Canadian Orwellian world: Lockdowns, vaccines passports and more

There's also the concern that they'll bring the mandates back. It was announced today that 'fully vaccinated' has been redefined to mean boosted.
It looks like that is a possibility:

 
For peeps in BC, Bonnie comes up very often as the Chief Medical Officer who wrote many a mandated order. Of course, she knows better, so strings are attached as she in turn attaches strings. Recently, Dear Bonnie had been very lucky at beating the odds, not impossible mind you:

Dr. Bonnie Henry faces backlash after Victoria e-bike lottery win

In a statement Saturday, the VHF stressed that the raffle lottery winners were chosen at random, and that the foundation used company Raffle Nexus Canada to randomly select Henry as the winner out of 4,226 purchased tickets.
Amazing.
"We are not permitted to redraw if we are not satisfied with the outcome of a draw," the foundation added.

"While we understand that some community members are disheartened by the outcome of this draw, we remain assured that all proper protocols were followed and executed."
Nice to know.

Correction​

A previous version of this story stated the Henry was one of two early-bird prize winners. In fact, there was only one early-bird prize for the hospital foundation's lottery.
What a coincident. If it was written for the movies it might have made a super public relations event, however in reality there was a backlash.

One was for her sister who coauthored her book.

Go Green, get vaxxed, win e-bikes:

1655787814714.png
 
Might be an interesting weekend in Ottawa...

'There won't be occupiers': City of Ottawa, police prepared for Canada Day protests​

 
Might be an interesting weekend in Ottawa...

'There won't be occupiers': City of Ottawa, police prepared for Canada Day protests​

There is a possible “wild card”of sorts, that I have been wondering when, and if, it might get played.
Perhaps on Canada day?

There IS a group of Canadians, who have not made their “Last Stand at the Alamo” and it has been whispered about, and hinted at, since the Freedom Convoy insult to one of the Elders.
I am referring to the grandmother that was trampled by the horse, while holding a white flag, which symbolizes peace and “parley”.
A little known clause in Canadian Federal law, is that Indigenous Canadians have immunity from protest prohibitions, meaning they can protest anywhere and anytime in Canada.

But who knows what kind of back room deals have been made with the different “Elected” Chiefs in the Ottawa area.
Last I heard, the internal political battle between “Elected” and “Hereditary” was dividing the tribes into smaller and angrier factions, worse than a ship full of Jesuit priests ever dreamed possible.
I also know that “running on Indian time” is a real thing, so, there’s that as well.

As you say, it could be very interesting, indeed.
 
A little known clause in Canadian Federal law, is that Indigenous Canadians have immunity from protest prohibitions, meaning they can protest anywhere and anytime in Canada.

But who knows what kind of back room deals have been made with the different “Elected” Chiefs in the Ottawa area.
Last I heard, the internal political battle between “Elected” and “Hereditary” was dividing the tribes into smaller and angrier factions, worse than a ship full of Jesuit priests ever dreamed possible.
I also know that “running on Indian time” is a real thing, so, there’s that as well.
Quoting my post here, cause this could be relate to the possible scenario I just wrote about.

Although Carolyn Bennett was replaced last October 2021, by Marc Miller as Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations in the Canadian liberal government, I find her going into ”isolation” on Canada day weekend rather interesting timing.
Duck and cover....Right out of the little creepy Prime ministers play book...but, I could be biased, :cool2:
388E660E-1FC5-42C8-85C5-4DD0E9F55D9A.jpeg
 
This is a little away from current affairs, although related through progeny of one of the protagonists in the story.

Recently, and have no idea why, picked up a book that I would not have read in the past. Here, the central character would likely mean nothing to many readers outside of Canada, and to those inside Canada beyond a certain birth range other than as a reference. The character is Brian Mulroney, and the author is Peter C. Newman with the books title 'The Secret Mulroney Tapes - Unguarded Confessions Of A Prime Minister'

The prime minister of course was the boy from Baie-Comeau, Quebec, who rose in the late 70's and then in the 80's to challenge Pierre Elliot Trudeau's seat of power. Brian failed in his fist attempt, and then completely usurped the Liberals in the second.

