24 Sussex Drive - Time for Canada to show we are a Big Country

I touched a bit on Prime Minister Mark Carney's Davos speech in my post yesterday. Davos has made a lasting impact on the thinking of world leaders everywhere, per various reports, even six months after the fact. And then while waiting hours for the boring NHL draft to work its way to the Canadiens' #26 pick, I learned that Carney has opened up a national competition for the restoration of the official Canadian Prime Minister's Ottawa residence, 24 Sussex Drive.

It got me to thinking about what an amazing opportunity this is for 24 Sussex to become a symbolic building (and site) of equal global impact, to underline how Canada is the land of big ideas to lead in the 21st century. "In a big country, dreams stay with you," non-Canadian Stuart Adamson sang, R.I.P.*

[SIDE NOTE TIME]: 

I confess to being a huge fan of the Scottish band, Big Country (at least 1980s Big Country). When the song "In a Big Country" comes on the radio in the car, the kids get a taste of their dad lamely singing along (Stuart Adamson's register and mine, nuh-uh) because that song speaks to me of my Scottish ancestry and what they must have been thinking in the 19th century when migrating here.

So take a look out of here, it doesn't fit you 

Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded

Pull up your head off the floor, come out screaming

Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered

But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered 

    --Big Country, from the song, "In A Big Country" (1983) 

Does that not sound like the thrust of the Davos speach in a nutshell? I digress.

[OK, END SIDE NOTE]

At a moment in history when the White House and other Washington DC landmarks are being mistreated and desicrated, surely we can show the world what world-class treatment the home of a G7 government leader can and should look like. The existing building is very grey, and where it isn't nondescript, it's entirely dreary. It wasn't for nothing that Margaret Trudeau (Justin's mom) once famously dismissed it as "the crown jewel of Canada's penitentiary system."

And it's been ages since the place fell into disrepair, as comedian Rick Mercer brought to the fore multiple times during both the Martin and Harper eras. Justin Trudeau, harbouring his own bitter childhood memories of the place, refused to bring his family to live there in his nine years as PM, understandably. But perhaps less understandable was his reluctance to push for anything substantive to be done about it.

I've never seen you look like this without a reason

Another promise fallen through another season passes by you 

Now it's reportedly been thoroughly stripped-down, de-asbestosed and uncrittered, ready for either a complete renovation or teardown. 

I have thoughts on this, but before I get ahead of myself, let's take a gander at what the Canadian architectural community has put out there on the subject. Hooboy, it's a lot. At a glance, the concept of outright demolition doesn't appear to be particularly popular among the architectural community (at least those who get published in Canadian Architect). But I think that thinking is wrong, particularly because cost-efficiency is one of Carney's bullet-point priorities for the project.

I'm going to come right out and say I have virtually no sentimentality towards the existing structure, which (let's face it) was designed from a 19th century colonialist mindset. It stands as a testament to the days of white privilege, and we have plenty of other heritage buildings inherently expressing that architecturally, the least of which being our (still under extensive renovation) buildings of Parliament. 

With that in mind, the only thing important to keep is the address.

The new 24 Sussex Drive should show off what we can do today, not how bigly we can modernize and replicate the 19th Century style. That would be a page out of Trump's modus operandi. The new design should take inspiration from recent Canadian architectural trends, celebrating our indigenous communities' connection to the natural world, and reflecting our country's contemporary multicultural character.

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert

But I can live and breath and see the sun in wintertime 

I happen to know just a little bit about modern construction, restoration and structural strengthening innovations. I write professionally in a marketing capacity targeting these very experts. (I cannot wait to see what imaginative and innovative plans our incredibly talented Canadian architects come up with. They blow me away time after time). And I know they know that any plans will need to fall in line with the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, which also means aligning with the UN sustainability goals.

One of the problems with demolition is the environmental cost, which is why dismantlement (or "deconstruction" as one Montreal company calls it) is making headway. In this respect, it can also serve to help fund the project. I can't tell you how many offices, restos and barber shops in Montreal proudly showcase their old Montreal Forum seats for customers to drool over (at least, hockey fans).

