Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has had a lifelong love affair with Britain, including naming his feline companion after the famous female British Prime Minister.
The West-Ottawa politician's long-standing devotion on the British monarchy went so far as banishing renowned Québec master Alfred Pellan's painting from his office building to replace it with a picture of his favourite monarch. Baird's Brit infatuation has devolved into clouded judgement on serious matter of foreign policy.
Minister Baird and British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced plans on Monday to merge British and Canadian embassies. To be precise, Minister Baird framed the suspicious measure as sharing. Reminiscent of the Napster file-sharing tool, the open exchange of diplomatic duties across international jurisdictions does not inspire confidence.
The idea, packaged and sold to Canadians as a cost-saving measure, flies in the face of common sense and gives off a hint of hypocrisy to a government saddled with billion dollar boondoggles in the form of G20 Summit and the never-ending money pit labeled the F-35 jets.
It seems PM Harper always finds funds for Britain. His Heritage Minister twisted the historical facts to defend spending of $28 million Canadian tax dollars to celebrate a 200-year old war between two foreign nations. You guessed it -- Britain was the victorious side of the War of 1812 with the U.S.
Stephen Harper found yet another way to shove the British Crown down our throats by sparing no taxpayer expense to multiply royal visits to Canada since he moved into 24 Sussex. Once rare royal visits have become annual splurges. A convenient excuse for Queen Elizabeth's rich children, grandchildren and "the help" to visit their subjects abroad; a free ride curtesy of the Canadian taxpayer.
PM Harper went so far as to cast away the dazzling Governor General Michaëlle Jean to China to allow his beloved monarch to shine her colonial might on a day that was meant to be dedicated to Canada and its citizens. Blighting Canada Day by placing an expensive spotlight persons who don't live in our country is a poor way to salute modern Canada.
Defense Minister Peter McKay became tongue-tied when omitting the cost incurred on the military budget by renaming the Canadian Armed Forces to salute its colonial past; a nod to the days when Canadian troops fought under the British flag, indistinguishable from foreign entities.
There are dark episodes when Canadian soldiers were used as pawns in colonial conquests in South Africa, to name just one, where rape and torture were used as weapons to subdue local populations of Sub-Saharan Africans. Adding "royal" to the Canadian military moniker came under fire from Québecers and Anglophone Canadians alike, who felt the Canadian-ness of the institution was being diminished unnecessarily.
Under the cloak called "saving space, resources and money," the Harper government is offering Canadian sovereignty on a silver platter to Britain with this new embassy-sharing proposal. Canadian diplomatic independence should never be abbreviated, abased or abandoned no matter what the cost.
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In Britain, a recent survey of GPs by Rethink shows that:
84% of GPs say they have patients who have presented with mental health problems such as stress, anxiety or depression as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment
• 21% of GPs say they have patients who have had suicidal thoughts as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment
• 14% of GPs have patients who self-harmed as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment
• 75% of GPs said that patients who are negatively affected by undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment for Employment and Support Allowance, need increased support from their GP
• 61% of GPs say that JobCentre Plus (via Atos Healthcare) does not makes enough use of their knowledge of the mental health of your patients during the Work Capability Assessment process
• 67% of GPs think that the assessors should seek information from GPs directly for those patients with mental health problems who are too unwell or vulnerable to arrange this themselves
Most worrying of all is this:
• 6% of GPs have patients who have attempted or committed suicide as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment
Paul
Upon seeing that you mean every word of this crap, may I suggest you get out of Canada and go back to your servile roots.
"Adding "royal" to the Canadian military moniker came under fire from Québecers and Anglophone Canadians alike, who felt the Canadian-ness of the institution was being diminished unnecessarily."
Are you serious? What are the three Regular Force Infantry Regiments in Canada called? The ROYAL Canadian Regiment, PRINCESS Patrica's Canadian Light Infantry and the ROYAL 22nd Regiment. These names have been in place since the units were first formed. What a negative article.
The "Royal" moniker was stripped from the Navy and Airforce under the Trudeau era - peacenik regime. Trudeau himself flirted with both fascism and socialism, avoided military service during WW 2 and Korea and generally despised the Canadian military. Removing the "royal" in the first place was a provocative, calculated move by the Liberals - a slight which the Conservatives had the guts to correct.
Britain lost the war of 1812. There were 4 phases to the war: 3 in the US where the British took the offensive, and 1 in Canada where the Americans made a counter-offensive. While the British forces in Canada successfully defended their lands (Canada was a British dominion), all three of the British offensives into the US failed miserably, and they were once again defeated by the Americans. The British most definitely did not "win" the war of 1812, but instead were simply able to not lose Canada with the rest of the war.
On a more prevalent note: there are many non-francophone, non-Quebec-resident Canadians, who are opposed to the lavish spending of Canadian public funds, during a time of supposed economic belt-tightening, on vacations for rich people, whose only "credit" is that their forefathers used to lord over and curb the fundamental freedoms of our own. I pride myself on being one of those Canadians who simply asks for logical consistency from his government. If you say you don't have money for youth volunteer programs like Katimavik, then don't go and spend 4 times as much on vacations for rich foreigners who can afford it.
Having our existing government, bureaucracy, and military offer patronage to these chauvinists is frankly quite insulting to the existing Canadian population, and a poor depiction of our cultural identity in both the domestic and international scene.
I am not sure who the "rich people" are who are going on "vacation" as referred to here are, unless these are the diplomats sent abroad to represent Canada and assist it's citizens. I see these "rich people" are also "chauvinists" - why does this not surprise me? I also expect these are physically healthy, white, males in your post Katimavik reality...