I remember watching the funeral of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 2000, and seeing his son Justin, aged 28, speak an eloquent eulogy. At the time we didn’t know a whole lot about him. He was teaching secondary school in Vancouver, and this eulogy seemed like our first chance to get to know this guy.

I’m sure I was not the only person who thought - this guy is good, he might have a career in politics.

I particularly like the story he tells at the 6:00 mark, of his dad taking him to the Parliamentary cafeteria, when Justin was in grade 3. Justin remembers telling a childish joke about one of the other politicians that was there, and his dad insisted that that was inappropriate and took him to meet this other politician, and explained that differing opinions don’t mean a lack of respect for the others, that mere tolerance is not enough, and we need genuine respect for each human being. (He doesn’t say who it was, but I suspect it was former Prime Minister Joe Clark.)

And he did have a good career in politics. With challenges at the end, with a lot of angry Canadians making unwarranted personal attacks, but I think history will look kindly on his career as Prime Minister. It might take a few years for some to calm down, though.

And he may have hung on too long.

But … he’s been particularly good the past few weeks, responding to US trade sabre-rattling. It seems that once you announce you aren’t running again, once you don’t need to worry about re-election, you’re empowered to say what we all need to hear.

Yesterday, Mark Carney was elected as the new Liberal leader to succeed Justin Trudeau. I wish him well. I hope he can embody the dignity, compassion and toughness that both Prime Ministers Trudeau showed Canada when we needed it.

We went to a fun CFL Fans Fight Cancer gathering at the Left Field Brewery in Toronto’s Liberty Village last night, and joined CFL fans across the country in raising money a great cause and generally counting down the days until the season kicks off (note: home opener, Saturday June 14, Argos vs. Calgary!)

There was a lot I liked - a great cause, great friends, great food, and the pub’s QR-code-based ordering and payment system actually worked promptly - but I was really happy to see these signs on the rest rooms.

This is how it should be, everywhere, and it’s a shame there need to be signs.

Everyone Who Identifies As A Man And/Or Non-Binary Person May Use This Space

(Of course there was a corresponding sign on the W room door too.)

This Is An All Inclusive Restroom

This sign was inside.

The sign says -

Please trust that everyone knows which restroom is appropriate for them.

Choosing to use a restroom that is the most comfortable and appropriate for you is not a privilege, it is a right. Harassment and gender policing (scrutinizing, assuming, judging or categorizing another person's gender) of any kind will not be tolerated.

At Left Field, we are proud to offer a space where community, family and friends can gather to responsibly enjoy fresh, locally made craft beer and food together and be free from discrimination or harassment of any kind. Harassment includes offensive comments or attitudes related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, differing abilities, physical appearances, body size, race, religion; deliberate intimidation, following and unwanted sexual attention.

At any point during your visit, if you are made to feel unsafe, uncomfortable or in danger or if you witness someone else who may be in need of assistance, please discreetly alert one of our team members and we will make it our top priority to help without question or judgement.

We welcome you to inform us of any past instances of feeling unsafe in the brewery and to provide us with any suggestions of how we can become a more inclusive space by emailing mandie@leftfieldbrewery.ca. All communication of this nature will be treated confidentially.

Nothing is more important to us than the safety and comfort of our team members and valued guests. We believe that beer is a space that is for everyone and we will take all necessary actions to uphold this policy.

Cheers!

Team Left Field

SAFE AT HOME.

Well done, Left Field Brewery. We’ll be back!

Much thoughtful analysis has been written about yesterday’s Ontario provincial election, but you probably won’t get THIS anywhere else.

There were 769 candidates in 124 ridings, from ABDULSALAM, BAHIRA to ZUBERI, MUSTAFA, from Ajax to York-Simcoe. I salute them all. It takes a lot these days to put yourself out there. Thank you.

Most Votes Mike Schreiner, Green Party, Guelph 34,238
Fewest Votes: Jim Torma, Populist Ontario, Niagara West 71
Most Votes by Non-Winner Andrea Grebenc, Liberal, Burlington 24,078 (Lost by 40 votes.)

