing all the way to the bank.

What we're most likely to agree on is the latter. You obviously can't shovel hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine, via Lockheed Martin et al, without enriching the MIC in general, and the corner-office crowd therein most of all. But that's the least of it.

We find ourselves at what I consider a novel juncture. The freedom-loving democracies of yore are today clamoring for war, and sooner rather than later. All of the freedom & human rights champions across NATO are slashing social spending to exponentially boost war prep spending, because Putin.

BTW, the Nations of Virtue were already outspending Putin 10:1 long before Mafia Don ordered NATO vassal states to double, triple, or in the case of Canada, quadruple our military spending, because Putin.

Well... all that sturm und drang shouldn't cause us to lose sight of who's laughing all the way to the bank, and that's Trump's merry posse of billionaire Zionists in general, and the Trump clan in particular.

Can Commander Cody's hotrod Lincoln outrun those Chinese EVs?

The Lincoln label has been an iconic American luxury car brand for over 100 years. In the early days they fought for pride of place against the likes of Packard, Duesenberg, and Pierce-Arrow.  In the post-war boom they and Cadillac ruled the luxe roost in the American market, at least until German manufacture rose from the ashes of WWII.

When I was a gas-pump boy at John's Supertest in my teens,  the Lincoln Mk III was the ride of choice for quite a few of the more affluent folks. Harold Knight owned a local lumber yard and pulled in once a week in his burgundy coupe with the black vinyl roof. One day he got to yacking with somebody in the store and I asked him to please move his car. He apologizes and gives me "if you wouldn't mind kid, could you pull it ahead... keys in it." That moment was the highlight of my tenure at John's Supertest!

I greatly admired the last generation of Lincoln land yachts culminating in the garish excesses of the late '70s. Remember the 1979 Town Coupe? A family of four could live comfortably in one of those while simultaneously solving the commute-to-work challenge!

I've been partial to Toyotas and Suubs most of my adult life, but there's a reason Lincoln has been on my radar of late. It's about a) towing cap, and b) depreciation. In the event the Farm Manager actually follows through on her threats to retire at 65, we might like to spend some time towing a boat or a camper. No firm plans and no fresh ideas, but it seems to be the kinda shit people do if they don't die first.  And frankly, I'm looking forward to it! 

Truth is, the tow cap on my Toyota is more a toy cap. There are certainly Toyotas with outstanding towing capacity. A Sequoia will tow any boat or camper I'd ever own. So would a Lincoln Navigator. Both run well over $100k, but here's the thing; the Lincoln depreciates 60% over five years; the Toyota depreciates  37%.  In other words, in terms of affordable tow vehicles, a used Lincoln is far more affordable than the Toyota.

Which brings us back to Commander Cody.  Since I'll never need four tons of towing capacity, I was looking at the lighter stuff. The Lincoln Nautilus caught my eye. It's got double the tow capacity of my Rav4.  It'll easily handle a little teardrop camper or a small boat. And it also has the extra-special distinction of being built right here in Ontario, at Ford's Oakville plant!

Or at least it used to be. I used to pride myself on thinking I was kinda on top of what goes on in this world, but I had absolutely no idea that as of the '24 model year, every Lincoln Nautilus sold anywhere in the world is manufactured entirely in China. 

Yup, one of the very few surviving American car brands... made in China.

New study reveals penguin farts cause climate change

Imagine my shock when I happened across this headline at Euronews; Antarctic penguins emit up to 7 million tonnes per year of methane.  Oh. My. God!!! And here we've been blaming ourselves for this disaster ever since Silent Spring came out! And it's been those gosh-darned penguins all along!

Well, this news is a real gamechanger! If it's been the penguins all along, that means all that crazy stuff like the energy transition and EVs was just the hoax Donald Trump claimed! 

Kinda hard to believe,  really. I mean, the little devils look so cute and cuddly, you'd never guess they're destroying our habitat with all that methane. Cute and cuddly they may well be, but each and every one of them is farting 7 tonnes of methane into the air we breathe. Hell, I doubt I'm putting out those volumes even since I went to the beans & cabbage diet on account of the gluten thing. And there's only one of me.

But truly, it is so refreshing when science can expose long-accepted verities as false with more science!