I called this page "About Extras" in reference to my fondness for vintage Macintosh products. The software on disk often included a file folder with information about widgets, Easter eggs, or other goodies the developers chose to include with the package.
This page functions as a sort of Read Me about the external links behind the pretty pictures on this blog.
The slide show header features links to information about Canada and a couple of fun videos to watch.
If you scroll down to the bottom footer, you'll see a bunch of Canada-related graphics (and others) that if you hover over them, will show a link to an external website.
Below the Read Me section here about the header pictures, is a summary of what each "merit badge" connects to, and where you'll land if you click on any of them.
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As I write this, it is currently a bitter-cold night in February, one year into a global pandemic, with 2ft (0.61m) of snow on the ground. Needless to say, I was incredibly, incredibly bored.
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Header Slideshow
Oh Canada
Click on this to visit the Government of Canada's official website.
Dearest Justin
Click on this to send questions or fan mail to the Prime Minister. You can also read some of my "open letters" on various subjects under the label, Dearest Justin.
(Personal trivia note: I have actually written letters to PMJT previously, and I typed them in Apple Garamond font because he, too, likes Apple products and has always struck me as a creative "different thinker." You can't have Hope and Hard Work without, well, Jobs.)
I'm Voting Liberal
Click on this to visit the Liberal Party of Canada's website. Get involved or just read more about the PM, the party platform, and members of Parliament under the "Tru Grit" banner.
Diversity is Strength
Click on this to read Justin Trudeau's speech on "Canadian Liberty and the Politics of Fear." Very Kennedy-esque (like his dad), and really belongs in a collection of his best public statements, should one ever be released someday.
The Good Old Days
Relive the halcyon times of the squee-inducing "TruBama" bromance, before the bad orange man went and fucked everything up. Click on this to watch Barack Obama address Parliament in 2016.
I may need to add Uncle Joe's fond remarks about Papa Pierre in anticipation of the "great reset."
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Footer Buttons
Column 1
Youth hockey player
Click on the youth hockey player to visit Kids' Help Phone, a mental health support service for young people. According to their website:
Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only 24/7, national support service. We offer professional counselling, information and referrals and volunteer-led, text-based support to young people in both English and French.
Visit Kids' Help Phone at KidsHelpPhone.ca.
Canadian happiness
The full text of the graphic (from a custom-designed T-shirt I once had bookmarked but misplaced on one of my hard drives somewhere) reads as follows:
You can't buy happiness, but you can live in Canada — and that's pretty much the same thing.
Click on this graphic to launch the Government of Canada website. Select your preferred language (English or French) to continue to the Canadian government's official online portal, for information on everything from obtaining citizenship (if you're not Canadian), to how to access social services and aid programs or register to vote (if you are).
Visit Canada online at Canada.ca.
"Invade Us, Canada"
A joke "advocacy campaign" from Daily Show host Trevor Noah and friends produced in the era of Joe Biden's predecessor (who shall remain nameless), imploring Justin Trudeau's government to force an overthrow of the United States. I left the link up for posterity reasons and... in case the next presidential election goes awry (while hoping that the next Canadian federal one doesn't).
I should note that Trevor likes Justin and is only ribbing him about the Aladdin thing. He made a joke about the inane "doughnut scandal" (cf. Obama's "elitist" Dijon and arugula nothingburger) during the pre-COVID times, that's a little bit cringe but all in good fun.
"This Is What Liberals Actually Believe"
As Stephen Colbert once said, reality has a liberal bias. Science is real, Black Lives Matter, everything else in that rainbow-colour text block, and right-wingers are full of merde.
Click on this to read the Liberal Party of Canada's full platform (from 2019; soon to be updated after the next policy convention in May April 2021), which encompasses this and a whole lot more.
Visit the "Tru Grits" website at Liberal.ca.
"Show Your Rump to 🚩 ⁉️ ❌ ⛔️ 🚫"
This cheeky display of solidarity against the now-defunct maladministration and its mobster-in-chief, who was unduly brutal to America's northern neighbour, features a trio of Mounties doing exactly as it says on the tin. Another artifact of the defining era kept online for posterity, it now takes you to a tweet from Justin Trudeau where he thanks POTUS 46 for a friendly phone call — the first one made by the new president to a world leader.
"Talk to you soon, Joe."
Column 2
Hope & Hard Work
Click on this to visit the Liberal Party's main page at Liberal.ca.
Proudly Pro-Choice
Click on this to read the Liberal Party of Canada's gender equality statement. Because it's (this year).
