#sweet Canadian farm prince

[go-see-a-starwar]

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’ve talked with Hayden before about the super warm welcome he’s gotten from fans coming back to the franchise after all the ups and downs of the original trilogy, so now I just want to make him really uncomfortable and have to sit there as I ask you about it, Rosario. What’s it been like to see Hayden come back and get all these accolades?

ROSARIO DAWSON: It's so beautiful and so special. I was just elated when I saw Hayden in Obi-Wan Kenobi and just hoped, fingers crossed, that that would happen with him on our show. I don't want to put anyone in the crew out there, but I will say there were some tears shed when we got to see that lightsaber in his hand again. It's pretty remarkable and very special.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I remember Ewan McGregor telling me how nobody cared about him on set when Darth Vader was around. I know you're a modest guy, Hayden, but could you feel that electricity from the crew when you stepped on set — that all eyes are on you?

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN: It is a character that people have a lot of affection for, and yeah, you get a sense of that. A lot of the people who are working on these projects now grew up on the prequels and were huge fans of those films, and so I think they have a special connection to these characters and to Anakin. Anytime Vader shows up, that's a crowd-pleaser, so that's an easy one. But it's really nice to see the support that Anakin has now.

Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson go deep on Anakin and Ahsoka's long-awaited reunion

[whump-adjacent]

unrelated but also lowkey love the random new canon moments of Canadian Anakin coming out 🤭

"Is that what this is aboot?"

not him crossing his arms and being offended after his padawan insinuated his turn to the dark side he will forever be the galaxy’s menace

[groovy-lady]

Which book should I get: Anne of Green Gables or Heidi????

Anne of Green Gables summary: Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (published as L. M. Montgomery). Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children's novel since the mid-20th century. Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of 11-year-old orphan girl Anne Shirley sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew, and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way through life with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town.

Heidi summary: After the death of her parents, Heidi’s strict Aunt sends her to live with her grumpy grandfather in a lonely hut up in the mountains. Heidi learns to love the old man as much as her new life – it’s filled with fresh milk and strawberries, adventures with her new friend Peter, and vast green meadows bathed in warm sunshine. But Heidi’s happiness is short-lived.

When her Aunt returns, this time to take Heidi away for a new life in the city, Grandpa is unable to stop her. Heidi becomes a companion to Clara, a wealthy but sickly girl who lives in a big mansion with servants and behaves like a proper lady.

Suddenly, Heidi feels like a little bird trapped in a gilded cage. She doesn’t care about nice clothes and toys and prefers the freedom of running and playing outside. But Clara needs her help, and though Heidi will do anything to return to her true home in the mountains, how can she find it in her heart to leave her new friend behind?

Simple yet captivating, Heidi is a beautiful tale of finding one's way back home, of friendship, and of the majestic Alps. Discover the importance of kindness and the healing power of nature and the mountains in this nostalgic read for adults filled with sweet lessons for children.

[laresearchette]

Friday, December 01, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: FROG AND TOAD: CHRISTMAS EVE (Apple TV+) SHAPE ISLAND: THE WINTER BLUES (HGTV Canada) THE SNOOPY SHOW: HAPPINESS IS HOLIDAY TRADITIONS (Apple TV +) SPIRITED - SING ALONG VERSION (Apple TV+) IT’S A WONDERFUL KNIFE (Shudder) MY NORWEGIAN HOLIDAY (W Network) 8:00pm POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN (Starz Canada) 9:00pm THE UNBELIEVABLE WITH DAN AYKROYD (History Canada) 10:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? SEXIEST SPLASH PADS (TBD - HGTV Canada)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA CANDY CANE LANE MY MAN IS CUPID

CBC GEM CALL THE MIDWIFE (Season 12 holiday specials) DAS BOOT (Season 4) THE NEXT STEP(Season 5) ODD SQUAD (Season 2B)

CRAVE TV THE ART OF WOO ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER BAD BOYS BAD BOYS II CHILDREN RUIN EVERYTHING (Season 3) CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR JOY RIDE KILL BILL VOL. 1 KILL BILL VOL. 2 THE KILLING KIND (Season 1) MUCH ADO ABOUT CHRISTMAS NEW YEAR’S EVE – STARZ NURSE FIGHTER BOY – STARZ THE O.C. (Seasons 1 - 4) A PARIS CHRISTMAS WALTZ POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN (Season 3, Episode 1) SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE STORIES WE TELL THE TAKE BACK (SPECIAL PREMIERE)

DISNEY + STAR EXPLORER: LAKE OF FIRE INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY THE MILL THE SHEPHERD SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE TIMELESS HEROES: INDIANA JONES & HARRISON FORD

NETFLIX CANADA BAD BOYS II CHRONICLE CONFESS, FETCH THE CRAFT HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS IT’S COMPLICATED JULIE & JULIA MAY DECEMBER OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY PRIDE & PREJUDICE SHREK SWEET HOME (Season 2) (KR) TRANSPLANT (Seasons 1-3)

2023 FIFA MEN'S U17 WORLD CUP (TSN3) 6:48am: Third Place Match - Argentina vs. Mali

G LEAGUE BASKETBALL (TSN4) 11:00am: Maine vs. Raptors 905

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:00pm: Sharks vs. Devils (TSN5) 7:00pm: Sens vs. Blue Jackets

NLL LACROSSE (TSN) 7:00pm: Rush vs. Thunderbirds (TSN/TSN5) 10:00pm: Panther City vs. Warriors

NBA BASKETBALL (SN1) 7:30pm: 76ers vs. Celtics (TSN3/TSN4) 7:30pm: Knicks vs. Raptors (TSN3) 10:00pm: Nuggets vs. Suns

AMPLIFY (APTN) 7:30pm: Cree spoken word artist Zoey Roy meets with legendary Métis artist and activist Maria Campbell, who inspires a piece about the power of celebration. Zoey shares stories about her childhood and how her struggles helped inspire a rich creative spirit.

MARKETPLACE (CBC) 8:00pm: A Montreal lawyer discusses taking on the fight against Ticketmaster over its handling of concert ticket sales; a Canadian reseller shares how he scores tickets and resells them for a profit; the company's former CEO speaks out.

7TH GEN (APTN) 8:00pm: Melissa Brown is an Anishinaabe-Jamaican woman from Winnipeg who grew up in the inner city. Learn about how this entrepreneur, chef and mother is creating the change she wants to see in her community.

MY CHRISTMAS HERO (CTV Life) 8:00pm: An army reserve doctor tracks down her family's military history with the help of a new romance.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF JERSEY (Slice) 8:00pm: Raising the Stakes

A PRINCE AND PAUPER CHRISTMAS (Super Channel Heart & Home) 8:00pm: When a down-on-his luck confidential informant in a criminal investigation suddenly goes missing, a desperate young federal agent recruits his doppelgänger to play the role.

PLANET WONDER (CBC) 8:30pm: From farm to fork, petri dish to plate, Johanna seeks sustainability in food.

FRIDAY NIGHT THUNDER (APTN) 8:30pm: Alex Hill has been out all season struggling with anxiety, but she decides to try one race before the season ends. With the help of her team and family, she overcomes her fears and gets in a night of racing at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Texas.

THE FIFTH ESTATE (CBC) 9:00pm

CHRISTMAS UNFILTERED (CTV2) 9:00pm: On Christmas Eve, Becky wishes that her family would truly hear her. All of her thoughts and frustrations begin to spill out as she inadvertently starts telling everyone what she really thinks.

JUSTICE LEAGUE X RWBY: SUPER HEROES & HUNTSMEN PART ONE (adult swim) 9:00pm: Members of the Justice League are transported to the world of Remnant and find themselves turned into teenagers. The Remnant heroes combine forces with the Justice League to uncover why their planet has been mysteriously altered.

CHRISTMAS IN PARADISE (Crave) 9:00pm: Three quirky sisters enjoy some fun in the sun when they reunite with their estranged father in the Caribbean during the holidays.