Growing up in the same place, around the same leaders and their managers, around public opinion (and family), journalists pens and news lenses, Brian was not the guy people wanted, and yet they wanted him at certain points to counter the nonsense of Pierre (the press would generally never go against the myth that had created and sustained Pierre - because they were more rabid against Brian):

For most of a decade, the public's perception of Brian Mulroney were filtered through the chroniclers of Ottawa's press gallery, whose suspicions of his character was matched by distrust of their motives. Most reporters just plain did not like him. They resented the fact that, unlike them, he had not come up through the appropriate apprenticeship. The uppity backwoods-Irish climber, who had never been elected to any previous office, didn't share their cozy paradigm. He didn't fit in. His wife was too beautiful, his kids too perfect, and he arrived in town accompanied by his roughneck retinue, who had never sipped sherry and chomped those stale cashews at the Rideau Clubs.

In some circles, Brian and his wife Mila had been compared to JFK's Camelot, and the opposition and press did not like it.

Newman:
My own view, based on dozens of years in the gallery, was that the Ottawa press corps had gone through three distinct periods: the lapdog epoch when journalists formed a propaganda are of government, which lasted into the 1950's; the watchdog era of the next two decades, when investigative and advocacy journalism thrived; and the attack-dog journalism of the Mulroney years, when reporters lusted for celebrity status by trying to tear their subjects into confetti. They didn't set out to treat Mulroney worse than other prime ministers, but because he reacted so emotionally to criticism-both valid and vengeful-he turned himself into a target. The process fed on itself, until both press and government became armed camps.

Seems the press has gone full circle back to lapdog.

The influence of Pierre from afar was also stark, with seventy two senators he had affixed, he ran what might be called a parallel government out of his Montreal law firm, as Newman hints to tell it. These strings ensured bills were defeated, press leaks or what have you.

For my part when younger, and carried forward to a certain point, can see the influence makers had marked me, and on the face of it, had allowed it. Think of Cicero providing all of what one needs to know about Caesar and not looking deeper. This is the shallow risk that marks much of humankind in so many subjects. I guess it is why I picked up the book, to look at what I had not wanted to look at.

Brian was Meech Lake, Charlotte Town, Canada/US/Mexico Free Trade (NAFTA), Oka, CBC and more. Brian was also cozy with Reagan and Bush, and other world leaders that either were respected or not. Brian needed to be liked, and this comes through as a character flaw, and yet as told, he was too nice, too forgiving, too gentlemanly - a benefit of the doubt type of guy, while his wife, on the other hand, was more discerning and intuitive (as Brian well admits in retrospect). Behind doors were the knives of so-called friends (think Bouchard) like so many Brutus's. There was also much not to agree upon with Brian and policies (this takes more discussion than this overview is intended), and yet the book details the inner workings of the characters of the day - and also Brian's deeper character that many might not realize beyond the news soundbites and policies, like them or not, that he helped create and push through, and why things were either defeated or had passed. The lies around him were abject, and the maliciousness done to his family were deplorable - example:

The most agonizing example of the savagery of Mulroney's press coverage occurred in the fall of 1991 when Frank, the guttersnipe satirical magazine, featured on its cover a contest to "deflower' his seventeen-year-old daughter, Caroline. This incitement to rape an innocent girl raised not a word of protest from any feminist organizations in the country, presumably because she happened to be a this particular prime minister's daughter.


Moreover, later Newman points out that the press and other politicians said nothing, likely because they were of those types or, they were afraid of the spotlight that Frank might but upon them. Either way, they were cowards.

As for Newman, he was a friend of Brian's, so the first question would be one of bias, and yet the book comes out mostly in Brian's words over hundreds of hours of tape recordings during his leadership tenure. Among the recordings, there was as many unflattering remarks quoted by others, as were positive. Brian also appears to be honest in what he believes, and interspersed were comments from his wife, Mila, who I admit to gaining respect for after reading about her own courage and strength in the face of a hostile press and corrupt Ottawa scene. How bad was it (is it) in Ottawa? In Brian's words, it was a Rat Pack, and as Newman quotes him:

The Rat Pack? These are Nazis. They deal in lies and calumnies. They are the worst kind. The Liberals developed this Nazi-style caliper-tell a lie often enough about somebody and people will believe it.

