Author: Pete Vere

Newfie Bikini Party, Part 2

Apparently Marie Johnston, formerly Marie Routhier, has received a lot of feedback for standing by her province and Premier Danny Johnston. FreeDominion.ca just posted the following form letter she is sending back that better explains why she took a principled stand.
Here’s some excerpts:
“The thing that some have trouble understanding about my actions, and those of our premier, is that this isn’t about declaring war on, or a hate for Canada. If anything, it’s about wanting to BELONG to Canada, and to stop being treated like an unwanted step child. We don’t want to be a welfare province. We don’t WANT Alberta and Ontario to provide a free ride for us. We merely want to be given the tools – and opportunity – to dig ourselves out of the financial mess that we have been placed in.
“I’m reminded of a saying that I try to live by. “Loyalty above all else, except honour”. Yes, I am a Canadian.. but I’m a Newfoundlander first, and the treatment that this province is receiving is FAR from honourable.
“I’d also like to point out that, if lowering the flag is Un-Canadian, we have an Un-Canadian Prime Minister. I find it convenient, and somewhat entertaining, that he is quick to insult Danny over the flag issue, but has it led him to fly the Canadian Flag on his ships?”

Guns for Me, but not for Thee!

More evidence that Michael Moore’s Canada simply does not exist: Retired [Canadian] firearms officer stashed 100 illegal weapons at home. We desperately need a Second Ammendment. Each day it becomes more clear to me how our anticipated two-million dollar gun [control] registry rapidly degenerated into a billion [Updated estimates now at two billion] dollar government boondoggle. I can understand why it doesn’t work — it is, after all, a government project concocted in the nation’s four largest cities to apply to the most rural and underpopulated country in the world. But how do you underestimate the cost by 99.9%? Oh, I forgot. This is Canada.

Actually, just last year we lost to Greenland.

Received another cranky – um, make that crank – email from some leftist who claims we don’t need a military in Canada. The reason he cites is that Canada doesn’t have any enemies (except of course the Americans) and only the Americans would invade us. Some days I wonder whether I’m dealing with real people. It seems my IQ drops another point with every email I open from a Canadian leftist. Not only is this guy’s claim not true — Al Quaida has ranked us something like six on their target list — but just last year we were unable to fend off an invasion from — get this — Denmark! (Watch the home video via Wikipedia of the Danes invading Canada.)

Forget Boston and Tea, it’s the Newfie Bikini Party!

Woah! To support conservative Premier Danny Williams and protest the federal Liberals giving Newfoundland the shaft over off-shore oil, Marie Routhier changed her name to Marie Johnston.
To explain a little background to this dispute, Newfoundland is Canada’s poorest province, despite being rich in numerous resources including off-shore oil. The reason for the poverty is that the federal government has Newfoundland in a welfare trap whereby they take most of Newfoundland’s tax revenue through claw-backs, but cuts them a check through transfer payments.
The current Premier of the province is trying to break this cycle, and Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin promised Newfoundland (when it looked like the province would vote Conservative) that by Christmas this year a deal would be worked out, no strings attached, whereby Newfoundland could keep its off-shore oil revenue. It worked come election. Of course, Paul Martin lied, probably figuring that after the election he could simply blow Newfoundland off since he controls their purse string. Which is what he did. Nevertheless, Premier Danny Williams has nerve of stone. He stood up for his province and ordered the Canadian flag removed from all government buildings in the province. In Canada, this is the supreme political sacrilege any politician can commit, but the future livelihood of his province depends upon the feds keeping their election promise.
So how does this tie into Marie Johnston, formerly Marie Routhier. And why is Marie’s name change big news? Well to begin, twenty-five year old Marie is probably Canada’s most famous fashion designer among swimmers, gymnists and figure skaters. In fact, she designed the official swimwear for Team Canada Synchronized Swimming. She also designed a line of patriotic (albeit somewhat immodest) swimsuits around the Canadian flag — a line she is now discontinuing.
Raised in a single-parent family, she was quite poor. She began sewing at a very young age as a figure skater, because her mother couldn’t afford to buy the outfits the other kids had. By her teens she ended up swinging this into a full-time career, and operated her company out of Newfoundland for several years where she fell in love with the province. She also fell in love with the conservative ideals of Premier Danny Williams, and moved back when he won the election. Her replacement line will be known as “Republic of Newfoundland”. Nevertheless, she’s forfeiting a lot of name recognition in changing her name, as every Canadian recognizes “Marie Routhier” but not “Marie Johnston”.
But how does the name change tie into all this? Johnston is the maiden name of Marie’s mother, who raised. Routhier, on the other hand, is the family name of her father who abandoned her when she was a baby. Where this becomes highly political is that Marie’s paternal great-great-grandfather is Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, who authored the original French lyrics to “O Canada!” which is our national anthem. So this is a pretty big shot fired across the bow of Canadian culture by one of its young leaders.