W5 (CTV) 10:00pm: Searching for Sam; Boom Boom Chuvalo

CRIME BEAT (Global) 10:00pm: The Deadly Night Shift

[demon----dean]

#just casually becoming the Star Wars GOAT#while still being the sweetest most unassuming guy around#sweet Canadian farm prince

<- Gosh prev had the best tags. So true!

hayden’s really just been popping into multiple sw shows, twirls his lightsaber better than anyone else, gives insanely acted scenes, creates new iconic shots, steals the show and conversation, and makes everyone lose their mind all with little screentime while getting all the love and appreciation he deserves I love this for him 😌

[clairebeauchampfan]

Anne with an ‘E’: a personal review

I loved this book as a child (well, as a teenager....I discovered it very late into my teens). I loved the Kim Braden BBC TV version too, which was very faithful to the book, if memory serves me right. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I began watching the CBC/Netflix version produced by Moira Walley-Beckett and staring Amybeth McNulty as Anne, because I knew it had taken liberties with the Book and injected a lot of late 20th and 21st Century ‘woke’ issues, into what I remembered as an innocent, sweet book about an odd little white orphan girl adopted by an elderly spinster and her brother, growing up in a late 19th century all-white farming community. in Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island.

Would revisionist Anne of Green Gables therefore be a Afro-Canadian  or First Nations (that’s Red Indian to you, if you are still asleep) girl with a physical disability,  adding to her already disadvantaged status as the abandonned waif reluctantly adopted in place of the boy that Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert had asked for?  Would Anne and Diana, her bosom pal, discover the delights of teen lesbian sex? Would we be treated to Anne indulging in a bit of onanism, or giving Gilbert a hand-job, or worse, and Marilla and Matthew ejoying incestuous relations  (see ‘Sanditon’ for more of this kind of revisionist and grindingly ‘woke’ television)? 

Fortunately for lovers of Anne of Green Gables, the wildest excesses of ‘woke’TV were avoided. We DID have one of the schoolboys, Cole the pretty, artistic type( spot the cliche!), 

being bullied by the sporting jock Billy Andrews and his gang of brainless acolytes (more cliches), before finding shelter and a release for his artistic talent at the home of Diana’s  Aunt Josephine, who in this series is a Sapphic and hosts amazingly decadent parties for her gay and arty friends ( I had no idea PEI was so advanced in the late 19th Century: gay central and great fun!). We had the minor character of the French boy Jerry Baynard (Buote in the book?) become a major character, in love with Diana but spurned because ...well, he’s French, and of course the English people are baaaad (all the wealthiest people are English English with cut glass accents with which to cut people dead, the snaaabs). 

And, we are introduced to Sebatsian (’Bash’) a Trinidadian friend of Gilbert, who starts his own Afro-Caribbean family , also outsiders in Avonlea and struggling with racism and former slave cultural cringe whilst setting his hand to farming.

 Plus, lest we forget, we have the horrific tale of Ka’kwet, the Mi’kmaq friend of Anne whyo is forcibly sent to a government boarding school to have the Indianness beaten out of her. 

 Naturally the perpetrators are Catholic nuns (hiss, boo!), whilst the character in the book who Anne describes as her kindred spirit, Rev. Allen, is of course here a bigotted clergyman leading the group of reactionary old white men (hiss!) who endeavour to get beautiful, trouser wearing, motor-bike riding feminist teacher Miss Stacy fired, and burn down the school for good measure. (Yah boo and double hiss! )

So much for the wokeness. Which is what  we old snaaabs who like traditional opera and theatre performances find infuriating, where for example  the director strives desparately to make things relevant by dressing Puritan-era soldiers in Nazi uniforms (see! fascist parallels! Boo, hiss!) , or having the cringingly ‘woke’ Shakespeare you can see these days at London’s Sam Wanamaker theatre, with HenryV played as a transexual-of-colour. just in case you needed to be woken from your slumber with right-on wokeness beaten into your brain with a mallet. Ah, it’s such fun to ‘epater les bourgeois’ and signal your virtue at the same time. 

But in this version of Anne’s story I’m  glad to say that although forced and didactic at times  the new characters and novel situations,  were extremely well acted and put together, ( notably Bash and his tragic wife Mary) whilst for the most part fans of the original book will be very, very happy. 

All the leading roles, especially Matthew (RH Thomson) and Marilla (Geraldine James).  (spoiler alert: Matthew doesn’t die in the only three seasons allowed us by those buffoons in Netflix), were well played. 

Fascinating, character revealing  back-stories were put into the basic story. I loved the evocation of 1880′s Prince Edward Island (I can’t wait to go there),  and what is was to be  school-children in a one-room school-house. I liked Rachel Lynde’s feisty character and her love for her bumbling husband. And I’m always fond of dear old dutiful Diana,

 and earnest Gilbert Blythe. 

But the crown should go to AmyBeth McNulty for her sparkling performance as Anne, struggling with her insecurity, her awkwardness, her gaucheness,  her worldly knowledge of how cruel the world can be, and her determination to do something about it,  all among the perils of growing up from innocent child  (the first period episode is priceless) to barely adult college student.  Anne.   With an E. I think you’ll love it

#anne with an ‘e’# anne of green gables  #anne cancelled after only three seasons

[carriagelamp]

Since it’s 🍁 Canada Day 🍁 I figured I’d do the same thing I did for Pride Month and post a round up of Canadian books. Canadian literature has a tendency to be overlooked, but there’s some amazing gems out there!

That being said, this is definitely not a definitive list. There’s lot of lists out there that probably better, more relevant books. This is just a personal list as a Canadian person of Canadian lit I’ve read that stood out to me for whatever reason. I definitely encourage you though to look into some of the new Canadian novels being written write now, especially all the awesome own voice stories being written by First Nations authors across the country!

I’ve read a fair few Canadian novels over the years, so I’m going to break them up into one post of highlights each day for the remainder of the week: one for Children’s Novels / Chapter Books one for YA / Adult Novels, one for Graphic Novels and one for Picture Books.

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

This is like… The Canadian Novel ™ isn’t it? I imagine that even if you’ve never heard of any other Canadian novel, you’ve probably heard of Anne of Green Gables, if for no other reason than it’s been adapted a million times over. If you’ve never bothered to read the original though, I highly recommend it. Since it was written in 1908 the language is definitely old-fashioned, but that somehow makes it engaging enough to keep an adult reader hooked, while not being too difficult for a child reader who’s moved on to full length novels. It also, of course, makes a fantastic read aloud – I’ve reread this book easily a dozen times over the years since first having it read aloud to me by my mom, during which we both bawled our eyes out together.

If you somehow haven’t heard of Anne, it’s about Anne Shirley, a wildly imaginative (and just wild) orphan girl who is adopted by the Cuthberts and brought to live with them on their Prince Edward Island farm, Green Gables. The Cuthberts had originally intended to adopt a boy who could help with the farm work, but when Matthew Cuthbert finds a girl waiting for him at the train station he can’t bring himself to turn her away. And so begins the hijinks and misadventures of Anne as she grows from child to young adult.

Le Champ Maudit by François Gravel

I’ve always loved the genre of child-horror and this book absolutely delivers. The creature, vieux Nick, and the way it exists in space is delightfully chilling even as an adult. The story is about Oliver, who has often been warned by his uncle not to go into the cornfields – it makes sense after all, the cornfields are vast and uniform, it would be easy to get lost in them. Oliver has no reason to assume there’s something more sinister lurking in them, or that it could be tied to the other people who have gone missing over the years. That is, not until he makes the mistake of chasing a rabbit into the stalks one evening…

The Dragon’s Egg by Alison Baird

I was absolutely a “dragon kid” as a child, I loved any sort of dragon book I could get my hands on and I read this one over and over when I was in grade three. It’s about Ai Len who is given a lovely river stone by her father from his trip to China. Ai Len is shocked one night when, all of a sudden, she realizes that it wasn’t a stone at all, but rather a dragon’s egg. Lonely Ai Len befriends the baby dragon (who disguises himself as one of her gold fishes during the day) and helps him grow and learn as they try to figure out how he can get back home to the river his family inhabits.

Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Fatty Legs is the true story account of Margaret Pokiak, an Inuvialuit child who grew up with her family in the Arctic. At the age of eight, despite their reputations and her father’s reluctance, Margaret begs to be allowed to attend the Catholic residential school because there was nothing she wanted more than to learn to read. There, far from her warm, loving family, Margaret learns about the cruelties and humilities of residential school. This book is a good introduction to residential schools for young children – it shows the horrors while still keeping the story child-friendly and relatable.

