Thanks for posting the link Anne and I agree that it was really well done. Whenever I think of Canadians I think of us with arms entwined. I hope you feel the same way. It is a unique relationship. I've only visited a small area of Canada -Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Nova Scotia (and Niagara Falls) but my husband has been many times to fish and canoe. When he retires we hope to spend more time there. Thanks again.

Wow more people in California, than in the entire country of Canada! Amazing that so many of us found our way to the Kitchen Table!
Thanks Anne for posting this.
I'll be waving my flag tonight when Canada beats the USA in hockey tonight! :) GO CANADA GO!!!!

That was a great video Anne but it sure made me homesick :-( Thanks for posting it.
Patti

((Thanks)) from a VERY proud Canadian!

Thanks for posting this, Anne. I learned a lot, and it made me a little tearful. I love my Canadian friends!!

I love Canada! :)) Ive only been just north if Vancouver (Beautiful city !) but I hope to visit more someday. I'd love to go to Calgary and I think I'd really dig Toronto. It looks like a great city.

Sorry Canada 5-3 USA. But they will be back!

Good grief that was a GREAT game!!!!!

As the gap between the US and Canadian dollars began to shrink a couple years ago, we've had more and more Canadians as guests at our Maui condo. Now, I have to say that we've had no 'bad' guests from any country, but I'd be very happy if ALL our guests were Canadian!

When we took our DS and a friend to Vancouver for the Expo we loved the safe, clean public transportation. The people we met couldn't have been nicer. I've never seen more beautifully groomed women than I've seen in Montreal! There's a wonderful, dry *wit* I associate with Canadians, too. Our next-door neighbors for 30 years were a couple originally from Toronto; just really *nice* people.

OT I looked up prorouged on my computer dictionary and it isn't in it
google said it meant
While a parliament is prorogued, between two legislative sessions, the legislature is still constituted

Thank you for posting that link, Anne, I somehow missed it when it was shown. In our many years of travel throughout British Columbia and Alberta, as well as Quebec, there's never been a Canadian we didn't like. Just that alone, speaks well for a country's attitude and sense of friendship with their bordering nation. That was a great video and I learned something new about Canada's population that I never realized before.

In 2008, we had an election. There were five parties running, and the Conservatives, which resulted from an amalgamation of a couple or three right-wing groups, including what had for years been one of our major parties, the Progressive Conservatives, had more of their candidates elected than did any of the others.

The other major long-term party is the Liberals, and they were led by a man who was making a major issue of environmental concerns, but was not a good publicist. Our Prime Minister, from Calgary, has not developed a reputation as an enthusiastic environmentalist.

The third party, New Democrat, is a social democratic one, which some folks label as socialist, but they have been more successful than some of the more traditional parties at running balanced budgets when in power in some provinces than have the traditional parties ... and learned long ago that "nationalizing" businesses isn't a cure-all.

The fourth one, Bloc Quebecois, is the separatist party that has substantial support in Quebec, but none elsewhere, and the fifth, the Green Party of Canada, which has run several candidates in recent elections, has yet to get one elected, as we follow the "first past the post" rule", with the candidate getting the most votes being the winner, and they, running against three other candidates in most elections, don't get the largest number. Proportional representation would allow them to have some members in Parliament

Each party picks a leader, who runs in one constituency, and the voters there are the only ones who get to vote for him ... after the election, the Prime Minister is the leader of the party that got the most members elected. There have been times when the leader chosen by a party was rejected by the voters in his riding, which usually meant having him run in a special election somewhere else, or the party choosing another leader.

The Conservative Party won the most seats in 2008, but didn't have a majority of the members of Parliament ... and they didn't have a majority of all of the votes cast, either.

After that election, our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said that he was going to be more co-operative (as many felt that he had not been markedly so in his first term as Prime Minister).

Within a few months, when Parliament met and the government was preparing a budget, there were several provisions in it which made the members of the other parties so angry that they joined together to say that when he brought that budget in, they'd vote against it, which would mean that the government failed, which usually results in another election ... but they said that they would form a coalition and put together a government instead of the Conservatives, so an election wouldn't be needed.

The Prime Minister said this was terrible - that they all knew that he had the most members elected, and the people wanted him to govern ... but the other parties said, together, they had more members than did his party. Furthermore, that more people had voted for them than for his party, and that's the way parliament works. The Prime Minister said that it was terrible that the other major parties were willing to play footsie with a party whose avowed purpose was to break up Canada!

This about the time of a major financial crisis in our countries, that you may have heard about - though less major up here than south of the border.

So ...

... the Prime minister prorogued Parliament, that is, shut it down for a while.

Started it up again after a few months.

We have a Senate, as well, composed of members chosen among outstanding Canadians from time to time by the Prime Minister of the day. For a number of years, the Liberals had been in power and had chosen a number of Senators with, shall we say, affinities for the Liberal view of the world.

Mr. Harper has been claiming that a number of his pieces of legislation have been held up in the Liberal-dominated Senate, plus about a year ago said that their government was not going to run deficits ...

... but when the depth of the recession became apparent, and the home-grown auto companies about to go bankrupt ...

... provided massive stimulation to the economy for both auto mfg. and infrastrructure.

When Parliament had a recess over last Christmas, Mr. Harper said that his government needs a good deal of time for the complicated process of preparing this year's budget, cutting back on expenses, so instead of returning just before the end of January, partially closed parliament down, to re-open early in March. Certain embarrassment regarding whether prisoners captured by Canadian Forces in Afghanistan who had been turned over to the Afghans had been tortured, which the government denuied, but later turned out to have a substantial degree of validity, may have been a contributing factor. It would be a lot more interesting to bask in the reflected glow of the Olympics, in Vancouver, as well.

Not only that ... prorogation allowed the Prime Minister to fill several Senate seats which were empty due to resignation, age or death, which would allow him to have a majority of Conservative supporters in that other august chamber.

You can see the temptations under which he laboured.

Good wishes as you proceed with your labours ... with a minimal number of temptations, I hope.

ole joyful