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In July, I visited Washington D.C. on a casual political pilgrimage. It was the only place to have a chat with Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Abe and Tommy were just fab with their advice and insights.

Washington is a most intriguing city. Thanks to the convergence of Virginia and Maryland, its urban planning is confusing. My GPS, a toy I’m not too fond of (I’d rather rely on my brain. It rarely fails me…debateable of course), had a hard time making sense of it. It took me 30 minutes to find my Best Western hotel in Georgetown.

We finally settled in and began to immediately absorb the gentle southern sensibility Washington exuded. I asked a few natives whether Maryland was “officially” a Southern state. They couldn’t answer me in the definite, what, with it being the capital and a “border” state during the Civil War.

There was too much to see and do in just one day and a half. We decided to take a trolley across down. It was the only realistic way to get a glimpse of the city. On and off we went the trolley and it was worth it. For next time, we know what and where we want to focus.

One of those spots is Arlington National Cemetery. Many Canadians probably never heard of it and if they have it was recently when it was announced Ted Kennedy (scratches head) was going to be buried there. Still scratching.

Washington and Canada have a special connection I discovered. Nationalists here, predictably, take a twisted pride in the fact we (well, technically the British) burned down the White House in 1812. However, on our trolley journey along Pennsylvania Ave., we discovered Canada’s embassy was located there as opposed to Embassy Row to “mark the special bond between the two countries” as the guide put it.

Makes sense to me. There is a special connection between Canada and the United States.

Arlington Cemetery, too, commemorates Canada. Specifically, its  military heritage. While Canadian soldiers aren’t buried on Arlington’s hallowed grounds, our nation and flag are. It turns out, Americans fought under the Canadian flag during World War I and Mackenzie King, the long-serving Canadian Prime Minister, suggested in 1925 a memorial be built to remember this and President Calvin Coolidge obliged.

This became known as the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice. The monument was designed by Canadian Sir Reginald Bloomfield.

Canada has a proud military history and heritage. I visited the monuments dedicated to Canadians in Dieppe. France and the Netherlands, two nations liberated by Canada, have never forgotten our efforts and sacrifices.

Sadly, Canadians have. We’ve let our military pitifully whither and wallow into obscurity.

It’s a shame.

Presumptuous title I know. But let’s face it: The average person has never thought to check out Felix d’Herelle.

More than just street names, these scientific minds stand on research guard for thee and are significant figures from our past. They’re people who ensured Canada was represented at the table of great ideas and contributions to history and mankind.

Here we go shall we?

Reginald Fessenden: The Father of Radio Broadcasting. Fessenden was born in Quebec and actually worked for Thomas Edison at one point.

From the first link titled, ‘Unsung Hero’:

“If Canadian radio archives do not contain as much material as they should, there is one historical event well documented - the achievement of Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian who made radio history by transmitting the letter “s” in Morse code from Cornwall, England to a receiving station on Signal Hill overlooking St. John’s Harbour in Newfoundland on December 12, 1901.

But an equally historic event, the achievement of a brilliant Canadian inventor, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, is generally ignored and largely unknown. On December 24, 1906, at 9 P.M. eastern standard time, Reginald Fessenden transmitted human voices from Brant Rock near Boston, Massachusetts to several ships at sea owned by the United Fruit Company...”

Charles Huggins: The pride of beautiful Nova Scotia (and an American citizen), Huggins won the Noble Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1966 “for discovering hormones that could be used to control the spread of some cancers...” (Wiki)

James Collip: Was a brilliant Biochemical researcher from Ontario before embarking on a great medical journey. While Banting and MacLeod are recognized as having discovered insulin (subsequently winning a Nobel prize), Collip along with Charles Best were unrecognized instrumental parts in the development process. Best and Banting were looking for ways to treat diabetes but couldn’t purify the (bovine) pancreatic extract. Collip was recruited by MacLeod to solve this problem and he succeeded in making insulin usable.