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

The classic novel that inspired Disney’s film Homeward Bound. This story is about three pets – two dogs and a cat – who are left behind under the care of a family friend at an isolated cabin. These three determined pets though refuse to abandon their humans that easily. After a couple weeks of no contact, a decision is made: they will make the trek across the dangerous North Ontario wilderness in order to find their owners. This is a great animal story that genuinely feels perilous at times as these three house pets are forced to contend against the elements, wild predators, and even other humans.

Inkling by Kenneth Oppel

Kenneth Oppel is a human name in Canadian middle grade literature – not only is he a great writer, but an incredibly prolific one. If you have a middle school child in your life, consider checking out this man’s library of works because he has books that range across all sorts of different genres and topics, and they tend to be unique and gripping. They’re a staple in any Canadian school library.

Inkling is about a boy, Ethan, who is struggling with his life. His family has gone through a personal tragedy, his artist father is struggling to write a new graphic novel, and Ethan’s been entrusted with drawing the art for his school group’s graphic novel assignment, and he can’t bring himself to tell them his father’s talent wasn’t hereditary. Everything changes though, when one night, his father’s ink wakes up… This book is really heartwarming, with sweet family moments, lots of action, and an adorable ink blob that’s just trying to do its best.

My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling

Another own voice novel, this time written by West Coast Salish and residential school survivor Shirley Sterling. This novel is written like a weekly diary by six year old Seepeetza who is taken from her joyous family home and forced into a residential boarding school. While there she is forced to change her name, her language, and all the things that made her life happy and complete. Despite all this, Seepeetza finds ways to survive and still find joy. This book is written for a slightly older audience than Fatty Legs, more of a thin middle grade novel but still balances the brutal horrors of residential schools with a child-friendly narration.

The Secret World of Og by Patsy Berton

This is another Canadian children’s classic, though a much less well-known one than Anne of Green Gables. My mom read this to me and my brother in early elementary school, a chapter a night, and I remember being completely wrapped up in it and it’s strange, quirky pictures. It’s about the five Berton children who discover a strange, cavernous world hidden beneath their club house, inhabited by little creatures called Ogs.

Secrets in the Sand by Sharon Siamon

This is exactly what it looks like: a true to form Horse Girl book. There’s nothing overly special about it, but I read it this month and was charmed by it. This is technically the second book of the Saddle Island series (and she has two other Horse Girl related series as well though I haven’t read them) but for whatever reason I read the second first and actually enjoyed it more of the two. It has it all! A spunky, head-strong girl! Her best friend and annoying brother! A small, financially struggling Maritime town! A brave horse that loves the ocean and swims into underwater caves! The promise of pirate treasure! Saving The Family Farm (and rebuilding it from the ground up on a tiny island)! Want a fun mindless horse adventure? Well here it is!

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel

I know, I know, another Kenneth Oppel book but listen… he is so prolific and also it might be a crime to do a Canadian book list and not mention Silverwing. This was a childhood staple when I was growing up, practically everyone had either read it for class, read the entire series on their own because who wouldn’t want to, or watched the weird ass TV series. Or done all three! If you haven’t read Silverwing but like animal adventure stories, this is honestly one of the peaks of the entire genre imho. It’s about Shade, a small silverwing bat that struggles with the rules and limits placed around bat colony life. He’s constantly pushing things, constantly challenging others regardless of if they’re his bullying yearmates or if they’re the clan elders. But one day, Shade takes it too far and breaks a vital law: he stayed up and saw the sun. Now the owls are determined to have Shade killed and the clan is prepared to exile him for his transgression. All this just as the clan is preparing to migrate, and Shade, with his small runty wings, ends up falling further and further behind in the storm…

Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker

I debated whether or not to include this book, given all the BLM movements going on. This book isn’t own voice, and in the research I’ve done since becoming an adult has made me realize a number of the problems that surround it. But still, it felt wrong to leave out, both because of the social climate right now and because this was another classroom staple when I was growing up. It’s about a pair of young slave girls who are horribly abused on the planation they live on, and who eventually join in on a plot to run away, to find the rumoured “underground railroad”, a network of people who help black slaves escape captivity and escape – in this case across the border into Canada. Despite its flaws, this was a book we read in school and, through the book and classroom discussions, really introduced me to the concept of slavery and racism… and the fact that racism is still horribly alive today. It shook me as a child – it was written to be optimistic and adventurous for children, but it still had more violence and horror than I was used to in books at that age and it really shook me. So I included it in the list because, for me at least, I believe it had a positive effect on my growth as a person.

Up In Arms by Amanda Spottiswoode

This is a woefully underrated series because it really delights me. It’s about six friends, spread across two families. Though they’re from the UK, this series is all about their adventures with their uncle in Canada. Spottiswood writes children travel adventures, all set around the 1940s. The first, Brother XII’s Treasure is a treasure hunt along the West Coast during a sailing vacation; the second, The Silver Lining take them into British Columbia’s interior on cattle drive as the kids get drawn into adventures on horseback, a familiar villain, and old mining secrets. This third book I actually read before the others, and is my favourite of the series. It’s back on BC’s west coast, only this time rather than a vacation the kids of be sent to Canada because of the outbreak of WWII. You get high-flying adventure, wilderness survival, and planning a heist to help right the wrongs done to a local Indigenous community by the white settlers. It’s just a lot of fun.

[shining-red-diamond]

THE BOYZ x OC Profiles

Disclaimer: I know Hwall left THE BOYZ back in October, but I created these characters beforehand. Just bare with me on it, please. This will be updated when needed.

Cheyenne

Full Name: Cheyenne Bethany Alberty

Birthday: May 15, 1997

Hometown: Gallup, New Mexico, USA

Height: 5’7

Nationality: Native American

Hair: Dark Brown

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Sangyeon

-Her designated color is sparkly red

-She has a mom, dad, and older brother

-She has tattoos on her left arm of Native American symbols

-She grew up on her family’s ranch

-Her family is decent from the Navajo Indian tribe

-Her favorite artists include The Rose, DREAMCATCHER, and Imagine Dragons

-She’s studying history.

-

Erin

Full Name: Erin Melissa Lee

Birthday: July 26, 1997

Hometown: Madison, Wisconson, USA

Height: 5’5

Nationality: Korean-American

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Jacob (married August 22, 2020)

Children: Lydia Bae (born June 29, 2021)

-Her designated color is sparkly yellow

-Erin is bilingual in Korean and English

-Both of her parents are American, but Korean decent

-She has a younger brother named James and a younger sister named Rebecca

-She met Jacob at the diner she worked at (she was his waitress)

-Erin is studying Fine Arts and Biology

-Her favorite artists are The Backstreet Boys, Ailee, EXO, and MAMAMOO

-She has a tattoo of a flock of birds across her upper back

-Her personality is what can be described as similar to Jacob’s

-

Hyejin

Full Name: Park Hye Jin

Birthday: September 21, 1997

Hometown: Hongdae, South Korea

Height: 5’4

Nationality: Korean

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Younghoon

-Her designated color is sparkly sky blue

-She has a mom, dad, and older sister

-She has a tattoo of her birthstone and flower on left hip

-Hyejin looks intimidating, but she’s actually a very sweet and kind person

-She’s studying to be a chef

-Her favorite artists include Chungha, VAV, LOONA, TWICE, and NCT

-

Ashlyn

Full Name: Ashlyn Patrice Reynolds

Birthday: January 25, 1998

Hometown: Vancouver, Canada

Height: 5’5

Nationality: African-Canadian

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Hyunjae

-Her designated color is sparkly silver

-She has a mom, dad, older brother, and younger sister

-She has a tattoo of a hibiscus flower on her right shoulder.

-She and Kevin grew up together

-She’s studying to be a nurse

-Her favorite artists include Zico, Stray Kids, Red Velvet, and BLACKPINK

-

Heeyeon

Full Name: Kim Hee Yeon

Birthday: March 15, 1998

Hometown: Jeonju, South Korea

Height: 5’3

Nationality: Korean

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: New

-Her designated color is sparkly clear

-Heeyeon is an engineering student

-She met New in high school, but they didn’t reconnect until after he had debuted.