And speaking of Nazi's (not the part about Pierre's time during WWII while Canadian men were being put under the ground while Pierre was riding around Montreal on a motorcycle wearing a German Helmet - no sound from the press on that), this was in Pierre's unwillingness - Mulroney:

A Just Society? Let me give you a small illustration. Pierre Trudeau was minister of justice and prime minister for twenty years. During that time, he had access to the most sensitive information of the government of Canada dealing with Nazi war crimes, and he personally killed the idea of an inquiry for twenty years.
You know why we couldn't get Nazi war criminals? Because that son of a bitch Trudeau, as minister of justice and prime minister, personally vetoed the idea of a royal commission into the Nazi war crimes. He personally vetoed it because he didn't want to upset social peace in Canada. He said it would be disruptive to other communities. I couldn't think of anything more regnant to a so-called just or civilized society than to allow war criminals to live side by side with other Canadians in an untroubled fashion. This was a moral commitment from me. I was going to smoke the bastards out...

Interesting enough, thinking back to war criminals like Chomiak hiding away in Alberta, while his granddaughter climbed the political tree and distorted the historical facts (press in lockstep) while serving as our number two in Ottawa, and number one Azov supporter, it was Brian's concerns (and would have to look this up - think John Helmer spoke of it) that originally brought in Poland's intelligence community to Ottawa to help smoke them out. This is where Chomiak's trail lead to, and it was there that they found what was needed, burred in archives.

Er, there is a lot more told in this book that provides other views, so just bringing it up without going through decades of politics and hundreds of characters. Will leave it here on fiscal matters and a last word from Mila.

When Brian came to power, he inherited a fiscal mess. This was due to Pierre's debt that rose 1,200 percent in his time (from $17 billion to $200 billion). As was discussed, what did he achieve with his spending? Nothing. What he achieved with his so-called Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is now there for history in our evermore tyrannical landscape. What it did do when enacted (Mulroney's words):
The Americanization of Canada didn't come from me. It came from the Charter. When the government brought in the Charter, it Americanized Canada. This was the beginning. It wasn't the free trade agreement; it was the Charter of Rights, which undertook to fund every interest group that the country has ever seen. The national interest began to be submerged in special interests. {and lobbying} That's what I inherited in 1984, everybody from woman's groups to Native groups to regional groups to gender groups-you name it. They were all in Ottawa in nice offices funded by the federal government.

Now with his son, he has eclipsed the moon with spending and special interests (remember that dad's contribution in the first column is 200 billion of the total):

(from XPan's post)
1656882962144.png

Mila:
I want to know why people keep saying Trudeau is such a great intellect. Because he quotes Nietzsche? I could teach that train Nicolas to quote Nietzsche if I wanted to. This doesn't make someone brilliant. The two keys that can unlock any door are intelligence and good judgment. Trudeau had no judgment. In sixteen years he took a strong country and damaged it.

It might be honestly said now that Pierre's progeny-son has ruined Canada thirty years later - thus, the fruit did not fall far from the tree.
 
From the German member of politics, Christine Anderson, to Canadian's on Canada Day:

 
This is a little away from current affairs, although related through progeny of one of the protagonists in the story.

Recently, and have no idea why, picked up a book that I would not have read in the past. Here, the central character would likely mean nothing to many readers outside of Canada, and to those inside Canada beyond a certain birth range other than as a reference. The character is Brian Mulroney, and the author is Peter C. Newman with the books title 'The Secret Mulroney Tapes - Unguarded Confessions Of A Prime Minister'

The prime minister of course was the boy from Baie-Comeau, Quebec, who rose in the late 70's and then in the 80's to challenge Pierre Elliot Trudeau's seat of power. Brian failed in his fist attempt, and then completely usurped the Liberals in the second.

Growing up in the same place, around the same leaders and their managers, around public opinion (and family), journalists pens and news lenses, Brian was not the guy people wanted, and yet they wanted him at certain points to counter the nonsense of Pierre (the press would generally never go against the myth that had created and sustained Pierre - because they were more rabid against Brian):



In some circles, Brian and his wife Mila had been compared to JFK's Camelot, and the opposition and press did not like it.

Newman:


Seems the press has gone full circle back to lapdog.

The influence of Pierre from afar was also stark, with seventy two senators he had affixed, he ran what might be called a parallel government out of his Montreal law firm, as Newman hints to tell it. These strings ensured bills were defeated, press leaks or what have you.

