Briefly, on politics
Alright, a little bit of background for those of you who won't know what I'm talking about.
Canadian politics are quite different from American politics. We do not elect our Prime Minister. What happens is that we vote for our regional representative, and whichever political party that wins the most regional seats gets to run the country for a while. The party will choose its leader (beforehand), and that leader gets to be Prime Minister. To make this a little more complicated, the PM isn't actually the Head of State. Officially, we are headed by the Queen of Canada, who is the same person as the Queen of England, but she wears a special pin or something when it comes to Canadian matters. That is, if she were to deal with them directly. Which she doesn't. The Queen has a representative in Canada, our Governor General, to do all the rubber-stamping for her. I say it like that because generally the PM will say "we are doing this" and the GG will say "whatever you say, mister Prime Minister". This is really great because the PM, at the root of it, actually appoints the GG. It's like getting to pick your own boss after you already have the job.
So, even though that was pretty brief, here it is in point form:
The Queen is the head of Canada
The Governor General represents and speaks for the Queen
The Prime Minister does the work and makes the decisions
The GG gives ceremonial oks to those decisions (mostly)
Got it that part? Good.
Right now Canada is in the middle of a bunch of trade and policy shenanigans. You see, we have a bunch of seals all up in our North End, and every year we kill a bunch. This is done both to control the seal population and to make money. The meat, skins, and blubber is used for all manner of things. The hunt is regulated, there are all sorts of restrictions and stuff, and it gets a lot of media attention every year. (There are several domestic terrorist groups who vocally oppose the hunt. they also go to the culling grounds to protest and will sometimes assault the hunters). Recently, the European Union banned the import of Canadian seal products, and the Government of Canada is pretty pissed about that. Certainly, sealing is not Canada's biggest industry, but it is significant. When you boil it down, the livelihood of several communities relies on this hunt.
I should note that there are two kind of sub-species of the hunt. The Inuits hunt seals and use the parts in their daily lives. This traditional hunt has been done for thousands of years. The commercial hunt is done mostly by non-Inuit fisherman, those seal parts are sold commercially as pelts, oil, and pet food.
The other day, Michaëlle Jean, the GG, ate a piece of raw seal heart. She was visiting an Inuit community, and as part of a traditional feast, she helped to carve part of the animal and ate a piece of the heart.
Then she basically gave the middle finger to a bunch of terrorist groups and the EU, saying "take from that what you will."
Unapologetic, elegant, promoting the Canadian Way, classy, wilful, and down to earth. Michaëlle Jean is perhaps the perfect GG. We should feel an immense pride in having her as our vice regal.
Canadian politics are quite different from American politics. We do not elect our Prime Minister. What happens is that we vote for our regional representative, and whichever political party that wins the most regional seats gets to run the country for a while. The party will choose its leader (beforehand), and that leader gets to be Prime Minister. To make this a little more complicated, the PM isn't actually the Head of State. Officially, we are headed by the Queen of Canada, who is the same person as the Queen of England, but she wears a special pin or something when it comes to Canadian matters. That is, if she were to deal with them directly. Which she doesn't. The Queen has a representative in Canada, our Governor General, to do all the rubber-stamping for her. I say it like that because generally the PM will say "we are doing this" and the GG will say "whatever you say, mister Prime Minister". This is really great because the PM, at the root of it, actually appoints the GG. It's like getting to pick your own boss after you already have the job.
So, even though that was pretty brief, here it is in point form:
The Queen is the head of Canada
The Governor General represents and speaks for the Queen
The Prime Minister does the work and makes the decisions
The GG gives ceremonial oks to those decisions (mostly)
Got it that part? Good.
Right now Canada is in the middle of a bunch of trade and policy shenanigans. You see, we have a bunch of seals all up in our North End, and every year we kill a bunch. This is done both to control the seal population and to make money. The meat, skins, and blubber is used for all manner of things. The hunt is regulated, there are all sorts of restrictions and stuff, and it gets a lot of media attention every year. (There are several domestic terrorist groups who vocally oppose the hunt. they also go to the culling grounds to protest and will sometimes assault the hunters). Recently, the European Union banned the import of Canadian seal products, and the Government of Canada is pretty pissed about that. Certainly, sealing is not Canada's biggest industry, but it is significant. When you boil it down, the livelihood of several communities relies on this hunt.
I should note that there are two kind of sub-species of the hunt. The Inuits hunt seals and use the parts in their daily lives. This traditional hunt has been done for thousands of years. The commercial hunt is done mostly by non-Inuit fisherman, those seal parts are sold commercially as pelts, oil, and pet food.
The other day, Michaëlle Jean, the GG, ate a piece of raw seal heart. She was visiting an Inuit community, and as part of a traditional feast, she helped to carve part of the animal and ate a piece of the heart.
Then she basically gave the middle finger to a bunch of terrorist groups and the EU, saying "take from that what you will."
Unapologetic, elegant, promoting the Canadian Way, classy, wilful, and down to earth. Michaëlle Jean is perhaps the perfect GG. We should feel an immense pride in having her as our vice regal.