-She has a mom, dad, and an older brother

-Heeyeon has a tattoo of roses on her left arm

-Her favorite artists include Demi Lovato, Monsta X, DREAMCATCHER, and Imagine Dragons

-She can come off as unapproachable at first, but she is very kind and a great friend

-

Stephanie

Full Name: Jung Si Hyeon/Stephanie Jung

Birthday: September 8, 1998

Hometown: Sydney, Australia

Height: 5’5

Nationality: Korean-Australian

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Juyeon

-Her designated color is sparkly blue

-She is bilingual in Korean and English

-She has played soccer since she was seven

-She and Juyeon met when she was visiting family in Seoul and saw him playing basketball on evening and asked him if she could join

-She has a tattoo of a small tulip on her right shoulder blade

-Stephanie is studying elementary education

-Her nickname is “Stephie”

-Her favorite artists include Day6, ATEEZ, KARD, and 5SOS

-She has a fun and comical personality

-

Jia

Full Name: Tsai Jiayuan

Birthday: October 14, 1998

Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan

Height: 5’3

Nationality: Taiwanese

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Q

-Her designated color is sparkly white

-She has a mom, dad, and younger brother

-She has a tattoo of the Chinese symbols for love on her left rib

-Her favorite artists include MAMAMOO, Sunmi, TWICE, AB6IX, and Monsta X

-She’s studying biology

-

Sadie

Full Name: Sadie Marie Rogers

Hometown: Longview, Texas, USA

Height: 5’4

Nationality: American

Hair: Red

Eyes: Blue

S/O: Kevin

-Her designated color is sparkly gold.

-She has an older brother named Miles.

-She has a tattoo of a Prince of Egypt quote across her left shoulder blade: “Look at your life through Heaven’s eyes”

-She met Kevin at a music festival

-Her favorite artists are Kelly Clarkson, Red Velvet, DREAMCATCHER, and Day6

-She’s studying business and theatre arts

-She has a promise ring Kevin gave her, and it has both of their birth stones in it

-She has a bright and kind heart

-

Minnie

Full Name: Minnie Connelly

Birthday: October 5, 1999

Hometown: London, England, United Kingdom

Height: 5’3

Nationality: British

Hair: Light brown

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Haknyeon

-Her designated color is sparkly orange

-She and Haknyeon met in 2016 when she went with her dad on one of his business trips to Jeju and met Haknyeon on his parents’ farm

-She is studying business and cosmetology

-She is a beauty influencer on YouTube.

-She has a tattoo of a small piglet on her left rib

-She has a mom, dad, and younger brother named Wyatt.

-Haknyeon confessed to Minnie after he was eliminated on P101S2

-She is also part Portuguese on her mother’s side

-He favorite artists include Adele, ASTRO, BTS, Apink, and Imagine Dragons

-Minnie is known for having a kind heart and cheerful personality

-

Claudia

Full Name: Claudia Sofia García

Birthday: February 23, 2000

Hometown: Miami, Florida

Height: 5’3

Nationality: Cuban-American

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Hazel

S/O: Sunwoo

-Her designated color is sparkly purple

-She has a mom, dad, and twin brother named David

-She has a tattoo on her right wrist of a cross

-She was a mezzo on her school’s choir

-Her favorite artists include Jennifer Lopez, (G)-IDLE, Pentagon, VAV, and Selena Quintanilla

-She’s studying dance and is on the dance line at her college

-

Aubrey

Full Name: Aubrey Catherine Harper

Birthday: March 15, 2000

Hometown: Canton, Texas

Height: 5’3

Nationality: American

Hair: Red

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Eric

-Her designated color is sparkly pink

-She has a mom, dad, and twin sister named Allison

-She has a tattoo on her left wrist that reads “A2”

-She was a drummer and lead vocal in her high school band called The Crowned Ones

-Aubrey met Eric in the summer of 2018 at a music store in Los Angeles

-Her favorite artists include The Electric Light Orchestra, Whitney Houston, Day6, DREAMCATCHER, The Rose, GOT7, and Selena Quintanilla

-She’s studying music education and business

-She is known for being a sweetheart

-

Eunkyung

Full Name: Choi Eun Kyung

Birthday: May 22, 2000

Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

Height: 5’2

Nationality: Korean

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

S/O: Hyunjoon

-Her designated color is sparkly black

-She has a mom, dad, and older sister

-She used to be trainee, but left due to her being severely bullied

-She met Hyunjoon in 2018 in the hospital after she was recovering from a car accident

-Eunkyung has a tattoo of a diamond below her right ankle

-She’s studying psychology and counseling, and she does dance on the side

-Her favorite artists include Red Velvet, NCT, SNSD, and GOT7

-She can come off as shy, but she opens the more you get to know her

[travelingturtles]

8 September, 2022

Since I have been so remiss in writing I am going to attempt a “Rückschau” - literally translated from German as review.

We just went for a swim in what is considered the warmest waters in the Atlantic Ocean and a crab pinched me. I’m not surprised considering we ate three of his Lobster cousins last night. We visited the docks early yesterday morning and bought them right off the boat. Three lobsters for $20 Canadian ($15 US). Eddie boiled them over the fire while I stayed in Clifford and cooked garlic and butter ( I couldn’t bare to hear them scream!). The waters are shallow and sienna red due to the Prince Edward Island’s red rocks and red sandy beaches. Our campsite is right on the beach and the Provisional Park that we’ve been staying in is virtually empty. Yes, we’ve made it all the way to Prince Edward Island! When we first got here we had our first Harvest Host stay. Harvest Host is an excellent way to travel when traveling with a self contained vehicle. Breweries, Wineries, Farms of all sorts allow a few visitors to stay on their land for free in exchange for the hopeful sale of some of their offerings. Our virgin stay was at Moth Lane Brewing where we purchased a growler of IPA that Eddie thought was the best he’s ever tasted. Suffice to say Eddie and I got a bit schnockered that evening. In the morning Eric, the proprietor, told us many many many tales including that his PEI ancestors go all the way back to the 1600’s and he lives on the same piece of land that they did. We were impressed! Rückschau… from New Brunswick where we drove along the Acadian Coastline. We’ve seen bear and eagles and even a slew of naked humans when we inadvertently camped at a nudist colony. The proprietor warned us when we arrived and we responded, We’re from California, we don’t mind”. It just happened to be their close of season party and we were invited to a dinner of wine, sweet corn and cucumber salad followed by dancing and someone who knew ever so many french/Quebec folk songs. Everyone sang along, only one person spoke English. A true joie de vivre. We snuck off to Clifford and enjoyed the frivolity from a wee distance. We were pleasantly surprised upon entering New Brunswick that everyone speaks French. I thought it was only in the province of Quebec. Rückschau… We traveled up the St Laurence River after getting new tires for Clifford and having the brake lights fixed. If/when you make it up this way, it is well worth the extra trip to head north from Quebec City and go to Tadoussac and go on a whale watching tour on a pontoon boat. We saw Minkes, Belugas and Humpbacks. They breached right next to our 15 passenger boat. I burst into tears, it was so exhilarating. Even the marine biologist tour guide was visibly impressed and she does the tours twice a day. She was extremely knowledgeable and switched back and forth from French to English seamlessly. Going backwards… we were in Quebec City and before that Montreal. Both cites are delightful. We were partial to Quebec City, the only walled city in North America. We walked 6-10 miles a day drinking in the architecture, cobblestone streets, delicious food and general delight of being in a non-english speaking city. In Montreal we encountered a lively joyful Renaissance Faire juxtaposed with a modern art/music/fashion show that was sullen and robotic. Yikes, where is the human race going?? Everyone, run for the Nudist Colony!! Going Backwards… We visited one of our kittens, Lucas Klein, who is in a PHD program in Hamilton, west of Toronto. Lucas took us on a tour of his lab where we got to see all the amazing bells and whistles of his program and meet a lot of his colleagues. They are all doing brilliant things related to sound and movement and cognition and we got to stand in a state of the art auditorium with the designer and experience COMPLETE silence. Hard to explain, but it was truly amazing. Loved getting to spend a bit of time with Lucas! Backwards…. We drove along the entire northern shore of Lake Superior. It is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide. I kept having to remind myself that it wasn’t an ocean. It was lovely to swim in too. Not too cold.

