If You Love It, Don't Change It, Part 2

Why do immigrants to Canada want to change Canada?  Turbans in the RCMP was our first mistake.  It turned a formerly secular national policeman into a policeman with a visible religious viewpoint.  Now there's a push for "Shariah law" in Ontario, despite the fact that we've had a perfectly good legal system in this country for hundreds of years.  This week we learned that people apparently don't have to show their faces when they go through airport security.  (They already don't at polling stations when they vote.)  Seems to me that Canadian society is being fundamentally altered in the name of religious freedom.  We need some common sense here.  We need to distinguish between the necessary progress of human rights, religious freedoms, etc., and those changes which fundamentally alter what made Canada so popular with immigrants in the first place.  If non-conforming immigrants overwhelm our political structure either through sheer numbers or via birth rate, you can bet that we risk allowing Canada to degenerate into just the sort of place these folks wanted to escape from.  All we're doing is setting the stage for future friction between different ethnic groups who bring their "old country" habits and hatreds with them.  Immigrants can honour their culture all they want but must be Canadians first.  This country is in the best financial and political shape in the modern world, and yet I fear for its future.  I fear that the ethnic strife which is occurring in European nations as we speak is on the horizon in Canada.  It's too late to adopt the "melting pot" strategy of the U.S. rather than the "cultural mosaic" crap of our past Liberal governments, but surely we can draw the line at changing our national institutions for the sake of everyone - especially newbies.

If You Love it, Don't Change It, Part 1

Why do recent immigrants insist on changing Canada, when they obviously think it's a better place to be than where they came from?  My in-laws are immigrants from eastern Europe.  Kinder, harder-working people you cannot find.  They arrived in 1950 basically with the shirts on their backs, sponsored by a usurious aunt who treated them as indentured for two years before considering their obligation satisfied.  To say that they adapted well to Canadian society is an understatement despite no English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, no subsidization, no handouts, no immigration lawyers, no help whatsoever.  Sink or swim.  They worked in the factory, did carpentry on the side, and put a down payment on a farm.  Seven years later it was paid off in full.  The factory job lasted forty years, and the farm was sold when the kids - all post-secondary educated - preferred their jobs in the city.  Today they shudder at the demands immigrants make on our government and society in general.  (They also can't stomach able-bodied people, especially young people, routinely going to the food bank for handouts.)  They shake their heads at government waste.  They never took an agricultural subsidy, let alone lobbied for one.  In good years they saved their money in case the next years weren't good.  In short, they have contributed much to their new country, asked for nothing in return, and damn sure didn't expect to change Canada to suit them.

Hay Fever Happens Out Here

When I was a tyke, I was diagnosed with "hay fever".  One of my jobs was to cut the grass, so this malady presented a problem not just for me but for the dispenser of my weekly allowance - my dad.  At the time the standard diagnostic test was pinpricks with various suspected antigenic substances on your back (over a hundred of them as I recall, each one circled and labeled via ballpoint pen) which then did or did not cause a local reaction.  The reactions after a half-hour or so could then be ascertained and an antigen soup formulated in some far-off lab.  Weekly injections of an increasing dosage of same were then initiated, with the hope that the body would gradually develop antibodies to the offending substances.  In my case I reacted to so many that they couldn't tell which ones I hadn't reacted to, but apparently camel hair was the worst offender.  (Camel hair!  I had never seen a camel in my life except from a distance at the Calgary zoo.  Perhaps Mother had a camel hair sweater.)  Anyway, I guess it didn't work, because I still get hay fever (and I still cut the grass).  Antihistamines help, of course, but then I'm dozier (than usual) and I'm kind of an anti-pill guy anyway.  My biggest allergy, thankfully, is eminently avoidable.

Petulants Endorsing Terrorist Activities (PETA)

PETA pisses me off.  The Calgary Stampede is their latest target.  No doubt it was a lot of the same miscreants, anarchists, and vandals that recently terrorized downtown Toronto during the G20 that are behind the whining about the perceived mistreatment of animals in Calgary.  Surely they must be aware that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) monitors Stampede activities very closely - and has for years.  I have always respected and supported the SPCA for their tireless efforts out here, and will continue to do so.  They call it as they see it, and are quick to report any questionable activity.  In the past the SPCA hasn't pulled any punches in dealing with the Stampede.  PETA, on the other hand, has lost all credibility with me.  They break into research facilities, unleash dangerous animals onto the public, threaten and harass researchers, and generally utilize every terrorist tactic they can (including arson) to achieve their aims.  Stampede animals, and rodeo stock in general, are well-treated and lucky to live extended lives in the care of people who love them.  Rodeo grew out of everyday ranch practices that were necessary for the survival - not only of people - but the animals they depended on.  Practices that got the job done with a minimum of distress to the animal.  Don't like Western Canadian ranch culture?  Fine.  Stay where you are but be forewarned - we're watching how you care for those lapdogs of yours!