For my part when younger, and carried forward to a certain point, can see the influence makers had marked me, and on the face of it, had allowed it. Think of Cicero providing all of what one needs to know about Caesar and not looking deeper. This is the shallow risk that marks much of humankind in so many subjects. I guess it is why I picked up the book, to look at what I had not wanted to look at.

Brian was Meech Lake, Charlotte Town, Canada/US/Mexico Free Trade (NAFTA), Oka, CBC and more. Brian was also cozy with Reagan and Bush, and other world leaders that either were respected or not. Brian needed to be liked, and this comes through as a character flaw, and yet as told, he was too nice, too forgiving, too gentlemanly - a benefit of the doubt type of guy, while his wife, on the other hand, was more discerning and intuitive (as Brian well admits in retrospect). Behind doors were the knives of so-called friends (think Bouchard) like so many Brutus's. There was also much not to agree upon with Brian and policies (this takes more discussion than this overview is intended), and yet the book details the inner workings of the characters of the day - and also Brian's deeper character that many might not realize beyond the news soundbites and policies, like them or not, that he helped create and push through, and why things were either defeated or had passed. The lies around him were abject, and the maliciousness done to his family were deplorable - example:




Moreover, later Newman points out that the press and other politicians said nothing, likely because they were of those types or, they were afraid of the spotlight that Frank might but upon them. Either way, they were cowards.

As for Newman, he was a friend of Brian's, so the first question would be one of bias, and yet the book comes out mostly in Brian's words over hundreds of hours of tape recordings during his leadership tenure. Among the recordings, there was as many unflattering remarks quoted by others, as were positive. Brian also appears to be honest in what he believes, and interspersed were comments from his wife, Mila, who I admit to gaining respect for after reading about her own courage and strength in the face of a hostile press and corrupt Ottawa scene. How bad was it (is it) in Ottawa? In Brian's words, it was a Rat Pack, and as Newman quotes him:



And speaking of Nazi's (not the part about Pierre's time during WWII while Canadian men were being put under the ground while Pierre was riding around Montreal on a motorcycle wearing a German Helmet - no sound from the press on that), this was in Pierre's unwillingness - Mulroney:



Interesting enough, thinking back to war criminals like Chomiak hiding away in Alberta, while his granddaughter climbed the political tree and distorted the historical facts (press in lockstep) while serving as our number two in Ottawa, and number one Azov supporter, it was Brian's concerns (and would have to look this up - think John Helmer spoke of it) that originally brought in Poland's intelligence community to Ottawa to help smoke them out. This is where Chomiak's trail lead to, and it was there that they found what was needed, burred in archives.

Er, there is a lot more told in this book that provides other views, so just bringing it up without going through decades of politics and hundreds of characters. Will leave it here on fiscal matters and a last word from Mila.

When Brian came to power, he inherited a fiscal mess. This was due to Pierre's debt that rose 1,200 percent in his time (from $17 billion to $200 billion). As was discussed, what did he achieve with his spending? Nothing. What he achieved with his so-called Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is now there for history in our evermore tyrannical landscape. What it did do when enacted (Mulroney's words):


Now with his son, he has eclipsed the moon with spending and special interests (remember that dad's contribution in the first column is 200 billion of the total):

(from XPan's post)
View attachment 60500

Mila:


It might be honestly said now that Pierre's progeny-son has ruined Canada thirty years later - thus, the fruit did not fall far from the tree.

Very interesting. I confess to being pretty hostile to Mulroney - largely because of the way that NAFTA devastated Canadian manufacturing, with the resulting social ills in the Canadian rustbelt. All of that was foreseen, too - NAFTA was hugely unpopular and by ramming it through Mulroney destroyed the Progressive Conservatives. Then again he was nothing terribly special in that regard. Economic mismanagement has been par for the course for Canadian elites and has been throughout Canadian history.

That said Pierre Trudeau was a repellant individual who did more than anyone but "his" son to ruin Canada. Mulroney was entirely correct to point to the way Trudeau entrenched leftist policies in the Canadian government, and the corrosive parasitism of their social engineering has been a plague on the land ever since.

But really, I can't think of a single political leader in Canadian history who did anything worthy of respect.
 
This is a little away from current affairs, although related through progeny of one of the protagonists in the story.