Imagine how many Canadian patriots would pay a premium to have a piece of the original 24 Sussex Drive in their own homes, shops, town halls, etc.? Especially knowing the money went into the rebuilding of the landmark. The new building and site can be modern, carbon-neutral, self-sustaining with renewable solar power, built with Canadian-manufactured materials, easier for the RCMP to provide the needed security, and respective of the multi-faceted Canada that can become emblamatic of our forward-thinking, inclusive outlook.

In a Big Country, dreams stay with you

Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside

Stay alive

 

*by the way, do check out the heartfelt music of Stuart Adamson's daughter, Kirsten Adamson

 

Cheers

  

- 30 - 

What this humble blogger would have our leaders do

I am Scott in Montreal. I grabbed scottinmontreal.ca last year, but I haven't done anything with it yet but sit on it... 

I posted online with that tagline for the first time ever in 1995 on deanforamerica.com (thinking, if I am going to weigh-in anonymously on a US politician's "blog" then there needs to be at least a bit of info on who I am, for people to know where I'm coming from). From there, I found dailykos.com and became one of its first 600 account holders, occasionally posting on my own page there, as they so graciously offer all users.

Soon I found out I could use blogger.com for my rantings and the lovely progressivebloggers.ca soon saw fit to kindly forward my posts to its readership as well, providing my minute drops of influence into the worldwide web.

"What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops?" --David Mitchell, (Cloud Atlas, 2004)

[Drip]

My partner of now 14+ years has a tremendously high opinion of my opinions on politics and policy, it seems. She believes fiercely in me, and is determined that I hammer out something today; something momentous in its effect on our future (Our family's? Our country's?)

I believe in her too, so this is an effort at that.

I know it's important to know what I don't know, which is an awful, awful lot. I opine a great deal on Bluesky (reactively for the most part). When the mood strikes, or I think I see something clearly that maybe needs more than a mere post on social media for me to wrap my thoughts around, I come here, and I write it out. Nowadays, with LLMs creating readable prose thoughtlessly, I know that my way isn't so fashionable, but I never know what conclusions might come to me until I start hammering out my thoughts; and to mix a metaphor, all I know in my world is nails. Songwriting works that way too oftentimes. The guitar or mandolin know better what my clumsy fingers are trying to accomplish much of the time than I do. But creativity and thinking (for me) only come through the doing. 

I write, therefore I think. Therefore I am not keen on giving it all up to AI.

But before that, I try to soak up what I can gather from what the smart people put out there: people like Gerald Butts, Chantal Hébert, the two Dyers (Gwynne and his son, Evan), Juan Cole, Billy Bragg, Michael E. Mann, Mark Chadbourn, Tom Engelhart, David Rothkopf, Seth Abramson, and the queen of understanding who coined the perfect term "international crime syndicate masquarading as a government," Sarah Kendzior (so sorry for your loss; your father sure raised a smart and talented writer).

Closer to home, we follow smarties like Toula Drimonis, Rachel Gilmore, Nora Loreto, Chris Curtis and Stéphane Giroux. Internationally, I will never get over the loss of Billmon.org, who taught me so, so much duing the GWB years.

All that to say, I am a part-timer and not in their league, but I do take a leaf from the above-mentioned Seth Abramson, an author of many distinguished books, who calls what he does "curative journalism" (something my journalism profs of the 80s couldn't have imagined of, in the pre-internet era).

But between that and my rather scattershot lived experiences in the workplace over 40 years (mostly at Canadian branches of American firms, and always in the Montreal area), a lot of stuff has come to my attention.

Let's start with this: The rule of law is paramount and the law should be crafted with care by legislators who are truly accountable to the general public, preferably through democratic means. I believe international law is fundamental but the fact we are in a world of sovereign nation-states makes that very difficult to enforce. When Carney mentioned in his well-received Davos speech that things are shifting with hegemons trying to diminish the concept of international law, it didn't just come out of nowhere.

I am old enough to recall Colin Powell bullshitting the UNSC with a straight face about the need to go into Iraq, which made keeping his boss out of the Hague an even bigger reason for US administration of GWB to decline to even try to ratify the Rome statute that created the ICC in 2002 (even though they'd already stated as much a few months prior, probably while planning the whole phony WMD malarkey they invented to justify their invasion).

