They Just Don't Get It

Maybe it's because they are the 'greatest' nation on earth, if not in the entire history of the world (he said sardonically). Perhaps  they are eternal optimists, or, more possibly, incredibly stupid (my pick). Whatever the explanation, the citizens of the United States of Amerika do not understand why the number of tourists visiting their country is plummeting.

Canadian travel to the U.S. has cratered after Trump took office. In March, trips made from Canada into the U.S. plummeted by nearly a million compared to the same time last year, comprising the second consecutive month of year-over-year decreases.

The real reason for that decline will be discussed a bit later, but the Americans are doing everything they can to reverse what for them is a disastrous economic trend. Despite Trump's recent and repeated declarations that the U.S. doesn't need anything from Canada, there are many who know otherwise.

For example, New York Congresswoman Elise Stephaniuk thinks that maybe Canadians are put off by the fact that they can't stay longer while visiting her land of milk and honey. She has a remedy, having introduced

the Canadian Snowbird Visa Act, a bipartisan bill to extend the duration Canadian citizens who own or lease a residence in the United States may stay—from 182 days to 240 days annually.

“Our neighbors to the north provide more visits to the United States than any other country, and they are critically important to North Country tourism and industry,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “Providing Canadians who own homes and property in the United States with extra time to visit and boost our economy will help revive Canadian tourism to the United States.”

Under current U.S. immigration law, Canadian citizens can only stay in the United States for up to 182 days per year without a visa. The Canadian Snowbird Visa Act would allow eligible Canadians—aged 50 and over who either own or lease a U.S. residence—to extend their stay to up to 240 days annually.

Perhaps a little more grounded in reality is California Governor Gavin Newsom's appeal to Canadians: 

Speaking of California, Palm Springs is trying to entice Canadiana back:

Earlier this month, the city of Palm Springs, Calif., put up dozens of red banners that feature a heart with a Canadian flag nestled between the words “Palm Springs” and “Canada.”

“It was a way for us to say to the Canadians that are part of our community for so many months out of the year that we appreciate them, and in light of all the unrest and emotional up-and-down, that we’re standing by their side,” Palm Springs Mayor Ron deHarte told CTVNews.ca. “We will continue to support one another and welcome them back next season, or whenever the dust settles, and everybody feels comfortable to come back.”

All of these efforts miss a central point about a major factor, in addition to Canadian nationalistic fervour, inducing people to avoid travel to the U.S. THEY DON'T FEEL SAFE!

A Leger Marketing poll, conducted on behalf of the Association for Canadian Studies, made some interesting discoveries:

The survey of 1,626 Canadians found 52 per cent of people feel “it is no longer safe for all Canadians travelling to the United States.” Twenty-nine per cent disagreed with the sentiment and 19 per cent were unsure.

This belief was felt most strongly among respondents over 55 and in residents of Atlantic Canada, British Columbia and Ontario. People aged 18 to 54 and people in Alberta were less inclined to agree.

The dangers posed to Canadians by the U.S. has been well-known for many years, unless one has been living in a media vacuum. Finally, thanks to the hostile actions of our American 'neighbours', more and more of our people are recognizing the country for what it is: an incubator of anger, instability, violence  and death, the repercussions of which we can no longer turn a blind eye to.

UPDATE: This just in, apropos to everything.

 

His Genius For All To See

 I'm talking about Theo Moudakis here.

From The Big Leagues

 I think Theo Moudakis captures the Canadian zeitgeist here, don't you think?

Carney's Promise

Mark Carney has raised people's expectations of what is possible when it comes to nation-building. One of his preeminent promises is the rapid building of much-needed housing. Possibilities abound, and the following brief video from Portland, Oregon, suggests densification and building duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes on land formerly zoned for single family dwellings can form part of the answer.

While there is no suggestion of nimbyism in the report, it can be a formidable challenge to rapidly increasing housing stock. Ontario premier Doug Ford refuses to force municipalities to allow fourplexes. Not using provincial power to change the housing dynamics has wide ranging implications, not the least of which is local opposition to anything that changes the landscape of residential neighbourhoods, opposition that feckless municipal politicians often succumb to.

Edward Keenan writes:

On Thursday, as the press and some assembled politicians looked on, construction cranes lifted a rectangular box into the Willowdale air and manoeuvred it into place on the ground at a lot on Cummer Avenue. It was among the first pieces of what will become, by early next year, a rent-geared-to-income housing development for formerly homeless senior citizens. Construction is underway.

The key here is modular construction, with the parts being made in a factory and then assembled Lego-like at the building site.

 It’s a method that allows for faster and cheaper mass production of homes — a success story in countries such as Sweden and Japan — and combined with using government-owned land and having the government oversee the project, it promises a way through part of the logjam that constricts our housing supply.

