Happy Canada Day, 5 Days Late

Canada Day is July 1rst, Last Monday. Last weekend was one of significant personal drama for me, so much so that I do not wish do even discuss it, and my husband and I were so exhausted that we spent Canada Day lying low and watching a mini series on the Discovery Channel by Oceanographer Robert Mallard. Speaking of Which, I am fascinated by lighthouses, ships and all things nautical and recently the 1/2 scale greenleaf lighthouse kit has caught my eye. I at first admired the 1:12 Real Good Toys one, until I found out it is 4 feet high!

Personally, I would rather be able to integrate my dollhouse projects into the decor of our home, rather than having to put them all in a separate room. Although I do plan to have at least one grand 1:12 scale house that will certainly need its own room.

In my opinion there is nothing more quintessentially Canadian than canadian Rick Mercer. I have loved his dry, sarcastic, self deprecating sense of humor since he rose to fame on his first show "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" which was a farce on the events in the national and global media. He is quite cheeky. I heartily agree with his philosophy that (almost) nothing is too sacred to laugh at, because there is nothing demeaning in his sense of humor, there is a warmth behind it.

My husband and I were lucky enough to win tickets to see him perform recently at an event hosted by the Edmonton Pubic Library. He has moved on from his first show and now appears in the "Rick Mercer Show". He began by explaining why he no longer focuses on interviewing and making fun of politicians (too much crazy for even him to take on board, and he became disenchanted after awhile).

Our current prime minister, Stephen Harper, is I'm sure popular with some, but I know many committed        
conservatives who can't stand him, simply based on his personality. He has very little personal warmth to the point where he seems to have no personality whatsoever, and this does not sit well with many Canadians. Whenever I talk about it I refer to him jokingly as a "Ken Doll" because he wears so much face make up, his smile is too perfect, and his hair never moves. Almost everyone laughs when I say this.

At the Edmonton Public Library Presentation where we saw Rick Mercer perform, he had us all in stitches  and showed us many hilarious youtube videos of different segments from his show. One of the features he was most proud of is the "vote mob incident". It was the most heartening thing I have seen in years. As many of you in North America know, our voter turn out is quite dismal. It averages about 55 %, which is appalling considering that in some countries some people are being jailed and giving their lives fighting for the right to vote. A friends' mother once spoke passionately about how women campaigned so long for the right to vote that as women we should never take it for granted.

Two years ago, during a federal election campaign the infamously pompous Stephen Harper made a comment to the effect that he was not worried about the youth vote because everyone knew that they never vote anyways. At the end of Rick's show he always does about a minute called"Rick's Rant". After hearing Harper's smug self assurance Rich encouraged everyone over the age of 18 to go out there and show Harper that he should take them more seriously. I will post his original rant, and several responses out of about 13 University's who very enthusiastically took up the challenge. It was a reminder to me that young people in our country care passionately about what happens politically, many of us have just become disillusioned about our ability to create a positive change.

Enjoy.

I think Mr. Harper will think twice about calling young voters apathetic :) They just love a challenge. I have often said that university is a time when people are at their most idealistic, because they have so much energy! And they just feed off each other! Then we have to go into the world laden with huge student loans, which much less energy to devote to our idealistic causes :)

So there we go, I have written two days in a row about non miniature topics, to teach you a little more about what it means to me to be Canadian, and because I'm too busy right now getting ready for the mini show to do a Canada day project! Ha Ha! Hope you got a laugh from these videos! I think laughter is one of the best responses to hopelessness and small minded thinking!

Singing off with much love to all of you,

Ruth