But I live in a country that is NOT anybody's 51st state (at least, not yet); a country which DID sign and ratify the Rome Stature, putting it into force on Canada Day of 2002, under then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, at a time we were fighting alongside the United States and others comprising the ISAF, shedding Canadian blood for American-led futility, it would turn out - a new twist on Je me souviens for this Quebecer. 

Speaking of my home province, we have a provincial election coming up and that will coincide with Albertans answering a bunch of stupid referendum questions they shouldn't even be asked in the first place. (There we go with that Rule of Law thing again - the premier is hoping populism will side with her and turn on the independence of the courts. I pray she is thoroughly rebuffed by the majority of good and thoughtful Albertans that know better. I mean, come on, how stupid would it be to even think it's a good idea for a land-locked area to make bitter enemies of the only neighbouring states that could bring their main export to tidewater! Er, unless the whole shebang is to try to make Alberta, or some rump thereof, a new US territory. Don't fall for it, eh!)

Of course who am I to tell them what's what? As a Quebecer, I cannot point to a single time in my political awareness that we have been served with anything better than marginally-not-horrible leadership in Quebec City. One government after another has been either corrupt, wilfully blind, condescending or terribly incompetent (the CAQastrophe managed to tick off all the above boxes, incredibly).

On the left-right spectrum, the high-minded and open-minded Québec-Solidaire is the most clear-headed - until one notices they think separating from Canada is such a good idea, they'll take their election to power as a mandate for it all on its own - at least, that was in their platform last time around. While the current co-spokesperson, Ruba Ghazal is a bright and capable communicator (just read her touchingly personal book, Les Gens du Pays viennent aussi d'ailleurs), her party is not going to gain enough traction to be anything more that a spoiler, NDP-style.

The Parti-Québécois is leading in the polls, but its leader, Pierre St-Paul Plamondon, is churlish and he will get decimated in the debates (which will greatly matter). If the Liberal Party and its new leader Charles Milliard play their cards right, they will win, as there is nothing the CAQ's new leader Christine Frechette can do to erase all the mountains of shitty governance she and her party have on their record over two terms. Too early to tell, but I suspect the Conservative party might get some spill-off votes from the CAQ, leaving the PLQ to come up the middle in a ton of ridings where votes will be split, or voters stay home in disgust. 

But whichever party forms government, I do hope they have the good sense to put smart people in positions of power who can salvage some of the good things we have, including renewable electricity. My recipe: invest in schools, teach the kids more than just the History of Every Bad Thing Someone With an English Name Did to Insult or Punch Down on les québécois, relax the parts of the language and "laicité" laws that discriminate against religious and language rights and just use a ton more carrot and less stick generally in that regard. Embrace our indigenous peoples and show them and indeed all non-white, non-francophone Quebecers a little love and understanding. Own up to the systemic racism that has come from the over-zealous application of maitres-chez-nous that has given white francophones a level of privilege they don't even realize, while all their garbagemen and low-wage workers can't break out into the workforce because of the language/culture barrier that now keep them down (what an astounding reversal since the 1970s!)

Because everyone now is aware of how the gameboard was tilted unfavourably against the French for generations, and how important it is to support the French fact of Quebec. In fact, it is a huge part of our shield against the hegemons - especially the one just a few minutes south of us. 

I want all my fellow Canadians to understand the importance of our linguistic and cultural duality, French and English, in shielding us from the forces that wish to create a phony Americanized monolithic culture. If you don't know French, consider learning it. Consider trying. Consider the amazing cultural richness you are denying yourself from gaining a greater understanding of your country. When O Canada is sung entirely in English, a part of me feels gyped, especially considering it was an artifact of French Canada in the first place! French Quebec was the original Canada. The rest of the provinces hopped on board and brought more into it (so much more!) Oh, but there's my colonist bias. Quebec itself was an Algonquin term originally, which is why its first e only takes the accent aigue when expressed in French.

So here is what all of Canada should do (hope Carney's listening). Get our butts onto the solar power highway and as fast as we can. Even in the Trump era, where windmills are being thrown overboard in favour of more coal and oil and gas, an American company called Factorial Energy is making headway in developing solid-state batteries that could make electric cars much quicker to charge, much less trouble in winter, and basically, bring us up to the speed the Chinese are already at. Yes there are other renewables, but solar is the deal breaker that we need to push hard on, or we'll be left out in the cold.

