Category: government

Advice for the Canadian Conservative Party

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

May 3, 2025

Pierre Poilievre will run in a by-election in the most conservative riding in Canada ➙ Battle River-Crowfoot, Alberta. 

I ASSuME he wants to stay opposition Party leader for the next 4-5 years. 

Dumb.  Dumb.  Dumb. 

Is there any chance Quebec would vote for PP from Alberta in the next election? 

In the rest-of-Canada, this ties Poilievre to Alberta premier Smith ➙ a right wing extremist who wants to be the 51st U.S. state.  😀 

Canadians grew sick of Trudeau.  And they’ll grow sick of Poilievre’s whining in the coming years.   He’s already less popular than the Party, as was Trudeau.

No other Party wants to partner with the Cons in any future minority government. 

Instead …

  • Elect a new leader from Quebec
  • Elect a fiscal conservative with creditability.  (Someone like Mark Carney,)
  • Distance the Party platform from ReTrumplicanism which will be in the toilet by the 2026 midterms
  • Abandon populist social conservative trends.  (The deplorable will vote Conservative anyway.)
  • Go back to conservative policies more in line with those of Preston Manning, back in the day

The worst of recent unsuccessful leaders was Andrew Scheer.  I ranked him 0 / 100. 

WORST case scenario would be replacing PP with someone like Scheer. 

Thanks Bryce. 

Tony Retrosi on Compassionate Governance

On By Rick McIn education, ethics, GOP USA, government, gymnastics, human rightsLeave a comment

Tony Retrosi is a highly respected Gymnastics coach, educator, and leader.

He’s one of the Americans dismayed with the turn of Republican politicians to ReTrumplicanism. Angry, hateful, intolerant, near totalitarianism.

In 2025 you must parrot the low IQ Trump’s lies, or be banished from the GOP.

I was impressed with Tony summing up in this post:

  • a country should take care of its weakest members … children, disabled, sick, and elderly
  • healthcare is a right, not a privilege
  • higher education should be affordable
  • massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying
  • companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage
  • don’t force religion on me or mine
  • LGBT people should have the SAME rights as everyone else
  • we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. 
  • systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think
  • enforcement of present firearms laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations
  • I believe in so-called political correctness … social politeness
  • funding sustainable energy
  • women should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse

Read more …

The Value of Compassionate Governance

Canadian Election 2025 ➙ Vote Against PP

On By Rick McIn governmentLeave a comment

In historically Conservative Calgary Centre, I’ll be voting LIBERAL.

Voting against the Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.

Elections are often a choice between who’s least bad, and PP would be terrible in defending Canada against attacks by Trump. PP has no academic nor business credibility. He’s not well known outside MAGA USA who support him. His policies have been Trump-lite for years.

I’m quite sure he’d be a lightweight in international matters. Trump and his appointees would try to walk all over him.

So far, PP has refused to get top-secret clearance so officials with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) could share intelligence on foreign interference with him.

I’ll be voting for Mark Carney. Various roles at Goldman Sachs. Governor of the Bank of Canada. Governor of the Bank of England.  United Nations (UN) special envoy for climate action and finance. Well known and respected as an economist.

He could have run for the Conservative Party leadership, legitimately. In 2012, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Carney—who was then governor of the Bank of Canada—if he would join the Conservative government as minister of finance. 

He completed the 2015 London Marathon in 3 hours, 31 minutes.

Carney and his wife Diana Fox

Carney’s wife EVEN has better credentials than PP for Prime Minister. 😀 Fox has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Oxford and an MA in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

Actually, my current Conservative MP in Calgary Centre, Greg McLean, is very good. I won’t be disappointed if he is reelected. A loyal opposition is an important part of our Westminster-style parliamentary democracy.

I wrote to tell him I had to vote against PP. No reply. 😀

Vancouver Island, where my Mom lives, will elect either NDP or Conservative representatives in 2025.

I’d vote to reelect Gord Johns of the NDP. Seems to me he’s been doing a terrific job.

next door neighbour’s yard sign

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

On By Rick McIn books, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

A scary spy thriller.

Silly escapism. But with some interesting twists.

If I was editing, I would have cut the length of the novel in half. Many threads did not contribute to the plot resolution.

I Am Pilgrim (2015) is the debut novel by former journalist and screenwriter Terry Hayes. …

“Pilgrim” is an American former intelligence agent known as the “Rider of the Blue” who later writes a book on forensic pathology. …

The “Saracen” is a Saudi who becomes radicalized by watching his father’s beheading. He later trains as a doctor and fights in the Soviet–Afghan War.

Pilgrim is recalled to the intelligence community who have detected a threat involving the Saracen, who has created a vaccine-resistant strain of the variola major virus. Smallpox.

Smallpox was a terrible infectious disease.

Smallpox is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence.

The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980,  making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date.

Inoculation for smallpox appears to have started in China around the 1500s. In 1796, Edward Jenner introduced the modern smallpox vaccine.

unvaccinated and vaccinated twins

Officially, 2 live samples of variola major virus remain, one in the United States at the CDC in Atlanta, and one at the Vector Institute in Koltsovo, Russia.

Between 65 and 80% of survivors are marked with deep pitted scars (pockmarks), most prominent on the face.

U.S. Presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln all contracted and recovered from the disease. Washington became infected with smallpox on a visit to Barbados in 1751.