Most Common First Name: David 13
What About Steve, Stephen Stephanie, Steven Etc, What If You Added All Those Up: OK sure, 22

Most Common Last Name: (tie) SMITH and QURESHI

• Smith: Nori, Graydon, Dave, David, Laura
• Qureshi: Sarah, Sameer, Mansoor, Haseeb, Faiz

Shortest Riding Name: Ajax
Longest Riding Name: Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes

Most Candidates: (tie) 9 in each of Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, Mississauga East—Cooksville, Sarnia—Lambton

Fewest Candidates: 3, Eglinton-Lawrence

Longest Candidate Name: PROTOPAPA, LAYLA MARIE-ANGELA (New Blue Party, Hamilton Mountain)
Shortest Candidate Name: (tie)

• FOX, RON (Liberal, Brantford—Brant)
• GAO, JAN (PC, Ottawa South)
• HSU, TED (Liberal, Kingston and the Islands)
• LIU, SUE (PC, Don valley North)

Party that came last in total votes, the Electoral Reform Party (with two candidates, in Waterloo, and Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas), total votes 240. I hope that’s not as symbolic as it sounds.

By winning the ridings of Kiiwetinoong, Mushkegowuk-James Bay, Thunder Bay-Superior North, Timiskaming-Cochrane and Nickel Belt, as shown here, the NDP won roughly 66% of the area of Ontario.

Get all the numbers here from Elections Ontario.

update! new! Canadian content at the end!

Boston mayor Michelle Wu on piano

This is pretty amazing. Can you imagine the mayor of your town doing something like this?

that got me curious to find more examples of Politicians Playing Piano, so here we go.

Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton on piano

President Bill Clinton on the sax

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on piano

US President Richard Nixon on piano

He’s playing his own composition here!

US President Harry Truman on piano

Canada’s governor-general Ray Hnatyshyn (to come)

More to come as I find them. I’d really like to find a Canadian example - I know that former Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn played clarinet, and would occasionally sit in with the RCMP Band. (I did learn that he used to be part of something called the Intensely Vigorous College Nine at the University of Saskatchewan. That looks like fun.

(I have no idea if he’s in those photos.)

I like to think that when I’m Governor General, one of my aides will always carry a trombone and I’ll sit in with the Central Band of the Canadian Forces to play 2nd trombone on the anthem of Peru or whatever is going on today, and the crowd would chant “Hey, Governor-General Hayman! Play a solo!” and I would quitely decline and let the pros do it. Some day…

Canadian Content At Last

Friends passed along these links too.

Ontario Premier Bob Rae

Here’s Bob Rae playing piano and singing for the Queen on her 90th birthday. He’s a talented pianist and never passed up an opportunity like this. You’ll find lots more examples on Youtube.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Prime Minister Harper, just like Bob Rae, rarely missed an opportunity to perform. Here he is playing and singing With A Little Help From My Friendsat the National Arts Centre. And just like Bob Rae, you’ll find lots more examples. Here’s a whole Harper Sings playlist.

"I am, sorry if you think that we'd be better off annexed." -- Chantal Kreviazuk

No, Chantal, that’s not the problem, nobody is thinking that. Please, just sing the anthem normally because we are all really anxious to sing along with you.

Let me start by saying that I care deeply about our National Anthem and am still annoyed that there is a problem with the National Anthem Act, an actual mistake in the sheet music that you may have heard me complain about. And I also have a little experience performing the anthem before a game - dozens of times with the UW Warriors Band, sometimes at a pre-Olympic basketball match, occasionally with Argonotes before an Argos game and even once at the World Beer Games, a debacle that some day will earn its own blog post.

So anyway.

Last night Canada beat the USA 3-2 in Boston, in a thrilling conclusion to the 4 Nations Faceoff hockey tournament. And I am very glad we won, because if we hadn’t, we’d all be blaming Chantal Kreviazuk for the loss.

Things being how they are, the atmosphere was politically charged, and thousands of Canadians in the arena in Boston, and millions more back home (including Cathy and me at a packed Esplanade Bier Market in Toronto) were desperate to sing along.

Chantal Kreviazuk, who is a fine singer, and who I’m sure had the best of intentions, decided to change one line to make a statement and take a shot at President Trump’s persistent attempts to make Canada the 51st state. So instead of True patriot love, in all of us command! she sang True patriot love, that only us command.