"Stand Up for What You Believe In"
Click on this to visit the On Guard Canada project on Twitter, a volunteer fact-checking endeavour meant to flush lying and deceit out of Canadian politics. Inspired by Toronto Star alum turned "debunker" of the 45 era, Daniel Dale, and his counterpart of similar name Dale Smith (last name first name), as well as "The Lincoln Project" of disaffected Republicans put off by what's happened to the no longer honest party of Abe.
The account is run by a member of the Canadian grassroots political Twitterati, "Scribulatora," a onetime Progressive Conservative and pragmatic centrist turned off by the populist antics of the fash-friendly CPC and the dirtbag left NDP.
Fuddle Duddle
Toronto Sun cover page from October 22, 2015, after the history-making 43rd Canadian federal election. Click on this to visit the prime minister's official government website in English.
Con Flip
Cartoon by Michael de Adder, also from shortly after the 43rd federal election that saw Trudeau hit a grand slam and the mighty Harper had struck out. Click on this to visit the prime minister's official website en Français.
Why a baseball picture for his French website, you might ask? For one thing, he grew up a fan of the Montreal Expos (and is pals with Edgar Stephen Bronfman). For another, his paternal grandfather, Charles-Émile "Charlie" Trudeau, was once on the executive board of the Brooklyn Dodgers' triple-A minor league farm team that eventually sent Jackie Robinson to the big leagues in America (albeit after grandpa Charlie had passed). Baseball been beaucoup, beaucoup good to him, eh.
Column 3
"I Stand With Trudeau"
Popular hashtag among the "Very Online" Liberal faithful, often invoked whenever Justin comes under attack. Click on this to visit the Liberal Party of Canada's about page for party leader, incumbent prime minister, and all-around pretty cool guy.
Rideau Cottage COVID presser
Click on this sketch drawing of the now-iconic podium stance outside the Trudeau household, to visit the Government of Canada's official page for COVID-19 information.
Bell Let's Talk
Click on this logo to visit the official webpage of the Canadian telco/media conglomerate's annual mental health awareness campaign. Bell Let's Talk is not without criticism (including from yours truly), so consider it an additional resource in the informational toolbox, rather than a panacea for all ailments.
Blog Sidebar (Update: April 2021)
Countdown clocks
The first of these fun countdown clocks courtesy of timeanddate.com ticks zero when the 2021 spring parliamentary session ends and summer vacation begins (aka silly season, or election season... or rabbit season, duck season, loonie season). Below that, per the header page on "Justin's Tru-dates" listing significant milestones in Trudeau family and/or Liberal Party lore, the second clock gives an indication of how long into Justin Trudeau's mandate he would have to serve as prime minister in order to surpass the tenure of other prime ministers. As of 2021 the next on the list is John Diefenbaker, currently the 10th longest-serving PM. The information is calculated from this Wiki page. (I haven't yet found a countdown widget that includes year intervals, which I would need to show a less-awkward date format counting down to if and when he surpasses the other PMs on the list. Especially Harper. Fuck Harper.)
Random #cdnpoli update links
Click on any of these to visit Canadian political webpages that give updates about what's going on in the government. At the top is Justin Trudeau's personal Twitter account, which can more accurately be described as a digital Superfund site, the reply-column equivalent of a nuclear-grade dumpster fire. (Which is why I adopted Wonkette's tongue-in-cheek rule for this blog and I don't allow comments.) But you can still scroll and read what he has to say, or what he shares from other people in the government or whatever else is on there, but just don't read the comments. Like, never read the comments.
Under that you'll find the nitty-gritty ins and outs of Our Commons, including a calendar for checking when the House is sitting or if you want to peek in at how much longer the government might have to play dodgeball at circus-act Benghazi committees (in a minority parliament).
My profile
A humourous description of me, or my persona, cribbed from a now-out-of-print Dr. Seuss book and adapted to fit the subject matter. There's also an Effin' Birds cartoon playing upon the penchant for Canadian apologies, the same artists who gave you the Thrilling Adventures of Dumbfuck O'Toole.
Archive, tags (or labels), and blogroll
Exactly as it says on the tin. A drop-down menu of earlier articles sorted in reverse chronological order by year and then month. Below that is a (lengthy, perhaps too lengthy) cloud of subjects about which those articles have been about; click on any of them to find posts on that topic. Finally, a list of other #cdnpoli writers and websites whose content I find relevant or appealing. Note the lack of Compostmedia, Goebbels News, and/or Probe & Wail content, because by and large, my opinion of the Canadian "news" media is that
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That's it! Grab a properly chilled (or heated) beverage and enjoy.
Miss Fuddle Duddle
February 2, 2021
Updated April 11, 2021
