Family travelers

 I've three adult children, and 4 granddaughters. Two kids live in Ottawa: Caitlin and her youngest brother. Jesse and his family live in Vancouver. I don't know what my youngest is up to, we are estranged.  He is gainfully employed and his siblings check in on him. (Musta done something right! 😛 )

There is much going on with Jesse and Caitlin, however!

🕰 First of all, Jesse and his family flew to Calgary for a family anniversary party. Secondly, Caitlin and her family are in New Zealand. It is tricky keeping in touch. Jesse, in Vancouver is three hours behind us. The Fearsome Foursome Flyers are 16 hours ahead of us. 

I keep on talking to Siri: "Hey, Siri, what time is it in New Zealand?" It's great! 

We actually had a call from them. Calgary is only two hours behind us. Jesse and family took some time for a trip there for a party. Here they are, the Drumheller hoodoos! 

It was a 60th anniversary for Stacie's aunt and uncle. It was a grand party. The pool time was a hit! There were party games. Bryony is quite the character, ready for swimming in her swim donut. Hooray for a hotel!

And, New Zealand! They are now staying in a cottage in Hahei, and are traveling by car, although they've stayed put for several days. 

Hot Water Beach is a beach on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand, just south of Mercury Bay.^[1] 

You can see the steam rising.

A boat tour was fun. These are wonderful caves. 

Dinner! It was the only open restaurant in the town.

 

At night, they return to their accommodations and upload their photos in order for us to live vicariously. With an uptake in COVID-19, I am happier at home! Josephine has been taking some marvellous photos, as well as Isabelle. They've been taking turns doing blog posts, as well.

The adventure the other day was to hike Te Pare. Apparently, the hot water beach was too crowded. 

A cat named Howard in the cafe!

7b. The City of Calgary

Mallards in Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Calgary.

After our big trek around the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, I needed some lunch. We headed off to the pub in Calgary.

 I drove, JB navigated. We parked, and spotted a hare running along the parking lot, parallel to the sidewalk!



Something happened here! It's good seeing police on bikes. The motorcycle looked a bit iffy!


I don't know! Maybe they were playing Pokémon Go? 


The horses in front of city hall are lovely. We were pretty tired after tromping around.

Picture via PinsDaddy.com

I like taking photos of people taking photos! This is a lovely spot, Olympic Plaza.


I don't know if you can read the signage on the bus: "training bus"


There were statues of the Famous Five. I'd seen the one in Ottawa and didn't know they had them here! In brief, these are the five prairie women who managed to convince the all-male government to allow women to be declared 'persons.'

The Famous Five

• Part of the Famous Five monument on Olympic Plaza in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• They sought to have women legally considered persons so that women could be appointed to the Senate.

Then there was this really neat building being built.
 

As I was sitting in the pub (which I will show tomorrow), I noticed a yellow jacket building a nest. It was cool. I ignored it, except for taking close-ups, and it just did its work.

 yellow jacket wasp
Yellow jacket from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Our trip west

Thursday, May 31st 1.  Getting There Off to YVR!
Friday, June 1st #2. Vancouver and kidlets!
Saturday, June 2nd #3. YVR's Queen Elizabeth Park
Sunday, June 3rd #4. YVR, splashing,  sushi
Monday , June 4th #5.: YVR=>YYC, lunch in Canmore, drive to Deer Lodge, Lake Louise

Tuesday, June 5th #6a. Lake Louise and Banff park, 6b. Canmore and Johnston Canyon, Alberta, 6c. The Marriott Hotel

Wed., June 6th #7a. Calgary's Inglewood Park, birding,

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 Calgary, Alberta. 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 mayors: In 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.' 

Reevely: Donald Trump's America could learn lessons from Ottawa's Larry O'Brien years

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.