She wrote the modified lyric on her hand, too, and shared this photo

OK - a nice thought - BUT ….

Somehow she fumbled the 2nd line in French also, singing O Canada! Terre nos ..aieux ..uhhhhh instead of O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux! (which is “O Canada, land of our ancestors.")

So this is how it went. With millions watching. I will annotate what many were thinking.

1. O Canada! (Canadian fans, YES LET’S GO WHOOOOOOO)
2. Terre nos aieux uhhhh! (Canadian fans: Wait, What was that? She must be nervous)
3. True patriot love! (Canadian fans: OK, back on track, here we go, I’m ready to sing)
4. That only us command! (Canadian fans: Huh? What song is she singing? She’s lost me, I need to start my social media complaint.)

She also, as is sadly common, over-elaborated on the tune.

And of course some US fans were booing the whole time. Fair enough, we booed yours.

Now, I think Ms Kreviazuk is a fine singer, and she meant well by putting in a dig at Donald Trump on line 4, and she has since apologized, sort of, writing

i am sorry if my performance of our national anthem rubbed you the wrong way. if i was a little off pitch or if it wasn’t perfect in its tone. i am sorry if i messed up the french line i inserted to bring some balance to our nation’s history without losing those words “glorious and free” in english…

i am sorry if you think that we’d be better off annexed.

here is the thing. art to me is an expression of our truth. and in this very peculiar and potentially consequential moment i truly believe that we must stand up, use our voices and try to protect ourselves… no - we should express our outrage in the face of any abuses of power. i was raised in part by music that was inspired by brave voices committed to peaceful conflict resolution.

Canada , not unlike ukraine is a sovereign nation. period. we have a culture individual to others. we are united in our values. we care. we’re kind. We are strong. #canadastrong #expressyourtruth #peaceandlove

“I am, sorry if you think that we’d be better off annexed.” NOBODY IS THINKING THAT. Here’s what we’re thinking.

Things are very politically charged between Canada and the USA right now, and we all desperately wanted to sing along with you. This is a glorious opportunity for a talented singer like yourself to lead us in belting out O Canada, but to do that, we need to be able to follow your lead!

Especially at an international match. Let us sing with you! We want you to lead us! And perhaps if you’re going to make a political statement, do it at the end when we’re all behind you, not at the beginning when we’re all rattled by this change.

I was mad at the time; now, I’m grateful for her apology, and hope she’ll get another chance but this time, sing the song as written, and let us proudly sing it with you too.

What I hope people learn from the Delta crash at YYZ:

• wear proper shoes and warm clothes; you might have to climb out into the snow;

• keep seatbelt fastened until the plane arrives in a full upright position at the terminal;

• passport, glasses, wallet in your pocket. no hunting around for your carryon in an evacuation;

• listen to the flight attendants, they’re amazing.

I am a little curious how the Canada Border Services Agency handles something like this. How do you clear the incoming transborder passengers who are all wandering around on the tarmac, some of whom have been evacuated to hospitals, etc.

Years ago, an Air France plane skidded off the YYZ runway next to Highway 401; again, miraculously, all the passengers got out, but some wandered onto the highway and flagged down passing cars. Then what? Hmm.

On the wearing-proper-shoes thing. Yes, perhaps your flight is departing from a warm place. But it might make either a scheduled or emergency landing in a cold place. (last May, Air France from Paris to Seattle landed in Iqaluit. Surprise!) Be ready.

You, over there, wearing shorts and sandals on a trip back from the Caribbean to Canada in February. Don’t be a dope.

whoops.

we bought our own UniPass transponder - cfxway.com/uni/ - and took it to Florida last month, and drove around in a rental car after updating our account to include the rental car license plate. Easy peasy.

Guess what happens if you return the rental car and neglect to update the unipass site, thinking “oh, surely it will only bill me if it actually detects my transponder, not just the license plate.”

well at least now I know where SOMEBODY was driving.

(protip: when you return the rental car, DON’T FORGET to go and unregister its license plate from your transponder account, or you might get billed for wherever the next person is driving. I thought the only thing the tollway would care about is the transponder, but apparently it falls back on license plates too.)