Saturday 11 February 2017

This is my Canada


Population change by province or territory
Our latest census data came out, for 2016. One of my kids works for Statistics Canada! We like numbers in this family.
It shows our population as 35,151,728, and we have the highest growth amongst the G7 countries.
  • People tend to live near the Canadian/US border, with 66% within 100km of the border. 
  • Ontario and Quebec are the most populated provinces, with 61.5% of our population.

Ontario  13.4 million people
Quebec    8 million

Then there is the good and the bad.

The Good

Calgary, Alberta, elected the first Muslim mayor for a large city, in the western world.  Alberta's population has increased by 11.6% from 2011 to 2016.

Naheed Kurban Nenshi (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian politician who is the 36th mayor of CalgaryAlberta. He was elected in the 2010 municipal election with 39% of the vote, and is the first Muslim mayor of a large North American city. He was re-elected in 2013.[2]

[There have been other Muslim mayorsIn May 1991, Bilal became mayor of Kountze, Texas (pop. 2,056), a notable achievement because Bilal is black and Kountze is 70% white. But what really made his rise remarkable is the fact that he's Muslim - the first Muslim mayor in the nation.]


Naheed Nenshi Says Trump's Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Is 'Not Funny'

Nenshi slammed the businessman's call to forbid Muslims from entering the U.S., saying the billionaire's comments have a "real impact" on real people.
"We've been hearing a lot of divisive language in a lot of corners of this country and in other places in the last few months, and you know, it's easy to dismiss stuff like this as a joke. It's not funny anymore," the mayor told CBC News on Tuesday.
Mayor Nenshi is known for his acerbic twitter response to hostile constituents.

9 Tweets That Prove Calgary's Mayor Nenshi Is Winning At Twitter


He also wants every Canadian to do three things, in honour of our 150th anniversary. There is much controversy, since prior to Canada becoming Canada, it was a rich place where First Nations inhabited much of it. This is something I can get behind, however.
do three things

Calgary police are teaching immigrants about their human rights. The class was being led by an immigrant who is a Calgary police officer.





C.I.E.S.

@YYCCIES
Calgary Immigrant Educational Society is a non-profit devoted to assisting immigrants and disadvantaged Canadians improve their language and employment skills.
The Genesis Centre sounds amazing! Weddings, community celebrations, gym, indoor soccer, library, all geared towards new immigrants. It's been open since 1988. They are having a hockey night, and teaching new Canadians to skate.
Not only a female cop, but one hanging out with kids,
teaching them and helping them have some fun.

The Bad

Quebec politicians are running on racist platforms, firing up citizens in racist, xenophobic fears. 

And across the border...

Well, some cannot get across the border. We have Canadian citizens who are being denied entry to the US based on their religion. He was born and raised in Canada, not an immigrant or a refugee. He has no ties to the 7 predominantly Muslim countries, but is of Moroccan descent and Muslim.

Canadian woman denied entry to U.S. after border agents find Muslim prayers on her phone: https://t.co/mkSkaBBSBW pic.twitter.com/bEFzznlX9k
— As It Happens (@cbcasithappens) February 8, 2017

Canadian denied entry to U.S. 

after being questioned on mosque connections

You just can't write this stuff.
So-called president Trump and his staff are being called out on his lies.
Happily, Jake Tapper took Trump's spokeswoman to task. (Tapper's mother is Canadian!) Trump continues to lie about the US homicide rate, calling for panic. He also called Trump out for not mentioning anything about our muslim Canadians murdered in Quebec. Trump continually tweets about 'bad people.' 



Institutions, customs and rules develop for a reason. An outsider’s willingness to smash idols can be valuable but it’s dangerous if it’s not married to competence, an understanding of what you’re doing and why and what will probably happen after. Plenty of people don’t have that, no matter how good a game they talk. If you elect such a person, you can’t assume that everything will be OK.

8 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

Well, this was a wide-ranging post, all parts quite interesting and the last part quite irritating. I dont mean on your part but the situation.

Silver in AZ said...

On FB, my oldest daughter posted a link to a Rubio post, chastizing the liberals/Democrats for our hatred of them/Trump. I have kept from posting anything political on FB for a couple of weeks, but I HAD to respond, and this is what I wrote:

"You need to make the very important distinction between Trump, and the GOP. Prior to Trump, the Democrats had no real issues or caused problems for the GOP party. Democrats (not in office) didn't, either. We all got along, despite our philosophical differences. You know it's true. Trump has changed, is changing all of that. Do not dare to criticize Democrats when every single day, Trump makes a complete tantrum-throwing ass of himself on Twitter. That's not 'fake news', it's words from Trump's own brain. The fact that the GOP, other than perhaps John McCain (a great, great man) is just rolling over and not standing up to the worst of Trump (and Bannon)...is what is causing the issues today. Absolutely nothing else. Now I've stayed completely away from politics on Facebook for a few weeks now, but I'll be damned if I'll let this go. It's not the GOP we liberals/Democrats are railing against, at all. In theory. It's the immature, ill-equipped, spoiled win-at-all-costs ass-hattery that is Donald Trump. And by extension, those that roll over and forgive him ridiculous, immature, hate-provoking thing he says and does. Because there is a thing called guilty by association. That is what we are railing against. Now I won't be back to debate with you here, because there is no point. But I did need to make my point. Over and done on it. Agree to disagree."

Red said...

Great variety in this post. I also like Nenshi. He's smart witty and gets things done.

Nancy J said...

I like numbers too, interesting census data. I wonder why some areas have a larger increase than others, are they finding it cheaper to live there? more jobs and housing available? Surely not the better climate in Alberta or Nunavut? and there is Ontario with less. And then the good and the bag, what about the " Plain Ugly" . Worrying times almost everywhere in the world today, we cannot escape, but make the best of what we have.

William Kendall said...

Mayor Nenshi's one of the good guys. O'Brien pretty much proved incompetent and an outsider, but there was never the malevolence to him that we're seeing out of #45.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari om
G'day Jenn... been watching from afar, but felt had to comment today. Seems Canada is pretty much in the same position as ROTW in relation to responding to the ridiculosness of DT influence... and am afraid must point out that Sadiq Khan became the first mayor of Muslim faith. He's been in charge of London since May last year. Congrats to Mr Nenshi though. Slowly slowly the balance sets itself.

Hope you are well dear pal. Am keeping at it down here. More again when am back home. YAM xx

Jenn Jilks said...

Well, Yam, if we want to be specific, Sadiq Aman Khan is a British politician and the current Mayor of London since 2016.
Naheed Kurban Nenshi is a Canadian politician who is the 36th mayor of Calgary, Alberta. He was elected in the 2010 municipal election with 39% of the vote

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Came back and re-read as promised ; yup, totally missed that as 2010! Recorrection noted &*> Yxx