What need more be said?

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

Reference to source (news report, URL, etc.) please...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 09, 1999.

Sorry, not a linkmeister. However, Chretian just sold his Ottawa residence for $500,000, and the Gov General has announced he will step down before the end of the year. Try the NationalPost.com.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

Thanks. Found the governor-general item here: Governor-general stakes to end in October

...Romeo LeBlanc, a former Liberal cabinet minister appointed governor-general in 1995, has said he wants to retire by the end of the year. A successor has not yet been announced, but sources close to the prime minister are hinting he is poised to break with a tradition of patronage appointments of loyal but low-key party stalwarts.

Along with this week's larger-than-expected cabinet shuffle, and a fresh speech from the throne in October, Mr. Chretien is said to be looking forward to "turning the page" and injecting new momentum into the second half of his mandate with the choice of the Queen's next representative in Canada...

Doesn't sound like the governor-general post is that big a deal, but that's possibly just my own ignorance of the system in Canada.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 09, 1999.

And of course my inate inability to close links properly... *sigh*

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 09, 1999.

Aaaaannnnd...

Here's the link re the PM's sale of his home: Chreti en sells Ottawa home for $500,000 goes here (Sale stirs talk of prime minister's retirement)

But the recent house sale, combined with the fact that Mr. Chretien has built his family a large new residence on the site of his former cottage on the shores of Lac-des-Piles, a village located just outside of Grand-Mere, Que., is fuelling talk in Ottawa political circles that Mr. Chretien is preparing for retirement.

Mr. Chretien has adamantly denied that he plans to step down. After he unveiled a cabinet shuffle on Tuesday, he declared it "the team I intend to lead into the next election."

Mr. Song, the Ottawa house's new co-owner, declined to discuss the real estate deal when a reporter visited him yesterday. Mr. Song initially claimed he was merely renting the place, but withdrew the remark when a reporter said he had the deed of sale.

Mr. Song would not discuss the $500,000 purchase price, which is considerably above the $316,000 City of Ottawa market value assessment for tax purposes.

He also declined to discuss what he or his wife does for a living or describe what it was like to negotiate a house deal with the prime minister.

"As you can see," Mr. Song said pointing to his tattered grey work pants, "I'm not a very rich man and I don't want to discuss my private life."...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 09, 1999.

What this has to do with Y2K is beyond me. According to reports from the last year, the Canadian GG has failing health and wants to retire early. The Prime Minister is selling a house that he has not lived in for years. This is 2K related? Talk about grasping for straws...

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999.

Pro, thought you'd lurk around here. Let me just say, the GG post is the most prestigious appointment in Canada. You are ROYALTY. You are waited on hand and foot. Noone steps down early, without a very good reason. Health has nothing to do with it. Period. Try again.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

I think the more pessimistic-minded are extrapolating again.

Our beloved PM said in a news conference last week that he has no plans to retire before the next election (due sometime before the summer of 2002. (Of course, if he was going to retire he wouldn't actually advertise the fact.) Chretien may, or may not, retire before the next election, but I'd bet the family silver that he will be around to lead Canada into the 21st Century.

WRT the Governor General, DOWNtheROAD may describe it as "the most prestigious appointment in Canada", but most of us up here would NOT choose exactly the same words. More like "superannuated politician to whom the PM owes a crumb or two". I'd imagine that 90%+ of Canadians couldn't even name our G-G and wouldn't really care that they didn't know. The G-G's role is 99.9% ceremonial and the one asset any G-G should possess is the ability to smile and make small talk with thousands of people about whom you don't give a rat's *ss. Kinda like what the Queen has to do except without the money, the nice houses and the dysfunctional family.

Now that we are well and truly off topic, here's an observation about our Chretien and your Clinton. Our PM has almost unlimited power but almost no ideas, whereas poor old Billy-bob has lots of ideas but not that much power anymore.

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999.