[thehungrykat1]

Canadian Steakhouse Pop-Up at The Test Kitchen

The Test Kitchen by celebrity chef Josh Boutwood recently hosted a Canadian Steakhouse Pop-up from March 9 to 11, 2021 featuring the exquisite flavors of Canadian Beef. For three days, Chef Josh Boutwood masterfully crafted a series of special dishes from mouthwatering appetizers to delectable seafood and awesome steaks.

The Steakhouse Pop-Up at The Test Kitchen was held in partnership with Canadian Beef and the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines which invited me to join the festivities last week. I had just attended one of their events in December (Canadian Roast and Toast Dinner) at Ikomai and Tochi in Makati, but knowing how much I love Canadian beef and their flavorful steaks, this was an invitation I couldn’t refuse.

The Test Kitchen has evolved from being just a tasting room where Chef Josh Boutwood introduces his culinary inventions to a proper restaurant located at the ground floor of One Rockwell’s East Tower in Makati. The restaurant has a spacious al fresco dining area which is very much suited for the times.

If you want to see Chef Boutwood and the other chefs in action, you can choose to sit at the indoor tables with a full view of the open kitchen. The place has a casual yet also sophisticated ambiance, where friends and family can hang out and safely enjoy the food and drinks.

I always make sure that the restaurants where I dine in are following all the necessary health standards and protocols. Social distancing is strictly followed here at The Test Kitchen, with disinfectants readily available on every table. Envelopes are also provided for face masks and utensils are enclosed in their own sanitized pouches as well.

We started with some of their specialty cocktails. The Fireball (P390) is a combination of fireball whiskey, coffee, rosemary, and cucumber. I had the Ungava Tepache (P390) with its blend of ungava gin, tepache, and pineapples. Complimentary breads were also served on the table together with butter.

For our first appetizer course, the Beef Tartar (P560) was definitely a revelation. This beautifully plated starter comes with raw Canadian beef tartare blended with onions and caraway. The maple and soy cured egg sits prettily on top balancing a fennel lavash. Break the egg open and mix it with the beef to create a creamy and colorful dish.

We also had some Mussels (P490) served with garlic bread. These Canadian mussels are sautéed in white wine, garlic, and parsley. I loved dipping my bread inside the bowl to seep up the savoury flavors of the mussels.

I was surprised with the Canadian Scallop Mousseline (P290) which was unlike any scallop dish I had tried before. The mousseline cream is topped with flying fish roe sauce and dill oil. The result is a salty scallop mousse that you can eat by itself or put on some bread for a winning combination.

But the main attraction at the Canadian Steakhouse Pop-Up is, of course, the steak! We ordered the Canadian Angus Ribeye (24oz-P5200) together with truffled mashed potato and creamed spinach as our side dishes.

No matter how many times I have eaten Canadian beef, I still cannot get enough of it. Chef Boutwood’s own version is simply magnificent. The beef is cooked medium with a crusty outer skin but the inner portions are so tender and juicy. Chef Josh Boutwood is really known for serving delicious and meaty steaks, so this collaboration with Canadian Beef is really a gift for foodies.

So what makes Canada Beef exceptional anyway? They say that it is Canada itself - the land where the cattle is raised and its cold climate, rich grasslands, fields, and stunning landscape which makes it highly-suitable for farming. Canada is a sprawling land that stretches over more than seven time zones and is one of the leading beef-producing nations in the world. It is their community of farmers and ranchers who tend to the cattle with values and respect that make Canadian beef truly a cut above the rest.

There’s really no need to add anything else to the steak because Canadian beef is already so flavorful, but all the steaks at The Test Kitchen are served with house mustard, chimichurri and The Test Kitchen steak sauce. So it’s up to you how you want to enjoy your steak.

We also got to taste some of Canada’s seafood as well. The Seabass (P1795) is another exceptional dish served with Tuscan kale and housemade XO sauce. I could not believe how soft and tender this seabass was. Every bite was truly wonderful and I could not have had a better surf and turf combination with the Canadian Angus ribeye steak.

For dessert, we had the Apple Cobler (P390) made with Canadian apples and topped with Vanilla ice cream. We also had the Ice Wine Custard with Blueberries (P220) which was made with wild blueberries harvested from over 10,000 acres in Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The Ice Wine is also a popular sweet beverage in Canada and I enjoyed having it incorporated in this dessert.

The Embassy of Canada in the Philippines is also participating in the 1st virtual World Food Expo (WOFEX) Spring trade show from March 20 to 29, 2021. As a major participant of the show, they have organized a number of events to showcase the best of Canada’s food and its strengths as an education destination. These are the Philippines-Canada Culinary Cup on March 24-25, the first virtual culinary competition featuring students and faculty of Philippine and Canadian schools; the Canadian Gastronomy Masterclass on March 26 where you can savour the best of Canada’s food industry through a virtual showcase of Canadian beef, pork, seafood, potatoes and wines; and finally the Study Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts in Canada Masterclass on March 27 featuring a series of presentations delivered by 12 Canadian schools that offer programs in hospitality, tourism and culinary arts. You can join these exciting events for free by registering on this link: https://forms.gle/G9S6AyDHQGFSVCaw7.

Thank you Ms. Angel Cachuela and my friends from the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines for another mouthwatering evening with Canadian Beef. I’m glad to see that more and more restaurants are now beginning to offer Canadian beef on their menu so I can easily indulge in my meaty cravings.

Canadian Steakhouse Pop-Up at The Test Kitchen

Ground Floor, One Rockwell East Tower, Makati

(0977) 288-5751

www.facebook.com/thetestkitchenmnl

[go-see-a-starwar]

Because Star Wars has had the cultural impact that it has, these characters almost become public domain, where people feel a sense of ownership over them. The character was criticised, my performance was criticised, and that part sucked. But I also felt like I had some context that perhaps helped a little bit. When Episode I came out, there was a lot of excitement that they were making a new Star Wars, and it was going to be the backstory of Darth Vader. But I had friends that were upset that the character was starting off as this young kid. And I watched the film, and I loved it. It was everything I wanted and more. And I didn’t understand the disconnect between the movie that I saw, and the negativity in some of the reviews. In a way that sort of criticism, I think, comes from a certain failure of their own suspension of disbelief. If you’re gonna go sit in a theatre, and the opening scroll starts with, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”, that’s setting the stage that anything is possible. These people don’t need to sound and behave the way that we might expect. And if you’re going to sit down and think that you’re getting something that is of our current zeitgeist, then you’re setting yourself up for something else. You know what I mean?

Hayden on the backlash the prequels and his performance received, Empire Magazine

[go-see-a-starwar]

Okay but the little smirk in GIF 3 when he says the thing ♡

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN Best Guest-Starring Performance in a Streaming Series at the 50th Saturn Awards | October 25, 2022

+

[heritageartifacts]

Once a week or so, we venture out to the surrounding farms for vegetables, which are left for us at the end of driveways, or on shelves at on-your-honor farm stands, payment transferred from bank account to bank account. A family-owned, earthy-crunchy health food store on the other side of the island, a good morning’s drive round trip, leaves a box for us in the alleyway. High quality blocks of Stirling butter and sprouted tortillas and non-homogenized milk and cream in glass bottles redeem the horrendous lemons and bananas, both tiny and battered with liver spots, rivaling my Nonna Turbina’s marked and wrinkled hands. Casandra is one of the sisters who runs the place, the phone our only connection. Her lilting Canadian accent is heard over a crying newborn, my mind conjuring a picture of her with freckles, flowing strawberry-blond locks and a stout Nordic frame, baby latched onto nipple while she mans the register and checks in deliveries. Married to a Mohawk, they live with their infant in the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, a First Nation Reserve. Driving off-island through the reservation, the main drag lined with unadorned shops hawking cheap gasoline, cigarettes, and marijuana leaves me with a malaise that sticks like heavy perfume. - A week’s worth of milk and cream, the necks of each glass bottle stopped up with a thick head of crema, is transformed into our morning yogurt by my wife, tasked with the vacuuming and the preparation of our daily breakfast. She acquiesces to my request for an extra-dense yogurt, straining all of the whey through a filter into an large Chemex coffee carafe, the thin liquid kept for the sheep on the farm across the street. Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans from an Ontario bake shop are sliced open with a sharpened knife, the precious seeds mixed into the yogurt. Tucked into the fridge overnight, the flavors mingle until our highly anticipated breakfast. One treasured scoop of yogurt is christened in a pool of dark maple syrup, so prolific on this island its smoky sweetness can be smelled on the air in March, reminding me of Napa Valley’s hot, boozy breath come September. - #canada #quarantinelife #quarantinecooking (at Prince Edward County) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIL8rpgHKoLdepjvMA2q9-FL5kp9BQzgtefcIY0/?igshid=11qyvda4v4ml5

