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Today was Pride Day in Charlottetown. As always a great parade, loads of people, families, kids etc. Just plain people enjoying themselves. We had lunch at the gallery café on Great George Street, the perfect weather to sit outside and enjoy a nice lunch in a quiet atmosphere. Tonight we went for oysters and fish (halibut) and chips at the Water Prince, is was a very good meal, but it was quiet, so strange, we are in July and it should be impossible to get a table for dinner, long lines of people etc, not this Summer it is very quiet, many merchants are noticing the change.
Strangely I feel disconnected from Pride day parade compared to what it was in the 1990’s and in the decades before, I don’t really relate to it anymore. Is it because in Canada we do not have the issues we see elsewhere? Or is it because so many other issues have taken it over, most of it makes no sense. Too many politicians also now use Pride to sell their agenda and collect support. Today the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew in for the parade, he needs political support right now and it is strange that he would choose to come here in July for a parade. He came and was allowed to walk in the parade because of a deal with the PEI Pride group, conditions were spelled out and he has to endorse the agenda of PEI Pride, reading about it, it all sounded pretty entitled and promoting again the victim agenda. I did not see any provincial politicians. Trudeau was wearing the right outfit with indigenous feather symbol, doing lots of selfie with people in the crowd. Pride now is associated with the issue of Reconciliation with indigenous people, trans people and the new pansexual and asexual people. I do not know how we came to that leap but it is all part of it. What I see now is rejecting one part of society and promoting another part. Trudeau is good at that, White people are the racist settlers and we commit genocide, Indigenous people are victims who hold all wisdom, promotion of victimhood, apologies taking the form of billions of dollars in any kind of program for every fringe group. The history of the country being modified/erased to fit the new agenda. The one significant problem is most people do not know the history of Canada and all its nuances and complexity. Judging the past with modern eyes and condemning it wholesale. This creates another division in society between the French who have a history going back to 1534 and the English starting in 1760. There is also the division between older people over 50 crowd and young people under 35 crowd. Then the immigrants who know nothing about Canada and cling to the clichés they have been fed. The latest cabinet shuffle in the Trudeau Cabinet looking like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Some elderly and tired politicians given big portfolios, like Defence, when they are clearly not able to deal with simple ones. There are some serious problems in Canada right now, the inflation crisis which is only going to get worse with crop failures and climate change seeing food prices soar. There is not one item in the grocery store under $5.99. So many other crisis it seems we are running in circles. Jokingly Friday at the Club a fellow member said to me, if July is the warmest month ever on Earth, we will remember this Summer as the last coolish Summer compared to all the ones to come. I can understand times of crisis but now it all seems out of control with no solution in sight.