Olympic Afterthoughts

Canadian flag-bearers Mikaël Kingsbury and Marielle Thompson lead Team Canada into the opening ceremonies to officially start the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy on Friday, February 06, 2026. Photo by Mark Blinch/COC *MANDATORY CREDIT*

It’s over for another 4 years. The Milano Cortina Olympic Games 2026 were wonderful to watch and I can only imagine how participants feel. Canada is proud of all our athletes and those who support them.

No matter how one looks at it, Norway comes out on top. Congratulations to Norway! Whether it’s gold medals or medals per capita, Canada ranks 11th, but if one looks at medals for total medals, Canada ranked 8th – not too shabby. I think per capita, however, is key. The pool from which the country has to draw talent, the available money to support the athletes, the facilities available in the athletes can train, and so much more affects the final Olympic Team. So special congratulations to most countries in Europe for ranking in the top 10 on the per capita list: Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, and New Zealand. Where did the United States rank in the list of medals per capita? 23rd – Yup. No comment.

Another perspective from which to view the medal winners (and I’ll admit I just learned this from my research) is the payouts some athletes receive from their representative countries for winning a gold medal. Apparently, Italy will pay out $7,757,000, $213,000 to each gold medalist; United States $3,022,500, $37,500 to each; Switzerland $1,512,000, $64,000 to each; and Poland $1,238,000, $355,000 to each. Who knew? Apparently Canada also pays gold medal winners: $915,000, $15,000 to each. In Canada there’s a push for the government to better support the up and coming athletes in future. I would rather see the pre-Olympic support than the post-Olympic reward. Wouldn’t that be more in the Olympic spirit?

The Olympic spirit is all about solidarity and fair play. One of the key drivers is to build a better world through friendship and peace. Ideally, the Olympics would be apolitical, but historically with world bad actors that just isn’t possible. I thought the following perfectly depicted how the world felt last weekend:

Screenshot

I’m not going to criticize the officiating or whine about missed opportunities. I will, however, give kudos to Conner Kellebuyck who miraculously fended of 41 shots on goal. It was amazing! However, for Felon Trump to award a hockey player the Presidential Medal of Freedom was a shocker. Really? I’ve understood past rationale for people like Simone Biles who was an outspoken activist in her sport as well as an accomplished athlete, but this didn’t hit the mark for me.

I am more impressed with the 5 members of the U.S. hockey team and the entire women’s hockey team who refused to attend the State of the Union Address last night. Your actions speak loudly across the world. Congratulations.

All Canadian athletes can stand proudly.

Jesse Ventura Pulls No Punches

Before this morning, if you’d asked me who Jesse Ventura was, I would have responded, “I think he used to be a wrestler”. I guess that shows my age as well as the fact that until recently I really didn’t pay much attention to American politics. Today, however, he caught my attention on CBC’s the Rosemary Barton Live show.

Ventura was invited to the show to follow up on his call that Minnesota should join Canada! Admitting his comment was partially tongue-in-cheek, he says that he’s even thought of a name for the new province: “Minni-toba” (combining Minnesota and Manitoba) and added, “We’d get free health care!” He went on to blame the American people for the current predicament stating, “The last election was simple. You had the choice of the constitution or the criminal and for some reason they took the criminal. So they shouldn’t be surprised at what they’re getting.”

With both parents having been World War II veterans and himself a Navy Seal serving in Vietnam, Ventura pulled no punches on his opinion of Donald Trump referring to him as a “draft-dodging coward”. He says Trump wants to be a fascist dictator and his people are the Gestapo.

Jesse Ventura ran to be Governor of Minnesota under the Reform Party (remember Ross Perot?), then supported the Green Party and endorsed Kamala Harris for president in the last election. When asked this morning if he was considering re-entry into the political arena and running for Governor to which he replied, “I’m having that consideration and other considerations” and further explained that with current Senator Amy Klobuchar announcing that she will be running for Governor, somebody’s got to run for Senator and “wouldn’t that put me at eye-to-eye with him?”

While he never outright stated that he would be running for the U.S. Senate, Ventura did say “it won’t be serious until you see the beard cut”. So, Minnesotans, you’ve got someone else fighting in your corner. And, he says he’s still got a little wrestler left in him. Canada’s in your corner!

Perhaps a more centralist politician is what the U.S. needs right now. Here’s hoping we soon see a clean-shaven Jesse Ventura!

Trump: Gone too far or too far gone?

Amidst rumors of stroke, dementia and general mental decline, the President of the United States is demonstrating behaviors of a mentally and emotionally imbalanced person lashing out at anyone he feels has been personally offensive. This is his rationale for outrageous, disrespectful comments about NATO and leaders of Canada and European countries.

Trump’s latest affront regarding NATO troops in the Afghanistan War staying “a little back, a little off the front lines” has many insulted – and rightly so. Tell that to the families of over 1,000 non-American soldiers who died answering the United States’ call to arms after 911 to fight the Taliban.

Aside from numerous Canadian Red Cross and first responders who travelled to New York to help in the aftermath of 911, over 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces troops were deployed to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. 159 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan and more than 2,000 returned home wounded. Tell them they were on the sidelines! UK Prime Minister has called Trump out and rightly so. The British forces suffered 456 fatalities and 2,188 wounded in action. That didn’t happen a little off the front lines. Plus, with all of Trump’s envy of Royalty, does he even know that most British Royals serve in the military? Only Prince Harry served in Afghanistan, but his family have all served in other wars, while neither Donald Trump nor any of his family have served in the military. Donald has ‘ducked’ service three times.