Recently, and have no idea why, picked up a book that I would not have read in the past. Here, the central character would likely mean nothing to many readers outside of Canada, and to those inside Canada beyond a certain birth range other than as a reference. The character is Brian Mulroney, and the author is Peter C. Newman with the books title 'The Secret Mulroney Tapes - Unguarded Confessions Of A Prime Minister'

The prime minister of course was the boy from Baie-Comeau, Quebec, who rose in the late 70's and then in the 80's to challenge Pierre Elliot Trudeau's seat of power. Brian failed in his fist attempt, and then completely usurped the Liberals in the second.

Growing up in the same place, around the same leaders and their managers, around public opinion (and family), journalists pens and news lenses, Brian was not the guy people wanted, and yet they wanted him at certain points to counter the nonsense of Pierre (the press would generally never go against the myth that had created and sustained Pierre - because they were more rabid against Brian):



In some circles, Brian and his wife Mila had been compared to JFK's Camelot, and the opposition and press did not like it.

Newman:


Seems the press has gone full circle back to lapdog.

The influence of Pierre from afar was also stark, with seventy two senators he had affixed, he ran what might be called a parallel government out of his Montreal law firm, as Newman hints to tell it. These strings ensured bills were defeated, press leaks or what have you.

For my part when younger, and carried forward to a certain point, can see the influence makers had marked me, and on the face of it, had allowed it. Think of Cicero providing all of what one needs to know about Caesar and not looking deeper. This is the shallow risk that marks much of humankind in so many subjects. I guess it is why I picked up the book, to look at what I had not wanted to look at.

Brian was Meech Lake, Charlotte Town, Canada/US/Mexico Free Trade (NAFTA), Oka, CBC and more. Brian was also cozy with Reagan and Bush, and other world leaders that either were respected or not. Brian needed to be liked, and this comes through as a character flaw, and yet as told, he was too nice, too forgiving, too gentlemanly - a benefit of the doubt type of guy, while his wife, on the other hand, was more discerning and intuitive (as Brian well admits in retrospect). Behind doors were the knives of so-called friends (think Bouchard) like so many Brutus's. There was also much not to agree upon with Brian and policies (this takes more discussion than this overview is intended), and yet the book details the inner workings of the characters of the day - and also Brian's deeper character that many might not realize beyond the news soundbites and policies, like them or not, that he helped create and push through, and why things were either defeated or had passed. The lies around him were abject, and the maliciousness done to his family were deplorable - example:




Moreover, later Newman points out that the press and other politicians said nothing, likely because they were of those types or, they were afraid of the spotlight that Frank might but upon them. Either way, they were cowards.

As for Newman, he was a friend of Brian's, so the first question would be one of bias, and yet the book comes out mostly in Brian's words over hundreds of hours of tape recordings during his leadership tenure. Among the recordings, there was as many unflattering remarks quoted by others, as were positive. Brian also appears to be honest in what he believes, and interspersed were comments from his wife, Mila, who I admit to gaining respect for after reading about her own courage and strength in the face of a hostile press and corrupt Ottawa scene. How bad was it (is it) in Ottawa? In Brian's words, it was a Rat Pack, and as Newman quotes him:



And speaking of Nazi's (not the part about Pierre's time during WWII while Canadian men were being put under the ground while Pierre was riding around Montreal on a motorcycle wearing a German Helmet - no sound from the press on that), this was in Pierre's unwillingness - Mulroney:



Interesting enough, thinking back to war criminals like Chomiak hiding away in Alberta, while his granddaughter climbed the political tree and distorted the historical facts (press in lockstep) while serving as our number two in Ottawa, and number one Azov supporter, it was Brian's concerns (and would have to look this up - think John Helmer spoke of it) that originally brought in Poland's intelligence community to Ottawa to help smoke them out. This is where Chomiak's trail lead to, and it was there that they found what was needed, burred in archives.

Er, there is a lot more told in this book that provides other views, so just bringing it up without going through decades of politics and hundreds of characters. Will leave it here on fiscal matters and a last word from Mila.

When Brian came to power, he inherited a fiscal mess. This was due to Pierre's debt that rose 1,200 percent in his time (from $17 billion to $200 billion). As was discussed, what did he achieve with his spending? Nothing. What he achieved with his so-called Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is now there for history in our evermore tyrannical landscape. What it did do when enacted (Mulroney's words):


Now with his son, he has eclipsed the moon with spending and special interests (remember that dad's contribution in the first column is 200 billion of the total):

(from XPan's post)
View attachment 60500

Mila:


It might be honestly said now that Pierre's progeny-son has ruined Canada thirty years later - thus, the fruit did not fall far from the tree.
Ironically, before Trudeau, the PM who spent the most was Stephen Harper, the conservative who spent his years before politics as a lobbyist (Taxpayers Federation) and major critic of big gov.
 