[psychedus]

hi! i was tagged by @uglyfruit (thank u!!!) 

rules: answer the questions and tag 20 amazing followers/people you’d like to get to know better

nickname(s):  huntress (hehe), sometimes huntie by lil kiddies and hunter.

zodiac sign: cancer!! snip snip 🦀

height: my head is in the sky!! ☁time and height exist no more! ☁︎ 

i think im like 5′9 - 5′10 though? 

orientation: hahaha beats me so far! everybody is lovely ooo ♥

nationality: canadian 

favorite fruit: o boy i really like fruit. like the peaches that drip sweetly down your chin in the summer, or the big old boxes of blueberries that you find at lil farms on backroads in my town. i also really like growing strawberries!! i just like all fruit, im so indecisive. 

favorite season: !!right now!! its now that time of year where the leaves are still the color of fire and its *crisp* outside, but we just got the very first snow of the season a few minutes ago and it looks so lovely coming down under the dim lights. this is my ideal, its 3am, i have a full teapot and im bundled up in blankets and warm clothes as the snow is powdering down. im happy. ♡☺︎

favorite book: a book called challenger deep has always had a home in my heart not sure why. also the little prince!!

favorite flower: shhh they’re all doing great i cant choose

favorite scent: mmm v light rose is nice, but i think the smell after it rains (petrichor?) takes the medal🍃

favorite color: the entire aesthetic of my blog?? whoops??

favorite animal: ooooo i think sea otters!

coffee, tea or hot cocoa: tea!! i drink so much of it... like... a lot. i think its really calming + if you have a cup to ur mouth people tend not to talk to you.

dog or cat person: i have two black cats💓 (have i aquired witch status yet?) but i really like dogs too.

favorite fictional character: cant choose! so many good ones.

# of blankets you sleep with: mostly 1 comforter, but i use a heated blanket sometimes because it makes me feel, better? idk things r weird

random fact: im terribly indescisive.

gender: ♀ gal!

time: at the moment its 3:55 am and 40 seconds

birthday: july 11 or 7/11, yes the convinence store.

favorite bands: lots! tøp, daughter, moose blood, pink floyd, soroity noise!!, the front bottoms, modern baseball, *broods!!!, wet, oh wonder, bon iver, catfish and the bottlemen, etc,

favorite solo artists: julien baker!!! i cannot stress how much i adore them. hozier, birdy, you get where im going with this?

song stuck in my head: martha sways by andy shauf. (the entire album the party by him is just really good)

last movie i watched: ....pulp fiction hehe

last show i watched: i actually just started GoT about 15 mins ago, but before that it was the office and stranger things :)

when did i create my blog: i joined in april of last year as a tøp account but then eventually changed my Aesthetic™ to what it is now/

what do i post: things for the A E S T H E T I C ™, yeah but really sifting and going through things like pictures to match a theme is really calming to me

last thing i googled: how many hours of sleep are normal for a teen

do i have any other blogs: not really

do i get asks: no 

why i chose my url: well, its just always been my thing and people pronounce it as psy-khed-us but its really psyched-us because i get really exited about things i love.

following: 315 but 99% of them are inactive 

followers: 155

average hours of sleep: 3-6 on week days

lucky number. just 7, 11.

instruments: the sound when the chair squeaks as im bouncing my knee, kinda the ukulele? o!! and the sound my face makes when i lightly slap it

what am i wearing: comfy shorts and a scad shirt, only so i can wrap myself up in blankets

dream job: i like art and i want to be able to do that in some shape or form but art school is competitive and scary. its something thats helped me a ton and i want to be able to give that coping mechanism to other lil guys.

dream trip: away

favorite food: strawberry things, fresh.

favorite song: implicit demand for proof!!! aaaaah also florecent black!!!! and let it all go is really good

okok so i think im gonna tag some really sweet people♡♡ @yallelujah @burnt-pie @blckclvrs @astonishowell @danhtml @somethingcanny @clinicalgay @sadnrad 

love you guys!

[ourworldofenergy]

Canada and Energy: Part 3 - It's Very Ugly

Guest blog by S. A. Shelley In the first blog of this series, I summarized the huge energy resources of Canada. In the second blog, I showed how most of those resources have been or are being squandered and how governments with good intentions, at times more often than naught, deliver bad outcomes. While statistically bad outcomes can be unintentional, in Canada a lot of bad outcomes are actually the deterministic result of government strategy. Coupled with the breakdown of the rule of law at the highest levels, Canada is in bad shape. That unfortunately is the very big ugly in Canada. Other factors resulting in Canada’s bad energy situation are the focused actions by small groups of well-funded opponents and the apathy by the populace who have been habituated to the sweet lucre of government largesse. Canadians are generally kind and polite people, but at the governing level, the plotting and duplicities surpass a Shakespearean tragedy. The Russians probably learn by watching what happens in Ottawa.

The biggest warning that I have is that the path that Canada is on will more likely lead to Canada becoming the next Venezuela – corrupt, ineffective and when in trouble, doubling down on failed collectivist ideas, instead of returning to integrity, order and prosperity.

I.        The Prosperity of Nations

Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for individuals, nations also have a hierarchy of needs in order to survive and thrive. For individuals it begins with basic needs, then psychological needs and finally the self-fulfillment needs. A nation’s needs are similar: a nation needs food, water, energy, then trading partners, and finally self-fulfillment, which often happens on Olympic podiums or in cultural accolades. In Canada, the national needs have been simplified to Peace, Order and Good Government. Canada has peaceful access to all the energy that it needs, but Canada lacks order and good government to harvest that energy and thus is putting itself into a precarious and untenable situation in the long run. Without ample energy supplies, logistics breaks down, farming founders and economic output plummets. A digital economy still needs food, transport and energy to thrive.

Fig. 7 (Canada and Energy: Part 2 – the Bad

In the first blog of this series, Fig. 7 indicated that the largest growth in foreign investment in Canada is in Finance and Insurance. If we think about output, finance and insurance shift electrons from place to place to chase probabilities of events occurring or not occurring. Guess correctly and win big. Guess incorrectly too often, then a financial crisis results and everybody loses (except the investment bankers).  Only a few nations can comfortably tie their continued prosperity to finance, and even then usually for only a small percentage of their populace. By contrast, a thousand standard cubic feet of natural gas is just that. An option on the TSE VIX can be something or nothing. There needs to be a balance to ensure long term economic viability. 

Unfortunately, Canada has allowed a large part of its economic engine, its energy industry, to collapse and, while heralding new technologies, is really just chasing the herd in many areas with too few dollars, and again without a clear, widely accepted vision and coordinated goals. Economic imbalance and inequality is growing in Canada and it bodes not well.

II.        The Rule of Law No Longer Applies in Canada

For the most part, the rule of law still applies to ordinary citizens, but when it comes to elite interests, it is now very clear that the governing Liberal Party of Canada will write new laws and regulations quickly, overlook others or apply them in excruciatingly abusive detail according to selfish political will.

By now, I hope that most readers are aware of the corruption scandal in Canada regarding SNC-Lavalin and the Prime Minister, principal cabinet members and the highest levels of the civil service. If you are not aware of cause of the scandal, the short story is something like this: SNC-Lavalin, a politically very well connected engineering firm from Montreal, has been caught bribing foreign regimes and domestic governments for work (see also theSpec.com). It has been so bad that the World Bank, along with several other international agencies, banned SNC-Lavalin and its subsidiaries from bidding on work, and the OECD even issued a warning to Canada about how the government is handling the affair. A good summary of SNC-Lavalin’s achievements can be found in this Financial Post article.