Canuck, you're an embarrasment. What do you think I am, American? What the hell point are you making anyway?

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

Ooooooooooh! Someone in Canada sells their house! And someone else quits their job! This has never happened before. Something big is up!

-- cd (artful@dodger.com), August 09, 1999.

All I can say is that Chretien and LeBlanc are obviously a hell of a lot smarter than the majority of respondents on this post.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

...no, but I would say they are smarter than you. As are most people...

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999.

DOWN THE ROAD

I would agree with Johnny that this is totally OT and has little to do with Y2K. The GG is more of a figurehead much like the Queen, which most Canadians view as a unneeded expense and not at all important.

And the PM go anywhere? HA! Not bloody likely in the near future. I happen to like Chretian myself. Anybody in his position that sits in a Wendy's and has pop and a burger with the 22 minutes crew has got to be pretty good in my books. His security issues are up to some debate though.

This is a non issue.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

Y2K Pro

Suprized you would bother with this issue, are you a Canadian? DS from back east? :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

Of course Brian. I forgot that the GG and PM aren't affected by Y2K. Thanks for the insight.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

Guyana's prez. has also decided that now is an optimum time to quit. I wonder if she's been reading that Naval War College stuff?

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999.

What this has to do with Y2K? Well it looks to me that Chretien is "running for the hills"....

"But the recent house sale, combined with the fact that Mr. Chretien has built his family a large new residence on the site of his former cottage on the shores of Lac-des-Piles, a village located just outside of Grand-Mere, Que.,"... (Lac-des-Piles is conveniently located in the Mauricie National parc, far from large cities but close to small towns...sounds like my Y2K bugout, except it isn't newly built for Y2K and not large...)

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Ottawa either if SHTF...Wonder where Clinton's going to be? Perhaps in his new $40 million Y2K information gathering compound?

(Trollyannas, don't flame me, I'm not a Y2K Doomer Nut, I'm only a "deeply concerned" average citizen, honest.)

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 09, 1999.

DTR

Not a problem!

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

Well I'm Canadian......and seeing as you're interested in news about Canadians that has absolutely NO relevancy to Y2k, I thought you might be interested in my equally useful news......

First of all, I had ravioli for lunch and a nice piece of raisin pie for dessert. It was scruptious! After that I had some coffee and did some work.

After work I am going golfing. Golf was invented in Scotland, which incidently is not Y2k compliant but they do have nice fish and chips and beer. They wear funny hats and go to football games where they have a hearty exchange of potty mouth with the opposing teams supporters and throw bricks at one another.

The bricks, however, are Y2K compliant and come with a full warranty.

After golf I may stop by my local pub and amuse the patrons with my clever anecdotes and unstoppable wit.

Perhaps I'll even phone our Prime Minister later tonight and ask how much he really got for his house and if he had to leave those horrible purple fuzzy curtains he has in the billiard room..........hahahaha........

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), August 09, 1999.

Really Craig, you're not helping the IQ average on this site. Too many doomers just brings the whole score down.

DOWNtheROAD

-- DOWNtheROAD (foo@foo.com), August 09, 1999.

Chris

To me it hardly inspires a yawn, In BC the regular politics is laughable at anytime (I can remember), Ottawa just plods along. We should consider ourselves lucky that this is the most interesting thing posted about Canada in the last two weeks. (it is not interesting)

Posted this before but a couple of weeks ago a weekly magazine here wrote that the brand new high speed ferries have noncompliant issues with the bridge equipment. How in the hell did noncompliant equipment end up on the most modern ship on the seas. Just unbelievable that the "topic never came up". 300 million dollars each is no chump change either.

This is of course not even looking at if there are safety issues. The one thing you don't need is ANY problem in a Pacific storm during January.

This is nothing of course compared to the fact that we have heard diddley about the Chemical Industry in Canada. What we build them differant up here?