Simon Newcomb: Was a self-taught polymath with no formal training and a Canadian-American astronomer/mathematician originally born in Nova Scotia. “Newcomb set to work on the measurement of the position of the planets as an aid to navigation, becoming increasingly interested in theories of planetary motion.” (Wiki)

John Plaskett: Born in Ontario, Plaskett “…made significant contributions to the study of star pairs, known as binary stars…In 1922, he discovered a massive binary star system, which was the heaviest on record for many years - a discovery which gained him international respect as an astronomer.” (Canadian Astronomy Education)

Oswald Avery: Yet another native Nova Scotian, Avery later emigrated to the United States where the bulk of his work as a molecular biologist took place. He’s considered to be a pioneer in immunochemistry “but he is best known for his discovery in 1944 with his co-worker Maclyn McCarty that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are made. Previously, hereditary information (genes) was thought to be stored in cells and in protein molecules.” (Bio-Medicine)

Felix d’Herelle - Like Newcomb d’Herelle was a self-taught individual and a microbiologist born in Montreal. He co-discovered bacteriophages.

Colin MacLeod - Born in Nova Scotia and a Canadian-American biologists, he’s recognized as the founder of molecular biology and researched the role of DNA in bacteria.

Norman Bowen - A native of Kingston, Ontario, Bowen helped to establish a discipline that brings together chemistry and geology known as petrology.

John Tuzo Wilson - From Ottawa, Wilson was a geophysicist who pioneered the study of plate tectonics and was internationally acclaimed for his work, theories and research.

Walter Zinn - Zinn was a physicist from Berlin, Ontario before it was renamed Kitchener during WWII. He worked with Enrico Fermi’s team on the Manhattan Project. “Zinn released the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction by withdrawing a control rod from the world’s first nuclear reactor in 1942 at the University of Chicago.”

William Giauque - Though born in Niagara Fallas, Giauque is a Canadian-American who won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1949 for his work on the properties matter at temperatures close to absolute zero or third law of thermodynamics.

Boy, is Obamacare getting hot or what? Have you seen footage of some of these Townhall meetings springing up across the country? The government is asserting this is all a conspiracy driven by the insurance companies who have too much of a vested interest in letting health care reform take place. Personally, I think the White House has lost its mind. When a government speaks openly about conspiracies and actively asks people to spy and snitch on one another well…

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Thomas Jefferson, 1788.

Obviously, Canada is in the middle of the debate. Yay! Attention! Despite some inaccuracies, I like this video because these guys actually secretly filmed their experiences within the system here. Be forewarned, it’s from Pjamas Media - a conservative media outlet. Ooooo, so scared, mommy!

Both sides are presenting their side of the story, and while each make valid points, I still feel the left paints waaayyyy to nice a picture and under estimates just how difficult it is to run such a massive operation while the right paints waaayyy to scary a picture.

All I know is, A) good luck in trying to control costs and B) the Canadian system IS under severe strain. These facts are well-documented and can be seen in plain view when you visit a hospital.

The video is valuable for one reason: It takes a secret camera inside clinics in Quebec. The picture is stark inside a semi-private clinic imagine public! See, I told you Mike we should have done this years ago when I suggested it.

Like most videos of this sort, it suffers from some factual errors. But still far less egregious and outrageous than anything Michael Moore puts out about the subject relating to Canada.

For example, they interview someone about his experiences with dermatology. Who cares? Like dentistry, dermatologists have private practices therefore they’re irrelevant to the discussion.

An important distinction is not made: As someone (Paul say hello) keenly point out to me, these are semi-private clinics. Not public hospitals. Public hospitals never close. Just as importantly, the Quebec system is not indicative of what goes on in other provinces since health care falls under provincial jurisdiction. For instance, Quebec allows private clinics to operate while Ontario doesn’t.This leads to different results.

These are just a couple I spotted. I feel the video was at its best while they were inside the clinics. Nonetheless, it still makes some valid points.

Generally speaking, despite provincial control, nationally we all experience, long wait times, rising expenditures, drops in overall quality of care, lack of accessibility to GPs and advanced equipment, experiencing doctor and nursing shortages and fiscal mismanagement. Canada’s performance in the OECD isn’t exactly something to write home about either.