Finally, I feel the author was not successful in combining a lightweight good v evil thriller with some sort of philosophical overview.

Pick a lane. 😀

Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari

On By Rick McIn Artificial Intelligence AI, bad news, books, climate change, economics, education, ethics, GOP USA, government, happiness, health & fitness, human rights, internet, things getting worseLeave a comment

Any panel put together to save the world, would certainly include Professor Yuval Noah Harari. 

He’s a BIG thinker. 

Some feel he overstates the risks to mankind. I’d rather we err on the side of caution.

His 2024 book is …

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

I’m not smart enough to explain his thinking — but here’s a ChatGPT summary of the non-fiction tomb.

Main Focus: Nexus explores the intersection of technology, human evolution, and the future of societies, emphasizing the merging of biological and digital realms.

Technological Convergence: Harari examines how advancements in genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology are changing humanity’s relationship with itself and the world.

Human Enhancement: A central theme is the idea that humans may soon be able to enhance their biological and mental capacities through technology, leading to “post-human” forms of existence.

Ethical Implications: The book raises questions about the ethics of altering human biology, creating artificial life, and the consequences of tampering with the essence of what it means to be human.

Social and Economic Impact: Harari discusses how these technological advancements could lead to social divides, with some individuals or groups gaining access to powerful enhancements while others are left behind.

Surveillance and Control: A significant concern is the potential for increased surveillance and control over individuals’ minds and bodies, both by governments and corporations.

Evolution of Consciousness: Harari reflects on how human consciousness may evolve or change in response to these new technologies, as well as the philosophical questions surrounding free will and identity.

End of Homo Sapiens: The book suggests that humanity might be on the verge of an epochal shift, where Homo sapiens could be replaced by a new, technologically-enhanced species—either through natural evolution or deliberate engineering.

Uncertainty of the Future: Harari emphasizes the unpredictability of the future, acknowledging that the developments discussed could lead to both utopian and dystopian outcomes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Other booksSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2015)
21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018)

USA is a ‘Flawed Democracy’

On By Rick McIn economics, GOP USA, government, happiness, human rights, things getting worseLeave a comment

The American economy might never have been stronger relative to the rest of the world than in 2024.

BUT more and more of that money is going to the very rich. If that continues, you can project the States will be come some kind of oligarchy. Perhaps even a totalitarian state.

Government power in an oligarchy rests with a small number of people; nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control. Indonesia, Russia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Iran are all oligarchies.

The Economist still ranks the USA as a ‘flawed democracy‘ in their annual Democracy Index. Only 29th on the list of democracies.

The full democracies 2023:

  1. Norway
  2. New Zealand
  3. Iceland
  4. Sweden
  5. Finland
  6. Denmark
  7. Ireland
  8. Switzerland
  9. Netherlands
  10. Taiwan
  11. Luxembourg
  12. Germany
  13. Canada
  14. Australia
  15. Uruguay
  16. Japan
  17. Costa Rica
  18. United Kingdom


I want to live in a full democracy where it’s easiest to get rid of leaders the majority don’t want. As Churchill said: “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”

The full democracies tend to have a smaller gap between rich and poor.

Russians can’t get rid of Putin. Ali Hosseini Khamenei has been the leader of Iran since 1989. Iranians can’t get rid of him.

Americans should be wondering whether they can get rid of Musk or Trump.

It’s obvious that the top 1% buy American politicians who vote in their interest. This chart is from 2014. Things are much worse in 2024.


At its heart, this is a problem of corruption – caused by money in our political system. 

THE U.S. IS AN OLIGARCHY? THE RESEARCH, EXPLAINED

Thanks Tony.

John Lennon – Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

On By Rick McIn bad news, government, musicLeave a comment

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. One of the most important of the Christmas songs.

I often wonder what John Lennon would think of the world today.

History of the Canadian National Anthem

On By Rick McIn government, musicLeave a comment

Originally, the current Canadian National anthem was composed in French, celebrating Quebec.

The lyrics are totally … separate and distinct … in the 2 official languages.

“O Canada” (French: Ô Canada) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the music, after which French-language words were written by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier.

The original French lyrics were translated to English in 1906.  Multiple English versions ensued, with Robert Stanley Weir‘s 1908 version (which was not a translation of the French lyrics) gaining the most popularity; the Weir lyrics eventually served as the basis for the official lyrics enacted by Parliament.  Weir’s English-language lyrics have been revised three times, most recently when An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender) was enacted in 2018. 

The French lyrics remain unaltered.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

‘Gens du pays’, written by Gilles Vigneault and Gaston Rochon for the 1975 St-Jean-Baptiste celebrations on Mount Royal, Montreal is almost a national anthem in Quebec.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, government, IslamLeave a comment

If you liked the TV series Homeland — you’d likely enjoy this novel.

A CIA asset may or may not have been turned by al-Qaeda.

The Faithful Spy (2006) is a novel by The New York Times reporter Alex Berenson. …

… tells the story of a CIA agent who has infiltrated Al Qaeda and, years after 9-11, struggles to stop a terrorist attack in the United States. …

Al Qaeda detonates two truck bombs in LA, killing hundreds of people. John Wells is returned to the USA on a mission from Al Qaeda where he reconnects with the CIA. However, due to the length of his absence he is accused of being “un-faithful” because he did not warn the US about Al Qaeda attacks. …