The problem is that as SNC-Lavalin was being called to account for its wrong doings, it was lobbying the federal government to ensure that SNC-Lavalin would only get a slap on the wrist, more or less. Consequently, the current government of Canada acted inappropriately, drafted new laws to protect SNC-Lavalin and overlooked egregious misconduct, all with the stated best of intention of protecting 9,000 jobs (see OttawaCitizen.com and PierreEmp.ca). On the other hand, in 2016 alone, the Canadian oil and gas business shed 40,000 jobs, and the Prime Minster and his party weren’t concerned one bit.

Corruption among friends is to be fixed by all means necessary while prosperity among adversaries is to be hammered into oblivion.  This method of governance, while common in despotic regimes, is now also the norm in Ottawa. Ottawa just doesn’t yet shoot people, though character assassination is encouraged (see WinnipegSun.com and TheGlobeandMail.com).

Now it gets convoluted. While this SNC-Lavalin affair was happening, Canada, at the request of the United States, arrested a Huawei executive. China, of course, was upset. The Prime Minister of Canada stated emphatically on January 23, 2019 that Canada is a country of the rule of law and that the Canadian justice system is impartial and independent. However, the actions of the Right Honorable Prime Minister, with respect to the SNC-Lavalin scandal, demonstrated otherwise. I agree with China that Canada is no longer a nation of an independent and impartial justice system.

This loss of judicial independence and impartiality also applies to regulations for energy projects. If Canada is no longer a nation of rules and laws, in which a company that followed precisely all published regulatory procedures yet still has a project stopped, then why would anyone invest in or buy energy from Canada?

III.        The Fix Is In against Oil and Gas, Everywhere at All Levels

In early 2018, the Federal Government of Canada issued an Advanced Contract Award Notice (ACAN, NRCan-5000036064) for between $275,000 to $280,000 to Wood Mackenzie to study and report on the Competitiveness of Canada’s Upstream Oil and Gas Industry. Subsequently, upon some firms challenging that ACAN, the government initiated a tender process on May 14 for the same study, but at the much reduced amount of $88,490. Some firms then declined to bid and eventually Wood Mackenzie was awarded the contract for $88,490. In the United States, such procurement changes are illegal; in the European Union, the same. But in Canada, by the whim of the governing party, changes like this are acceptable. The good news though is that the companies that challenged the ACAN, while not winning, did manage to save the Canadian taxpayers about $200,000, or, at least until the follow on study.

Most egregious is that the governing party has adopted a platform that aims to thwart Canadian oil and gas production.  Paramount to this effort is Bill C69  (see FinancialPost.com and WilsonCenter.org).

While Canada stumbles, in the United States construction has already commenced on three pipelines that by 2020 will bring an additional 2.4 million barrels per day of oil to deepwater ports with access to global markets. All this achieved in a shorter time frame than Canada’s regulatory review cycle for just one pipeline. 

As noted in previous blogs about oil supply and demand, world oil demand is not going to zero anytime soon. But the Prime Minister of Canada and his Party, by adapting a zero oil policy, have conceded oil markets and revenues to regimes such as Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Would it not be better for the world if Canada, with its heretofore independent judiciary, thorough environmental protections and (formerly) transparent markets, is a major producer?  When disaster or economic collapse hits an area, Canada sends aid, Russia sends troops.  Who should get the money for oil, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia or Canada?

IV.        The Fix is in Against Hydropower

Or rather, the fix is in against affordable, inexpensive hydropower. Graft is costing individual Canadians hundreds or thousands of dollars every year. In B.C. this is especially true with hydropower. Due to explicit Liberal Government policies and actions, from 2007 onwards, B.C. Hydro was mandated to buy expensive green power, such as run of the river hydro, from independent power producers (IPPs). Many of those IPPs were donors to the ruling Liberal party and by some manner managed to get above-market prices for long term supply contracts that B.C. hydro was legislated to buy. Just this one incident of graft gone wild costs B.C. residents at least $200 more per year for hydro power. Every year, $200 here, $108 there adds up quickly to a princely sum over the long term for the average Canadian family.

When it comes to project cost overruns, it has been calculated that graft and corruption in Canada increases project costs up to 10%. Think about it. For the Site C hydropower dam in B.C., projected to cost about $10.7 billion, it is quite possible that $1 billion of that cost is due to graft and corruption. That’s another $200 that every resident of B.C. will have to pay for just this one project.

Similar shenanigans ensued at the Muskrat Falls hydropower project in Newfoundland.

V.        The Fix is in Against Renewable Energy

In Newfoundland, Bill C61 makes it illegal to develop wind energy, ocean tidal energy, etc.

VI.      Investors are Fleeing and Avoiding Canada

“A number of CEOs of both domestic and international energy companies have publicly stated they will not invest further in Canada due to its deteriorating competitiveness.”  (See WashingtonTimes.com, FinancialPost.com, and theStar.com.)

VII.    Diktats are Now the Norm in Canada

In the first blog, I noted that Canada still imports oil from Saudi Arabia. Canada could not get the Energy East pipeline built which would have brought oil from Western Canada to Eastern Canada, and therefore Canada still imports oil form Saudi Arabia (and doctors too (see theGlobeandMail.com and OttawaCitizen.com). The premier of Quebec was somewhat gleeful about this, saying that, “There is no social acceptability for oil in Quebec”. But apparently it is still socially acceptable to import oil from an autocratic state like Saudi Arabia?  Yet, over 60% of Quebec residents think that it would be better to have oil from Alberta than from Saudi Arabia.

What the federal Canadian government proclaims in one press release, it readily ignores when inconvenient. To wit, the Canadian government designated an Ocean Technologies Supercluster for the Atlantic Provinces in part because of the expertise in ocean technology and shipping located there. However, the Canadian government then deliberately decided to ignore those same Atlantic Provinces when it sought input to evaluating the safety of ocean going oil tankers.

Looking west at British Columbia (B.C.), the situation is just as bad, with a Premier who fights for his own pipeline, but is against anyone else’s pipeline.  Here again, most residents in B.C. are in opposition to the elected officials and in favour of all pipelines.

The other irony is that B.C. has the largest coal export terminal in North America and is happily exporting millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting pollutants to overseas power plant. Wsorse yet, while B.C. fears the environmental dangers of expanded oil exports, B.C. coal producers have for decades been quietly poisoning waters that flow into U.S. watersheds (see ElkValleyCoal.com and DesmogBlog.com). The hypocrisy in B.C. deserves international recognition.

VIII.        A Neo-Communist Government

When it comes to Political and economic icons, the Prime Minister of Canada is forthright about his admiration for the basic dictatorship in China. When it comes to interacting with the rich and powerful, the Prime Minister is secretive and cavalier about ethical boundaries (see bbc.com and cbc.ca).

When the Prime Minister espouses that he, and only he, has a climate action plan for Canada which includes carbon taxes for the masses,  yet he is self-entitled to fly frivolously on a private jet, one of the most intensive carbon emitting ways to travel, one can see the differences between the privileged ice-wine life of the ruling elites, the old boys club, versus the Habitant Pea soup of the governed masses.

Let’s also compare the thinking and actions of the federal governing party in Canada – see Table 1.

Table 1

Table Links:

Communism, Its Characteristics, Pros, Cons, and Examples

Marxist History and Communism as Inevitable

The natural governing party is back  

New program to help 100,000 Canadian families buy their first home  

Media Sector Gets $595 Million Package

Editorial: Trudeau and the Liberals should be ashamed

Justin Trudeau says it’s ‘peoplekind’ after woman uses ‘mankind’ during question

IX.        Government Disconnects at all Levels Are Ruining More than Just Energy

There is a big cognitive disconnect with governments at all levels on almost everything. I’ve addressed energy, but other examples abound:

A food guide that more than half of Canadians cannot afford (see GlobalNews.ca)

Paying over $10 million compensation to a terrorist who killed an American soldier (see Castanet.net and Canada.com) ;   ),

Prosecuting a career naval officer for, of all things, delivering a much needed auxiliary warship on time and on budget (see theChronicleHerald.ca).

Money laundering (see theGlobeandMail.com, FinancialPost.com and HuffingtonPost.ca)

Tax haven status (see theStar.com).

