Higher temps, higher gas prices...$1.40+ in Québec City

Ahhh what a nice warm spring, and it finally caught up to the micro-climate that is Québec city, or as the signs here proclaim it...the capital of "la nation". 

Oh there's still snow here, lots of it.  But with the mercury rising to somewhere around 17 degrees Celsius today, it won't be around much longer.  The rivers are swelling, buds will soon be sprouting, and it won't be long I'm sure before I see my first robin.

And of course there's another sure sign that spring is upon us with summer close at hand...gas prices shooting up.  Yep, from around $132.9 to over $1.40 in my 'petit coin'.   That's about $5.00 more to fill up my little four cylinder car, much more for you SUV gas guzzlers out there.

I sure hope our government can do something to help the oil and gas companies out, obviously they're hurting pretty bad if they need to jack prices this high.  Maybe some tax cuts and breaks on royalties or something?

Enough with the attack ads already, we get it....

Okay, okay...Canadians from coast to coast to coast should finally understand by now.  There is one, and only one person who is fit to serve as this nation's Prime Minister.  That person is Stephen Harper, message received.

Stephane Dion wasn't worth the risk, Michael Ignatieff was only in it for himself, and now Bob Rae ran up big deficits in Ontario.  Stevie is perfect!!!   There's no risk with the Harper government, our PM is in it for us, and we won't have deficits...well not big ones, uhm...well not for long.

Jesus Christ himself could take over the leadership of the Liberals and ads about His socialistic tendencies would be out within a week I bet.

If you missed it, from CTV's website: 

Conservative ads slam Rae as 'failure,' praise Harper

Really???  What a surprise.  Welcome to Canada, election mode 24/7. 

Dépanneur owner whose store was vandalized should learn to speak French

The owner of a Verdun depanneur had his store vanadalized after a series of events resulting from his inability or unwillingness to speak French.

CTV is reporting (HERE) that Anthony Williams, owner of a convenience store east of Montreal, has seen a drop in his business after a confrontation with a customer last week because he wasn't serving customers en français.

That apparently led to a call from a radio station, not identifying it as such, in which Mr. Williams went into quite a long rant about welfare cases doing nothing but smoking and drinking beer.  That rant was broadcast.   The business owner claims in the article that he'd been receiving as many of 50 harassing phone calls a day about his serving customers in English, and didn't know he was speaking to a radio station.

As for the vandalism, it was reportedly dog feces smeared on the a store window.  Thankfully it wasn't worse, like those idiots in Vancouver.  I am not condoning any act of vandalism no matter how minor. I'm merely making the point that at least no  property damage was done.  Obviously the person  responsible for the vandalism is either or child or has the mentality of one.

But the point that needs to be made here, is that any retail business operating in a predominately French area, of a province with French as its only official language....they really should serve French speaking customers in the frickin French language.  Duh!!!!

Imagine a convenience store setting up shop just outside of Toronto, say in Oshawa, with an owner/operator who only spoke Chinese.  How long do you think the place would stay in business?

Hopefully the residents wouldn't stoop to harassing phone calls and vandalism, but I bet there'd be precious few customers coming in for smokes if they had to ask for them in Mandarin.

Canada's Québecois have been recognized as a nation by the Harper government.  Given that status and the pride Quebecers have in their culture and language, this kind of reaction is perhaps easier to understand, although vandalism and harassment should never be condoned.

But French speaking Quebecers also understand the fragility of their language, given that they are but a small island in a sea of English, and unfortunately some over do go over the top. 

The solution is simple, shop somewhere else, $$$ is the language all business speaks. 

Kony 2012 - Grassroots campaign or manufactured outrage?

Disclosure, I haven't watched the Kony 2012 video.  I think I'm one of about 12 people in Canada who haven't. 

I did catch some of it on network news however, and like any person with a heart and a pulse, I was sickened.  It is unbelievable to me the atrocities that continue to take place all over the world.  And violence against children is always reprehensible.

With that being said, I was struck by something tweeted by journalist Eric Margolis back on March 8th:

Amazing coincidence. YouTube viral frenzy over horrors of Lord's Army Uganda - just after US says it will send troops to region -

Sadly Kony isn't the world's only war criminal, what that he were.  The Taliban is brutal and repressive, the Uzbeks are every bit as bad...oops, they're on our side.  Regardless, there are any number or countries that western powers, (primarily the U.S.) could police. 

But at least with the viral nature of this YouTube video, Obama has political cover should this latest foray escalate.  The fact that the U.S. is committing troops isn't really news in fact. 

Africa is a resource rich continent, and has been a battle ground for centuries.  As U.S. president Obama said recently:

"....deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy..."

All I can hope is that eventually children living in this area will be able to live in peace and security.  In many other parts of the world, they're still waiting.