None of this can and should be disputed. If we do, then all we do is defer to another time to make meaningful changes in enhancing and improving our frustrating Canadian public system.

What kind of changes? Man, that’s the million dollar question. So far, the best we’ve come up with is to expand private services to help alleviate strain on the public side.

Rather than sit back and take glee that the Americans want to have some type of universal care - has anyone read the bill? - maybe we should take this opportunity and assess our system properly and with conviction.

Which begs these questions: Is government responsible for providing care to all its citizens? Are there other ways to get care to the most vulnerable (children and elderly)? Is it feasible to run a universal system over time?

When I was sprouting into a young man in the 1980s, I was (and still am) what is described as a sports junkie. One sport I took a liking to was cycling. But I wasn’t content just to ride my bike along Laval’s long farm roads. No, I had to learn about the history of the sport.

Soon enough, I was armed with knowledge about the Grand Tours - Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana - as well as keeping up with the UCI circuit and rankings. This included the famous cycling names from Fausto Coppi, Eddie Merckx, Bernard Hineault, Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond to but name a precious few. See the list of cycling’s all-time greatest here. Not surprisingly, Italy, Belgium and France dominate the rankings.

Being Canadian, and a proud one at the time, I above all followed the careers of Steve Bauer and Alex Steida.

Bauer finished 4th overall at the Tour de France in 1988 - 4th! Still a Canadian best while Steida was the first North American to ever wear the coveted the coveted Yellow jersey at the prestigious tour in 1986.

Since Bauer and Steida, there hasn’t really been a cyclist to continue in their path. In fact, the 80s were a promising time for not just Canadian cycling but soccer as well. Remember we made the World Cup in 1986? That year, Canadian captain Bruce Wilson presented me with an MVP award at a tournamet at Cap de La Madelaine in Quebec. I was convinced Canada had arrived and the way they played against tournament favorites France early on (we lost 1-0), how could we not be proud and but look ahead? And then it all stopped. But soccer is not the point of this post.

Professional cycling is.

Under the radar screen of most Canadian sports media outlets, Ryder Hesjedal powered his way to a 49th overall finish at the 2009 Tour de France (he was 45th in 2008). Just as impressivley he was a top three rider for Team Garmin-Slipstream behind teammates British rider Bradley Wiggins who finished fourth overall and eight place finisher American Christian Vande Velde.

It’s nice to finally see Canadian representation at prestigious racing tournaments. Hesjedal deserves some attention. He’s earned it.

Yukon Supreme Court set to rule on dog’s fate.

Here’s a teaser:

“Every dog has his day and this is a critical day in the life of Trevor, a two-year-old German-shepherd-Rottweiler cross.

The Yukon Supreme Court is to hear its first capital case in living memory when a judge decides the fate of the dog. Trevor was rescued from a home last January where he was so neglected, his tight collar had grown into his body.

The Whitehorse Humane Society adopted him out, but Trevor was accused of biting three people and sent to a pound last month.”

Whitehorse hasn’t seen so much action since the days of Sam Steele - or Dudley Do-Right. I forget which.

David Carroll is my kind of Canadian. After United engaged in a sophomoric game of passing the buck for breaking his Taylor guitar, Carroll took matters into his own hand (imagine that kids! No government subsided needed!) and creatively used the technological advantages of our times by posting a video of his ordeal on youtube. Next thing he knows, there are four million views for his efforts.

United, not needing the bad exposure, decided to make good.

Which begs the question: Why in the world did they wait so long? Just who are the decision makers in this company? It doesn’t take a degree in management (it always astounds me how even the most educated graduates can be so thoroughly daft) to do the right thing.

The Toronto garbage strike is really getting, erm, smelly. Public opinion is clearly against the union on this one. There are even calls for, gulp, privatizing the garbage collection sector.  Why not? I always say, “You’re not happy? Ok, let’s see how the market values and pays you!” Call my bluff. Ga’head.