So, where would Donald ‘Duck’ get this idea from? Neither Vance nor Hegseth saw battle in Afghanistan. Pete Hegseth was in Afghanistan as a trainer. Methinks Donald Duck was told of the American casualties during the war. Yes, the United States lost 2,420 souls during the war – a tragedy. Compared by nation, the U.S. lost more than any one nation. However, if one compares the population of the U.S. to the populations of other NATO countries, the statistics reflect a different perspective. But, Donald Duck’s pea brain isn’t capable of this analysis.

POTUS has definitely gone too far. Is he too far gone? Is it merely the combination of lack of intelligence and a narcissistic personality that causes his outbreaks? There is so much contrary evidence:

  • Incoherent speech and making up words.
  • He uses wrong words. Example – Iceland instead of Greenland at Davos.
  • He switches topics midstream. We’ve all seen it, but the one that I was most surprised at was the video of when he was recently meeting with oil company executives and suddenly arose from the table to brag about his new East Wing.
  • He lies. Not once in a while, but all the time! And his lying behaviour has spread through his administration.
  • He’s speaking and acting as an emotional reaction rather than fact and logical analysis.

Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, has both gone too far and is too far gone. He is not mentally capable of leading any country, let alone one of the world’s powerhouses. He’s not even capable of understanding that he’s gone too far. There’s no sense in asking for apologies. Congress, American people, anyone: Can you not see this? Are you not capable of stopping him before he does more damage?

Canada’s Prime Minister gets Rare Standing Ovation at World Forum

For those of you who might not have had the opportunity to hear Mark Carney’s quiet yet deliberate eloquence, a fellow Canadian blogger has offered us the entire speech. Well worth the read.

Brilliant

I have never been so thankful for our leadership and so proud to be Canadian. No speech writers here – this is our leader at his best.

True North Strong and Free!

Canada says “Hands Off Greenland!”

Note to readers: When I published this I didn’t know that in 1917 Denmark sold its Caribbean islands to the United States – renamed the U.S. Virgin Islands. As part of the treaty, U.S. recognized Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland.

Donald Trump has such an inflated sense of self intelligence and importance he thinks he’s pulling the wool over our eyes. Trump orchestrates the arrest of Venezuela’s President on drug charges claiming it’s to protect Americans. Nonsense. It was really to gain access to Venezuela’s oil. Now he wants Greenland to protect the United States from potential Russian aggression. More nonsense. Truthfully, what Trump wants is their treasure of rare earth minerals.

This is no game. It’s been reported that the President of the United States has actually directed the Joint Special Operations Command to draft an invasion plan. An undisclosed source says the generals have said, “It’s like dealing with a five-year-old.” Here’s hoping they learn quickly how to play his game, because that’s all Trump knows.

Trump is a five-year-old. He’s taken to referring to North and South America as “the Western Hemisphere” and doesn’t even realize that much of the U.K. and Europe are actually in the Western Hemisphere. He doesn’t have manners or respect for anyone. He thinks everything is a game. He wants his own way all the time. He doesn’t know politics, history, or geography. He is a five-year-old! If you’ve ever played with a five-year-old you know their attention span is short and when they don’t get their way, they knock down the blocks or kick in the sandcastle.

Greenland isn’t a property on a Monopoly board. It is a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark; ergo a part of NATO. While many Greenlanders support independence from Denmark, they certainly don’t want to be a part of the United States. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederikson has said, “You do not change borders by force”. Kurt Volker former U.S. Ambassador to NATO claims that if the U.S. takes Greenland by force it will be the end of NATO. Basically, the world is in agreement: Hands off Greenland!

Greenland and Canada have experienced a long, positive relationship. They are both members of the Artic Council and both rely on indigenous peoples for their input concerning maintenance and protection of the north. Greenland shares a border with Canadian territory Nunavut. There was a long and lighthearted dispute between the ownership of Hans Island yet Denmark and Canada amicably agreed to split it. Greenlanders are Inuit (90% of the 56,000 population) and Canada has over 70,000 Inuit. Canada’s esteemed Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, is of Inuit decent and has extensive experience in artic affairs. She also happens to be the Commander-in-Chief of Canada’s Armed Forces. To strengthen the ties between Canada and Greenland, the former is opening a Canadian consulate in the latter’s capital city Nuuk.

While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is taking action on several levels to protect our northern borders, Donald Trump is still playing games – mouthing off at every chance he gets. “We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not”, “If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will”, and “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean they own the land.” Really? No, Denmark and Norway colonized Greenland in the 1700s and acquired the land through the Treaty of Kiel. By today’s standards, Denmark ‘owns’ the land. Morally, perhaps we should consider the Innuit ‘own’ the land. Either way, as Mark Carney has said, “The future of Greenland is for Greenland and Denmark to determine.” Ah, the adult in the room.

Back off, Donald Trump. Hands off Greenland! You cannot acquire, annex, take, purchase or occupy Greenland. NATO won’t let you.

16 Days of Activism: Defined

Many are not aware of what these 16 days represent, so I felt it necessary to explain. The 16 days start on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, through to December 10, Human Rights Day. The 16 days call for solidarity to end violence against women and girls everywhere. It’s about time the Ontario government recognized gender-based violence as an epidemic.

16 Days of Activism: Montreal Massacre

In Honour of Alzheimer’s Month 3

Being a caregiver to someone inflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease can be all consuming. Hopefully this might help…

Remembering Mom Part 3 – How to Help Your Dementia Loved One