PONDERABLES
Why does Chrystia Freeland always speak as if she’s talking to a junior kindergarten class?
PONDERABLES FOR THREE LEADERS
Has the Ukrainian crisis caused President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Quebec Premier Francois Legault to change their minds about their wrong-headed opposition to increasing Canadian pipeline capacity? And will Justin Trudeau invoke the Emergencies Act the next time pipeline construction is interfered with? Regretfully, the answer to both questions is probably “no.”
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
Justin Trudeau seems to firmly believe that disagreeing with him on anything is treason.
Jean Charest would probably win a federal election, but it’s far less certain he can win the Conservative leadership.
BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden again confirmed he’s no friend of Canada, this time by unequivocally stating he will ignore the existing free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Then, in an interview with CTV’s Evan Solomon, the US ambassador to Canada, Michael L. Cohen, was evasive and disingenuous trying to insist Biden said no such thing.
The number of empty seats in the House of Representatives was noticeable. It’s not surprising that a lot of Republicans boycotted the speech, but it was surprising that only five of the nine Supreme Court justices and two of the eight Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff were there.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE SPEECH I EVER HEARD
And it was less than fifteen seconds long.
It was a gathering of over 1,000 men, women and teenagers at a black-tie Junior Achievement fundraising luncheon at a downtown Washington, DC hotel in the mid-70s. The legendary actor John Wayne was the guest speaker. The program listed his topic as “Volunteerism.”
At the appointed time, Wayne unfolded his massive frame from his seat at the head table, ambled the short distance to the lectern, grabbed it in both hands, and leaned slightly toward the microphone. He paused, cast his gaze over the entire audience, and then characteristically drawled, “I’ve been asked to talk about volunteering. Volunteering isn’t something you talk about, it’s something you do!” Without another word he returned to his seat. After a short, stunned silence the audience broke into a boisterous standing ovation.
I’m convinced no one in the audience has ever forgotten that speech and the poignant message it so effectively conveyed. I also suspect numerous organizations gained many dedicated volunteers because of it.
AND THE WORST
In the mid-80s the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accounts held an annual conference in Ottawa. Finance Minister Marc Lalonde was to be the keynote speaker at the plenary session. About 2,000 attendees were in the audience when the Chairman announced that Lalonde wasn’t able to make it.
Another Liberal MP (whose name I’m not going to use for reasons that will become obvious) was introduced, took the podium and read Lalonde’s very long, very technical speech. The hapless MP was a poor speaker to begin with, and reading someone else’s speech is a recipe for disaster at the best of times. Inevitably, the result was by far the worst speech I’ve ever heard, by the end of which about three-quarters of the audience had already fled. I would have fled too, but I had to thank him!
But, thank him for what?
I couldn’t even use the trite “thank you for taking the time away from your busy schedule,” or the equally trite “thank you for coming such a long way,” because he was obviously ordered to come and had only to take a three-minute or so stroll across the street.
I walked up to the lectern, handed him his gift, and said, “Mr. ___, I’ve heard many speeches in my life, and that was one of them.” The 200 or so remaining stragglers gave me a loud ovation. The MP, thinking it was for him, said “I didn’t think it was that good.” I assured him it wasn’t and walked away.