This sad situation reminds me of when SAQ workers (Quebec’s monopolistic entity that runs the  alcohol racket, uh, business) went on strike during the Christmas holidays a couple of years back. I’ll never forget the t-shirts strikers wore. It read: “Boss, tu ris de nous autres!”

And then they turned around and mocked consumers as we had to wait in ridiculously long lines. What peeved me, while clinging to a bottle of Campari and Averna, was I had no choice but to fricken grin and accept it. I couldn’t voice my displeasure by taking my business elsewhere.  Why is the government involved in alcohol or casinos and lottery gambling for that matter anyway?

I digress.

At this point, the streets of Toronto are becoming a national embarrassment.

It should be asked: Do government subsidies in the arts produce great works of art?

Personally, and I know people are gonna get loopy on this one, I don’t think subsidies in anything are what they’re cracked up to be.

Let’s take an example from politics. One subsidy that drives me crazy is the one where my taxes go to all political parties in the name of keeping democracy healthy. It seems to me that if, say, Canadians  decide to vote for only the Conservatives and NDP (two parties that can actually get donations from people) and wipe out the Liberals (the “natural” governing party - snicker, snicker) isn’t this real democracy at work in that the people have spoken through their votes?

Why should a person who freely gives from their own pocket to Party A, for instance, be forced to support Party B through their taxes? Where’s the fairness in this?

Similarly, in the arts, why should people pay for arts they may not like? Some people don’t even care about the arts and culture - and that’s their choice to do so. There’s a lot of subsidized art I find to be, well, lame.

We’re  big on the rhetoric of why we need to pump taxpayer money into a lot of things. One popular argument used in defense of subsidizng the arts is  it “protects” culture. Another is it makes a person’s creation accessible to a larger audience and allows for artists to travel to showcase their work. At this point, I’m reminded about something Mordecai Richler once said after being asked to give advice to aspiring authors. He bluntly asserted, “write better.”

I have a few reasons why I’m sketpical of subsidies of any kind - be it in business, science, whatever. First, they tend to reward losing companies in losing industries like Bombardier. And why does Bumbardier get subsidies? To save jobs? Bah. Always remember, money is scarce. The money thrown at big corps usually means there’s less of it for small, profitable businesses. It ain’t about jobs. The economy can absorb job losses. Rather, it’s more of a case of them being plugged in to government officials.

What about what’s the criteria to determine which artist gets the cash? Something tells me the one who knows how to play the political game and gets inside the inner-sanctum will usually get it.

Another problem is that it may or can encourage people who think in their heads they’re artists but in reality actually suck. They’d probaby serve society better in accounting or something.

Finally, there’s no real way to measure (just like the government has no real mechanism to determine if they’re getting a return on the bail outs they dish out) if we’re producing any works of art of note.

I know there’s also a debate about this in the United States about whether the NEA has produced anything of worth since being introduced in the late 1960s.  Didn’t America manage to produce Louis Armstrong, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Judy Garland, Merrie Melodies, (yay Bugs Bunny!) and on and on and on without government involvement in the arts? Government interventionism as a means to an end is soooo 1960s.

In fact, the greatest achievements in human history basically came when government interventionism didn’t exist. I know there were Monarchies and patrons but as a whole this was the case. Plus there were no bureaucrats getting in the way determining who gets the cash.

Now the savvy among you will counter with CANCON as a successful government program protecting and enhancing Canadian artists. But as far as I know, CANCON doesn’t subsidize anyone. Instead, it forces radio stations to maintain a quota by playing Canadian music. Sure, many great Canadian singers and bands benfitted from CANCON but I’m willing to bet they probably would have succeeded without it anyway. In any event, CANCON is a CRTC initiative and until that organization becomes more accountable and transparent I see no reason why to defend it. How can a public organism be so secretive? Above all, such regulations only restrict choice.

So. Do government subsidies (and if you’re from Quebec you may want to cover your eyes) don’t produce great works of anything or just more of it?

I could be wrong. I’ll let our dear readers chomp at the bit on this one.