 

The problem, however, is that the above is a project much delayed by local opposition, delayed so long that the original costs rose dramatically.

It wasn’t any problem with the construction method that caused the problems. It was politics. Local luxury home developers and NIMBY neighbours banded together to oppose the project. Cynically spineless local and provincial politicians joined them. Together they used the SNAFU of regulatory and appeals processes to keep pushing construction further and further down the line. 

And while they did that, the already-completed pieces of that project sat rotting, first on a holding lot and then in a warehouse, causing the cost to go from $14.6 million to $36.3 million.

One can see that the challenges Carney faces are formidable ones. And while I understand how hard it must be for some to see the nature and character of their neighbourhoods altered, there seems to be no alternative if we are truly intent on addressing one of our most pressing national crises. 

A Saturday Evening Reflection

 Spoiler Alert: It doesn't reflect well on Don T.

Another Warning

Canadians have traditionally found it difficult to answer the question, "What defines a Canadian?" The default answer has always been, "Well, we aren't Americans." That answer speaks volumes; however, in light of American threats against our country, coupled with the ongoing breakdown of their societal norms, we have been thinking lately much more about what makes our country special and almost unique.

One of its defining characteristics is that Canada cares about its people. While I know there are many things that might illustrate otherwise, we do take real pride in trying to help those who need help, both individually and through government supports.

I'm never sure how much interest there is amongst readers when I post stories about what is happening in Amerika. However, part of my motivation in addressing such stories is that they remind us of the things we Canadians value and the things we must strive to protect. The following story falls under that rubric.

The Trump administration plans to terminate federal workers focused on preventing and responding to work-related illnesses, including "black lung" disease in coal miners, according to an internal government memo obtained by NBC News, despite in recent days reinstating some who had been let go. 

Those terminations could threaten critical programs used to screen for health issues in workers with toxic exposures, including 9/11 first responders, according to people who work on or benefit from the programs. Some workers who benefit from those programs have expressed fears that conditions such as cancer or lung disease could go undetected as a result.  

Concerns about the future of those programs began earlier this month when the Department of Health and Human Services effectively gutted the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), drastically cutting the headcount of an agency that has been around for 55 years. The move was part of a broader plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, including a massive restructuring of federal health agencies that called for the termination of roughly 20,000 full-time employees. 

In Appalachia, the consequences of such cuts will be dire. 

Donald Trump was elected on the promise of making life better for Americans. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Americans he had in mind excludes a wide swath of the people. May that mentality never infect us.

When The Emperor Is Angered

The imperium formerly known as the United States of America does not take kindly to contradiction. Its emperor, Don Trump, displays this facet of authoritarian rule in the following interview, in which a dauntless ABC interviewer, Terry Moran, refuses to accept his mandated 'reality'.

The 40-minute interview in the Oval Office veered off course when Moran pressed Trump on the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadorian man living in Maryland who was deported despite a protective court order. 

The exchange deteriorated further when Trump insisted García had MS-13 tattoos on his knuckles, while Moran – after several times gently disagreeing and trying to move to a new topic – eventually pointed out that the image Trump was referring to had obviously been digitally altered.

“Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does’ [have a gang tattoo] and, you know, go on to something else,” Trump said.

The US president added: “You do such a disservice … This is why people no longer believe the news, because it’s fake news.”

 

Given the vengeful nature of the imperium, Terry Moran's future is likely in jeopardy, especially during a time when many media outlets are bending their knee to the emperor.  It began with Trump calling ABC one of the worst of the media outlets, and was followed up by an immediate right-wing backlash:

Many on social media criticized Moran for not being respectful enough to Trump.

"The interview in the Oval Office with President Trump by Terry Moran is a disgrace to our country and to our President. ABC and Moran should be ashamed! They want nothing but to argue with the President. He's not conducting an interview, he's trying to embarrass the President," said one critic.

"Watching Trump torch ABC News on their own turf is like watching a lion maul a pack of sick hyenas," replied advocate Jane Adams. "These people humiliated the country for years propping up a dementia patient, and now they’re being publicly gutted by a president who actually knows what he's doing."

"ABC once again proves that it is nothing more than a Marxist propaganda outlet controlled by the Democrats," said a Second Amendment rights account.

"His bias was blatant, disrespectful and rude," read another message.

At least one viewer accused ABC of using trick photo angles to make Moran appear taller than Trump.

None of this is the least surprising for a nation in moral, ideological and political freefall. We can only recognize and state it when we see it, and, as Canadians, take their devolution as a sobering object lesson on all the things to guard against in our own country. 

UPDATE Snopes has a lengthy discussion of this photo-shopped picture of Garcia's tattoo:

Trump's picture had been edited to add the text "MS-13" above the tattoos, but there was no actual evidence demonstrating a link between the tattoos and the El Salvadoran gang.