Right in the centre - Some questions and some statements
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- Published on Friday, September 4, 2020
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner & Press
鈥hy is the Canadian government ordering nearly three times the number of COVID-19 vaccines as there are people in Canada?
鈥hy have there been less than 12 deaths a day in New York State for the last month or more when they were losing over 800 a day in April? What did they do to bring down the death rate? Are they doing that good of a job of protecting the vulnerable?
鈥hy has the death rate fallen so much in Canada?
鈥as C-19 taken out all the vulnerable people in Canada and in New York? That鈥檚 doubtful, as there are hundreds of people in care homes and with health issues that haven鈥檛 gotten sick, at least not yet.
鈥hy don鈥檛 the various health departments announce the daily deaths due to flu, suicide, traffic accidents or natural causes?
鈥as the whole C-19 thing gotten placed out of proportion compared to other diseases and causes of death?
鈥as C-19 shown us that the whole hand washing, cover your cough, stay home when you are sick routine should have been our routine all along? The Australian stats seem to show that, with them having lower flu deaths during C-19.
鈥s everyone tired of hearing about, writing about and talking about C-19? I am.
鈥hy is it OK to go to a demonstration, a big department store or a riot, but not a football game?
鈥 peaceful demonstration is one thing but rioting, looting, shooting and damaging property is another. A peaceful demonstration is a right, the rest are not.
鈥ho is paying the expenses for the demonstrators or better yet, the rioters?
鈥ill the governments in both the United States and Canada do the right thing and arrest the lawbreakers and restore peace, law and order?
鈥ill someone please bring back the teaching of Canadian history? Tearing down statues doesn鈥檛 help anything except to stamp out the lessons of history.
鈥ere鈥檚 the John A. Macdonald story in a nutshell. In the mid 1860s, the United States had built up a huge army to fight the Civil War. Macdonald saw what was shaping up and that when the United States was done fighting each other, they could well turn their military attention towards Canada. The U.S. would likely have won.
In 1864, the Charlottetown conference was held and out of that grew the beginnings of Canada. Four provinces joined together in the Confederation in 1867: Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A small portion of what is now 水果视频 joined in 1870. 水果视频 became the size it is now in 1912. BC joined in 1871, based on the promise of a trans-continental railway (the CPR). PEI joined in 1873 and all the while, the area now known as Alberta and Saskatchewan stayed as the North-west territories until 1905. Newfoundland and Labrador joined in 1949.
Without the determined, yet highly flawed, Macdonald, there would have been no Canada. Certainly, western Canada would likely have become part of the United States. I doubt that the people who want to tear down Macdonald鈥檚 statues would be happy with that prospect.
Disclaimer: The writer serves as a volunteer chair of the 水果视频 Community Newspaper Association. The views expressed in this column are the writer鈥檚 personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the MCNA board or Banner & Press staff.