Also, to the best of my knowledge there is no contingency planning on long term outages during the winter, and you would think that they would have learned after the Quebec Icestorm but it doesn't seem to be the case. Y2K would be wonderfull incentive for a country wide commitment for local planning in case of such an event.

Of course I have lots of other bitches about Canada but on the whole we are doing as good as can be expected compared to the rest of the world.

I don't care if the PM sells his house. *VBG*

Here is my website, best Canadian Y2K site going. And not an Add on the site. Have at her.

Y2K in Canada and Beyond

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

Craig

The PM is a terrible shot eh? Just clobbered him a couple of months ago.

DOWNtheROAD

Oh great!!!! now we have a Canadian that worries about IQs. Now how would high IQs help the enjoyment of good beer? :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

DOWNtheROAD

Hey Craig isn't even a doomer! (scratching head???)

What's that saying, better to say little and let others have doubts about your intelligence that to say something and remove all doubt?

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 09, 1999.

Hey DTR

If you are Canajun - why don't you move to the Land of the Free and improve the average IQ of both countries? ;-)

-- Johnny Canuck (j_canuck@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999.

I'd feel better about all of this if I understood who is going to win the Eskimoes/Blue Bombers game this week.

-- GA Russell (ga.russell@usa.net), August 10, 1999.

GO ESKS GO!!

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), August 10, 1999.

The Eskies 41-17........

And I'm better than Nostradamus.....

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), August 10, 1999.

No wonder you people can't be serious at a time like this! The Canadian government is telling us we're not to worry:

Ottawa announces y2k-readiness

(for educational purposes only)

"Updated: August 10, 06:30 am

Y2K / Feds

Ottawa says it's ready to welcome in the new year. The feds have announced that billions-of-dollars and 11-thousand computer trouble- shooters later, their computer systems are ready for the turn of the century. While some departments have declared themselves 100 percent prepared for the coming of Y2K, a report soon to be released contends that Ottawa's most important equipment is only 99-percent ready. That contention is explained by a Treasury Board spokeman who says that 99- percent is as good as it gets because even under normal circumstances, it's tough to declare any system perfect."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 10, 1999.

I see that Edmonton beat Winnipeg 56-26, so congratulations Craig!

(I picked all four games wrong this week in the internet contest!)

-- GA Russell (ga.russell@usa.net), August 14, 1999.

I'm glad you lot are all north of the border,

you're all mental :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 14, 1999.

Maybe, but that "everyone go LONG!" version of gridiron that they play certainly trains good quarterbacks for the NFL (Moon, Kelly, Flutie, etc.), in addition to being a blast to watch.

I think the Aussies would have enjoyed that Chargers-Broncos game a lot more if they'd played Canadian rules...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 14, 1999.

I think the Aussies would have enjoyed that Chargers-Broncos game a lot more if they'd played Canadian rules...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid)

Not to sure what you are reffering to with the "Aussies" but their "Aussies rules Football" is "real" football and not the wussie game like up here. Just loved playing the game when younger, almost as fun as hockey. No pads and anything goes, lots of fun :o) Face in the mud kind of thing.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 14, 1999.

So as I'm reading this, I'm thinking how OT can we get, 'til it occurs to me that this year is quite likely the last for CFL :( They're in so much hot financial water that even a slight recession is apt to do them in. *sigh*

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), August 14, 1999.

Tricia,

Let's distinguish between the CFL, a private corporation, and the annual challenge for the Grey Cup, donated by King Edward's Governor General to the people of Canada.

A depression would chase away any fast buck artists from the CFL (if there are any), but so long as 24 Canadian men wish to compete for the Grey Cup, there will still be the Grand National Drunk.

Some time I'll tell you about the time Damon Allen, Reggie Pleasant and Randy Rhino came to my Grey Cup party. Last year Gerald Alphin made it.

-- GA Russell (ga.russell@usa.net), August 14, 1999.

GA, I'm envious - if you ever get Wilky or Moon, I want an invite too!

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), August 15, 1999.