Okay, that's all the world's problems I have the energy to solve just now. I hope some will comment and tell me where and how I am totally wrong, or whatever drops you may wish to contribute.

Thank you. Be good to one another (and that goes for all of you). 

 - 30 -  

Thank you again, Mike Myers #ElbowsUp + which DC/Marvel Universe's Mark Carney is this anyway?

Frankly, it's pretty crazy. We only learned last Friday afternoon (June 27th, 2025) that the U.S. government is holding 55 Canadian citizens hostage, after the Canadian minister for Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand, had spoken to the Canadian news media (or at least, CTV news reporter Luca Caruso-Moro).

It was a full four days after the death of a 49-year-old Canadian citizen, Johnny Noviello, in an unidentified Miami detention center that is being used by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DOH) to temporarily house individuals scooped up extra-constitutionally by their ICE agents (a bunch more ragtag than any lackeys of a Captain Hook or b-grade comic book villain imaginable).

More than 48 hours later, and still an agnostic search through duckduckgo fails to return anything from the prompt: "around 55 Canadians ICE june 27" from any Canadian legacy news outlet beyond BellMedia-owned CTV News or the far less ubiquitous urbanews.ca.

So where-oh-where are all you reporter guys, eh?? Silenced on this for some reason? Too many senior newsroom staff on vacation, with a bunch of young, under-trained interns at the tiller? (Yeah, the only excuses I can come up with are all lame-assed).

- Whither CBC / Radio-Canada?

- Global News?

- LaPresse?

- journaldeMontreal et TVA?

- postmedia outlets (montrealgazette/ottawacitizen/calgaryherald +) ?

Take it from a guy who studied the history of journalism (and lived it for the past 40 or so years): In any other timeline, Minister Anand's revelation would be an all-caps STOP THE PRESSES bombshell that would capture the nation's attention, even when dropped late on a Friday afternoon going into a sorta long weekend during the vaunted "honeymoon period" all shiny-new Prime Ministers of Canada get via Unwritten Clause No. 42 of the How the Parliamentary Gallery Shall Behove Themselves to Behave Act of 1937. (NOTE for the unlearned: That is not a real Act, but a rhetorical construct - please spare whatever AI app you have at your disposal from attempting to square it with reality.)

Ahem,.. As i was saying, it was not so long ago that the unwarranted detentions of the "two Michaels" (Spavros and Kovrig, held as political prisoners by the Communist Chinese government) was the main focus of our Parliamentary newshounds, until the two were finally repatriated, amidst lacklustre plauditry from a press gallery that by then had tired greatly of the seeming omnipresence of Justin Trudeau in the role of Canadian Prime Minister.

Two (2) men then = HUGE STORY! Fifty-five (55) today? (at least, we think - it could be more or less, but nobody seems to be pressing the government on it...) NOT WORTH MENTIONING; NOR FOLLOWING UP ON IN THE NEXT TWO NEWS CYCLES !!

For me, this is a huge fail. Regardless of the "caving" on the DST without being able to show any progress whatsoever on Canada's griefs with regards to the US govt. failing to meet their own end of the accepted USCMA trade agreement, this is just a huge failure of Basic Governance 101: protect your citizens against foreign threats.

SIDE NOTE: Some, like my loving partner, @mmmanon dot bsky dot whatever it is (probably rhymes with Tom), have been steadfast in supporting the man whom Mike Myers entrusted to keep his #ElbowsUp for Canada, despite her concern that in practice, Mark Carney isn't really giving much of a shit about the deepening Bibi-led Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.

Allow me to second her concern.

Now, let's take a step back. After all, Mark Carney did woo us in a time (scant months ago) when the prospect of a Pierre Poilievre, "What, me worry about Security Clearance?" Prime Ministership was seemingly inevitable, with its national hell-vision of a bloodthirsty, anti-abortionist, EEEEEEE-vangelical Kuh-Ristion Gun-Totin' ANTI-ANTIFA, pro-scuzzbucket Canada.

Is this some kind of "4D chess" our PM is playing here? Despite being in the good books of ESH (Evil Stephen Harper), is he, Mark Carney, actually the decent, caring guy we saw on the campaign trail? A guy who knows what he's doing, even while all recent evidence points to the opposite direction?