Very interesting. I confess to being pretty hostile to Mulroney - largely because of the way that NAFTA devastated Canadian manufacturing, with the resulting social ills in the Canadian rustbelt. All of that was foreseen, too - NAFTA was hugely unpopular and by ramming it through Mulroney destroyed the Progressive Conservatives. Then again he was nothing terribly special in that regard. Economic mismanagement has been par for the course for Canadian elites and has been throughout Canadian history.

That said Pierre Trudeau was a repellant individual who did more than anyone but "his" son to ruin Canada. Mulroney was entirely correct to point to the way Trudeau entrenched leftist policies in the Canadian government, and the corrosive parasitism of their social engineering has been a plague on the land ever since.

But really, I can't think of a single political leader in Canadian history who did anything worthy of respect.
I found Mulroney a complicated, intelligent but unpleasant man. I think he was a globalist and forced upon the nation a free trade agreement that sold the nation out and crippled many sectors. As usual, those living at the margins of society felt it the most and the longest.

His brand of conservatism was the darker, meaner version that started in the US, hit us federally, and then provincially, ushering in people like Mike Harris in Ontario and blaming economic woes on the unemployed and recipients of social welfare, while handing out corporate welfare. Mid-80s to mid-90s trickle down theory.

But as much as I loathed those governments, they didn't rape me with a syringe under threat of poverty or prevent me from leaving my country, left-wing authoritarians seem much more destructive than their right-wing counterparts.
 
Recently, and have no idea why, picked up a book that I would not have read in the past. Here, the central character would likely mean nothing to many readers outside of Canada, and to those inside Canada beyond a certain birth range other than as a reference. The character is Brian Mulroney, and the author is Peter C. Newman with the books title 'The Secret Mulroney Tapes - Unguarded Confessions Of A Prime Minister'
You’ve written an awesome overview, and refresher, it’s been years since I read this book, and I am tempted to dig it out from whatever box it has been languishing in.
As for Newman, he was a friend of Brian's, so the first question would be one of bias, and yet the book comes out mostly in Brian's words over hundreds of hours of tape recordings during his leadership tenure. Among the recordings, there was as many unflattering remarks quoted by others, as were positive.
The operative word pertaining to that friendship is “was”.
Peter, in his determination to get as much information (dirt) as he could, and get it from the source, spent hours and hours with Brian Mulroney and a great deal of expensive liquor was consumed during that time.
Tape recorder running always.
Brian Mulroney felt manipulated and tricked after the book was published, and said he was unaware that all the “interviews”, were ALL recorded.
He sued Peter, over the tapes, and the money from the book sales, it made headlines and quite a stir for a while, then they got together over a bottle and settled out of court...
They definitely aren’t friends anymore.
I enjoy Peters hard, take no prisoners, old school writing style. He has some very hard edges to his opinions and views, but his generation pulls no punches.
He’s 93 this year, and still working on one last book. I have a feeling it’s gonna be a dozy!

*These comments are my observations and opinions only.
I will add a Disclaimer as well, Peter C. Newman is a family member of sorts.
He is married to my cousin Alvy, once removed, on my Mothers side.
 
pierre t, brian mulroney, paul martin, jean chretien ...tomato tommato... every few years they are all birdcage liner, messengers for the sts world management team.
at some point most of these guys have been employed in some capacity for the canadian company Power Corp, the canadian version of blackrock / vanguard.
 
I confess to being pretty hostile to Mulroney - largely because of the way that NAFTA devastated Canadian manufacturing, with the resulting social ills in the Canadian rustbelt. All of that was foreseen, too - NAFTA was hugely unpopular and by ramming it through Mulroney destroyed the Progressive Conservatives. Then again he was nothing terribly special in that regard. Economic mismanagement has been par for the course for Canadian elites and has been throughout Canadian history.

True, it is an oligarchs game. Look what happened to Mexico, too (NAFTA-wize).
Ironically, before Trudeau, the PM who spent the most was Stephen Harper, the conservative who spent his years before politics as a lobbyist (Taxpayers Federation) and major critic of big gov.

