Hot Takes: 12 March 2024
What did I say on the radio today?
1. Hot Docs film festival may go under. I understand this is a job and a source of income for many in the film and festival industry – but for consumers, it’s a luxury. And, in the natural order of things, people trim luxuries before they trim essentials. With the high cost of living right now, few Canadians can afford many luxuries. If only our governments lived by the same credo: shrink your footprint when you can’t afford big shoes, our country would be better off.
2. Everyone “Graduates” in Ottawa. I wanted to hate this idea because it cheapens education. But, I don’t hate it because I’m not sure it does. Many kids don’t graduate – and shouldn’t, because they haven’t earned it. But, they still pass out of school and they’re socially connected to the cohort of their peers that is graduating. So, if you do this right, I think it’s fine to include all of them in the social celebration at the end of school. In fact, that’s been happening for decades, we just didn’t call it out. Many kids in my Commencement Ceremony in 1982 hadn’t earned enough credits to graduate from grade 12 – but they were there for the party because they were our friends.
3. Is Woke government killing our language? There’s a lot of different criticisms in this Tristan Hopper piece. From the elimination of gender in language to the use of made up pronouns. I don’t take issue with the “rewriting” examples of language that has had gendered pronouns removed because in most cases, it’s actually improving and clarifying the language. For example, revising “After the server escorts the guests to their table, he can take their drink orders” to “The server escorts the guests to their table and then takes their orders” is just better writing. But, I take issue with invented pronouns and the outright perversion of the word “they” which is, and always should remain, a plural pronoun. It is not a non-gendered singular pronoun. I won’t use it that way. Changing he/she to they just makes our language confusing.
4. Pedestrian injuries up in Toronto. This analysis just suggests the millions spent by Toronto on its “Zero Vision” project isn’t working. Any normal person would axe the spending on a failing project. However, normal people don’t work in government. Instead of parking the idea until we can afford to throw money at pet projects, most at city hall will suggest this means “double down.” No sane person ever doubles down on losing cards – if they’re betting their own money.
6. Oakville’s “Nazi” Monument. I’ve never seen it outside a photo and I don’t have problem with it, because I interpret it as a place to gather and remember soldiers, brothers, fathers, sons and daughters, sisters, mothers who died in a far away, long ago war. I see it as a symbol of sacrifice and service, not political ideology. Most soldiers are not politicians. Politicians start wars. Soldiers end them. No soldiers choose the enemies they fight or the wars they serve in. There is room in our hearts and in our cemeteries to remember all who made the ultimate sacrifice to serve their neighbours and countrymen. We have Canadian graves and memorials in Germany. We were their enemy. We have room for one here. This one should be a remembrance of the soldiers – not the unit, which was a Nazi creation. If it’s being revised, I would take the unit crest off the monument and put the soldiers’ names on. Appropriate measures should be taken to prevent it being twisted into a pro-Nazi icon for modern day fascists.