I sure hope so. Because usually, when one party concedes something substantial in a negotiation (like, I dunno, a multi-billion-dollar tax imposed on disgustingly-profitable net-based billionaire companies that suck their profits from starving Canadian content providers), it comes with a return. I understand our PM is perhaps better acquainted with hockey metaphors than RealPolitik, so hear this: If the Montreal Canadiens' GM Kent Hughes gives up something in a trade, there is a defined return. And if that return is unsatisfactory, the knives come out among the fanbase. A return of equal value, or heads roll. You know? Chew on that, hmm?

Dateline: Sunday, June 29, 2025...

With those 55 - shit, we don't even have an exact number, let alone the names - Canadians being held hostage like this, why give up the DST (and the expressed will of the Parliament of Canada that worked to make it law) for the mere pittance of being allowed to simply enjoin the MAGA lackeys about possible points of trade negotiation that this very government has proven time and time again they will only deign to respect at their own whim?! Why not speak up for those 55? You are the Prime Minister! This falls on you. It is your responsibility and no one else's. In case you weren't aware, Canada is counting on you. It should be obvious to a mega-brain like you.

You know? It is an outrage that this is the case, and it should be commanding your attention right now. Is your head too far up your investment managner/banker ass to see this?? Wakey-wakey!

It defies belief. I know Mark Carney hasn't been PM for very long, but he should understand that if there is one, sacred responsibility of anyone who is in that role, it is to be a steadfast champion of the citizens who elected them to that position. And that means ALL CITIZENS.

Big lesson: whatever genius wheeling and dealing Carney is doing dans les coullisses (behind the scenes), he absolutely CANNOT let something like this pass. Because each of those citizens - and shame on this government that we don't know the precise number of them - matter. The way all people matter. And today or tomorrow, if you don't call it out as completely unacceptable (because that is what leaders do, as your predecessor Justin Trudeau took to heart), GODDAMN you should learn a thing or two from him, even if he didn't go to Oxford and Harvard - next, it could be me. Or you. Or (heaven forbid) one of your children. Or my co-worker who is sent to the US head office on a business trip, but suddenly is snatched and taken away on dubious pretexts, like what happened to Ottawa engineer Maher Arar not so long ago.

Multiple Universes?

Unless... scenario 1: Carney is so cunningly shrewd none of us can see what he's ultimately up to, and we shall be forever grateful to him, upon realizing he is actually the Best PM Ever!, and (hey, just give him time), eventually we'll all be rich and Canada will be leading the world in humanitarian-grounded, indigenous-respecting, eco-friendly and forward-thinking prosperity built on unicorn glitter and a touch of inventive (but purely legal) Mark Carney™ accounting that even the most Capital-C Conservative minds will get behind.

Or... scenario 2:

We've been duped by a cunning, life-long capital-protecting wolf in sheep's clothing that will sell us all down the river to pad their own pocketbooks and secure their own upper-class family's future, damn the torpedos, full steam ahead and let the cards fall where they may. Pour me another Scotch, chin-chin.

I watched Mike Myers give a lengthy interview to CBCnews' Paul Hunter this evening. He was asked why he went out on a limb and made that "Elbows Up" TV ad, strongly endorsing Mark Carney during the election campaign. His answer: "Is (Carney) the Almighty? No. But is he the alternative? Yes." This summed up my own thinking upon having leant Carney my support.

DC has its "Infinite Earths"

Marvel has its "Multiple Universes"

And we Canadians are stuck in this timeline, which just might have itself a Jekyl & Hyde Prime Minister, using the moment to fool us all into working for our own collective damnation.

Or... scenario 3 (unicorn land):

On Canada Day, July 1st, 2025, PM Mark Carney welcomes home the "around 55" Canadians upon landing in Canada, free from their hellish ordeal in ICE ill-defined detention, for specious reasons that don't even give a crap about their rights as Canadian citizens. A victory that shows Canada that Mark Carney's got the goods.

That's the Universe Canada deserves to find itself in on this Canada Day, and I'll bet Mike Myers (as well as most Canadians) would be behind that, full-square.

Happy Canada Day!

Now: May the real Mr. Carney please stand up?

Make me believe in unicorns.

- 30 -