Yes, volumes might be written on Stephen - he buddied up to all the players; Ukraine, Israel et cetera, and he spent much.

Going back to the XPan chart, once the debt dial was turned up, no PM could balance anything, pay for anything, when what you have to work with is pennies on the dollar, and all else is printed with taxpayer interest into perpetuity. Pierre lead the debt brigade and son has now put an explanation mark to it.

I found Mulroney a complicated, intelligent but unpleasant man. I think he was a globalist and forced upon the nation a free trade agreement that sold the nation out and crippled many sectors. As usual, those living at the margins of society felt it the most and the longest.

Some of his ethical thinking comes through in the book on some subjects, and yet kind of sensed (his coming from a CEO's job prior to being PM), he was quickly swept up. Even NAFTA (prior to it), he did not want to engage free trade, he said. On the other side was the American negotiators and the Ambassador (Paul Robertson) who seemed to take over Ottawa with NAFTA. There was Simon Reisman (the Canadian head on the first round). Had read Shelly Anne Clark's account of the negotiations (NAFTA - The Sale Of A Country), and if true, it was very orchestrated from inside and outside, and possibly Brian had no clue what was really going on under his watch. I don't know.

But as much as I loathed those governments, they didn't rape me with a syringe under threat of poverty or prevent me from leaving my country, left-wing authoritarians seem much more destructive than their right-wing counterparts.

No argument there, and it boggles my mind that so many Canadian's are whistling along as if it has all been a blip on the radar.
The operative word pertaining to that friendship is “was”.

Good point, Debra. In the opening page there is a comment (would have to go back and look) wherein the phone rings and Peter's wife picks up and says, it's Brian, a sort of what the heck would he want, type of comment, so there was friction. The book was published 2005, but that call was before the ex-PM had left office.

Much later, there was the German brown bag of money issue at some point, too, and a lawsuit against the Canadian government that paid off a million or two.

Peter, in his determination to get as much information (dirt) as he could, and get it from the source, spent hours and hours with Brian Mulroney and a great deal of expensive liquor was consumed during that time.
Tape recorder running always.
Brian Mulroney felt manipulated and tricked after the book was published, and said he was unaware that all the “interviews”, were ALL recorded.
He sued Peter, over the tapes, and the money from the book sales, it made headlines and quite a stir for a while, then they got together over a bottle and settled out of court...

Yup, and for Brian to then claim he did not know seems pretty silly (just from my read of the book), however you say they settled, so there must have been something?
I enjoy Peters hard, take no prisoners, old school writing style. He has some very hard edges to his opinions and views, but his generation pulls no punches.
He’s 93 this year, and still working on one last book. I have a feeling it’s gonna be a dozy!

Yes, like the writing style, which moved well, and look forward to Peter's his next book, hope he writes it. Here is a 2021 article on Peter.
I will add a Disclaimer as well, Peter C. Newman is a family member of sorts.
He is married to my cousin Alvy, once removed, on my Mothers side.
;-)

at some point most of these guys have been employed in some capacity for the canadian company Power Corp, the canadian version of blackrock / vanguard.

Yes, the ties to Power Corporation through marriage by some was plain to see.

All in all, for me the read brought back all these characters in a different light, and that seems to be part of how Newman put it together. So I thank him for that. As for Brian's family, I did consider what they had had to put up with, and it also comes through clearly that Brian depended on his wife a lot.

One last mention forgotten earlier, came under Newman's header "Life In Ottawa' in Brian's words:
This place is sick. They're all married to one another. Their wives are on the payroll of CBC. It is just awful, the goddamned incest here. A sense of loyalty and friendship and devotion and mutual respect in some cases is non-existent, and there's something in the air here that transforms people from supplicants to sinners overnight. You appoint them to the position and they forget completely not only who appointed them, they forget that they sought the appointment on bended knee. Ingratitude is the only thing they understand.
 
One last mention forgotten earlier, came under Newman's header "Life In Ottawa' in Brian's words:

That was plain to see during the Trucker Convoy Protests earlier in the year - the ‘functionaries’ from Ottawa were complaining about the protests in THEIR town, as if they were inhabiting another country, and some foreign force had invaded them. And as in the above quote, they conveniently forgot who pays them, too.
 

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