In Alberta, the provincial government made the oil problem worse (see OilPrice.com). Now, in the scramble to get reelected, as is common in most socialist regimes, the governing party is bringing the American bogeyman into the election on all matters: “We will continue to stand up and say no to American-style health care…”   (see ctvnews.ca)   

The true north is strong and free in the wrong areas.

X.        Whither Canada?

Affordable and reliable energy is necessary for a modern, comfortable and well-functioning society. Energy jobs are also well paying and support a comfortable middle class life for a lot of people. Energy investments and a careful transition to clean and renewable energy can be achieved in a fiscally viable and coordinated manner that will benefit most Canadians and the world in general. I’m all for clean energy, but I’m definitely for doing it without graft or corruption and in open markets in order to get the lowest cost energy for all Canadians. If Canadians want Canada to function better you must not be afraid to look at and compare across nations and figure out why things work better here or there.

Canada has a lot of natural energy wealth, both conventional and renewable. But too much energy wealth has already been squandered by governments, while hydrocarbon energy is now being deliberately killed by governments. What Canada has now in terms of energy policy and goals is stressing families, bankrupting corporations and strangling revenue to governments.

In America, nobody trusts the government; in Canada everybody trusts the government too much. When Canadian governments announce new energy policies, Canadians really need to ask, “How much will this cost, how will I benefit and who is getting rich off me and why?” Canadians need to think about the future, about their children and grandchildren, and then Canadians need to work towards common objectives and get Mad like Max in order to ensure energy security and financial prosperity. The great bogeyman in the world is not America, it is places like Venezuela.  Plan your path wisely Canada.

Vive l’Alberta Libre!

P.S. I will gladly debate any Canadian government or political leader about energy policy and technology at any time, in any town hall, in any caucus meeting, in front of anyone, young and old, near and far, rich or poor, CBC or CTV. Name the time and the place and I’ll be there because I am not afraid to speak truth to power and incompetence.

Published by Our World of Energy

Canada and Energy: Part 3 – It’s Very Ugly was originally published on OurWorldofEnergy

[nwbeerguide]

Celebrate the upcoming release of "Red Racer Across the Nation Collaboration 12-pack"

image courtesy Central City Brewers + Distillers

Press Release

Surrey, BC – Last month, Central City Brewers + Distillers along with 12 other Canadian craft brewers announced the Red Racer Across the Nation Collaboration 12-pack which commemorates Canada’s 150th birthday celebration. Today, the breweries announced the all-star craft beer lineup which makes up the #Canada150 collaboration, as well as #Canada150 celebration tasting events that will be held at each brewery across the country.   Each of the 12 beers has been brewed at Central City’s Surrey brewery specially for this collaboration and embodies the region they represent. A brewer from each collaborating brewery joined the Central City brewers to brew the recipe that they helped design.   “We wanted each of the collaboration beers to showcase the uniqueness of the provinces and territories to celebrate everything that is Canadian,” says Gary Lohin, Brewmaster at Central City Brewers + Distillers. “The result is a special collaboration that not only features the best of what our country has to offer, but also the true spirit of Canada.”   Red Racer Across the Nation Collaboration Beers:

British Columbia – Four Winds Brewing Company: Left of the Divide IPA - BC is known for growing hops. Four Winds and Red Racer came together in this brew using concentrated Idaho 7 hop hash to brew a massively aromatic and truly West Coast style IPA

Alberta - Last Best Brewing & Distilling: Berry Light Berliner Weisse - Using ingredients inspired from the Alberta plains, this Berliner Weisse is a wheat-based beer that uses raspberries and vanilla for a mildly sour, lightly sweet and easy drinking beer.

Saskatchewan - Black Bridge Brewery: Wide Open Spaces Kellerbier - The German were drawn to Saskatchewan in the 1700s for the vast farm land. With their arrival came beer styles such as the Kellerbier, a young lager with a distinctive and delicious flavour.

Manitoba - Half Pints Brewing Company: Land of Rice & Honey Saison - Manitoba is home to rich farmland that produces everything from wild rice to wildflower Honey. In this brew both are used in a unique and locally inspired beer.

Ontario - Beau's Brewing Company: Upper Reaches Pale Ale - Reaching for the trees in Upper Canada this collaboration brew uses peaches and Ontario white spruce tips for a locally inspired, refreshing flavour.

Quebec - Le Trou Du Diable: Bouclier canadien Pilsner - Brewed with new-world hops this pilsner takes a tropical and aromatic approach to brewing. From the Canadian Shield, or bouclier canadien, this is a Canadian-hopped twist on the pilsner style.

New Brunswick - Picaroons Traditional Ales: Restored Hop(e) ESB - New Brunswich was largely founded by French descendants and United Empire Loyalists which inspired the province's motto "Spem reduxit", meaning "Hope is restored". For this reason we have brewed the classic, English style of an Extra Special Bitter.

Nova Scotia - Garrison Brewing Company: "New" Scottish Ale - In Latin, Nova Scotia literally means "New Scotland". To celebrate Canada's Scottish roots, we have brewed up a lightly peated Scottish Ale.

Prince Edward Island - PEI Brewing Company: Bière d'ici Honey Ale (Beer of Here) - PEI may be small but it is often known as the Birthplace of Confederation. Brewed with local PEI honey and maritime grown hops, this brew is a lighter take on the Bière de Garde style.

Newfoundland - Quidi Vidi Brewing Company: Hop To The East Hefeweizen - Canada's most eastern province is Newfoundland and taking a North Eastern take on the Hefeweizen style this beer was brewed with new-age tropical hops to give a fruity aromatic twist on the classic German style.

Yukon - Yukon Brewing Company: Swift Currant Dark Ale - Community plays a large role in Yukon life. This comes from the long winters and breathtaking wilderness surrounding. Taking a dark and warming beer style with local inspiration of black currents we have come out with a beer that truly represents the people of the Yukon.

Northwest Territories - NWT Brewing Company: Miner's Refresh Grissette - From its origin in Belgian Mines, the Grissette style makes its way from mineral-rich Northwest Territories to the bottle. Made with spelt, this ancient recipe pays tribute to the mining heritage of Canada's North.

#Canada150 celebration tasting events at each brewery:

Tuesday, May 30th - Four Winds Brewing at Central City Brewpub Beatty Street, Vancouver, British Columbia

Saturday June 3rd - Last Best Brewing & Distilling, Calgary, Alberta

Sunday June 4th – Black Bridge Brewery, Swift Current, Saskatchewan

Thursday June 8th – Half Pints Brewing Company, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Monday June 12th – Quidi Vidi Brewing Company, St. John’s, Newfoundland

Thursday June 15th – PEI Brewing Company, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Friday June 16th – Picaroons Traditional Ales, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Saturday June 17th – Garrisons Brewing Company, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Wednesday June 21st – Yukon Brewing Company, Whitehorse, Yukon

Friday June 23rd – NWT Brewing Company, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

Thursday June 29th – Trou de Diable, Shawinigan, Quebec

Saturday July 1st – Beau’s Brewing Company, Vankleek Hill, Ontario

Friday, July 14th – Central City Brewers + Distillers, Surrey, British Columbia

  The Red Racer Across the Nation Collaboration 12-pack (330 ml bottles) will be available in liquor stores in most provinces in early May 2017, and as two unique 6-packs (East and West) in some provinces. Visit http://bit.ly/1hyw8HJ for more information and follow Central City on social media: Instagram: @RedRacerBrew, Twitter: @RedRacerBrew, Facebook: RedRacerBrew       About Central City Brewers + Distillers: Central City is a craft brewery and distillery in the business of developing, producing and selling international award-winning, premium craft beer and high quality distilled spirits, brewed without compromise. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, CCBD was voted Canada’s Brewery of the Year in 2010 and 2012. Their Red Racer brand has become a cult icon among craft beer enthusiasts throughout North America. Founded in 2003 as a brewpub and liquor store in downtown Surrey, CCBD celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2013 with the grand opening of a brand new, 68,000 sq. ft. brewery and distillery on Bridgeview Drive. It opened a second restaurant in downtown Vancouver, Central City on Beatty, in 2015.  http://bit.ly/1hyw8HJ

from The Northwest Beer Guide http://bit.ly/2nWvmYg