The jig’s up for Andrew Scheer. He resigned as Conservative party leader today. As we have said many times here, he’s a nice guy. But…Nice guys don’t always know how to act in front of a microphone, in a debate, in a news scrum or be a strong leader. We’re not sure he could ever have been taught any of those things. Seems that’s not the only reason he resigned today.
It appears there was a news item that was going to surface that party donations to the tune of $100,000 were used to pay tuition for his kids private schooling. Seems people were a tad ticked off with that, although it is not unusual for parties to pay for life’s expenses. What angered people was that Scheer was not up front with this information. We are guessing it goes with not telling anyone that he was an American citizen. The word transparency figures here.
Nice guys need to unite their party, half of whom were livid at him for losing the last election. Scheer was simply unable to do that. As the saying goes, on with the show. Blanche, how many people do you think are going to throw their hat in the ring?
Rona Ambrose, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, but has a weak French? Maxime Bernier sealed his fate in the last election. Peter MacKay? Feh. Jason Kenney? Will he leave Alberta and go for the big time in Ottawa? Lisa Raitt who lost her seat? Caroline Mulroney? Watch this name – Bernard Lord. Time will tell.
The gruesome murder of four people in Jersey City two days ago was, on many levels, yet another wake-up call for Jews around the world.
To begin with, it is virtually impossible to protect or prepare for such an attack. These people choose soft targets, like kosher grocery stores and synagogues, where they know no one will have any weapons and will not be able to defend themselves.
Plant a security guard in front of every kosher grocery store in the world? Not happening. Be vigilant? And so, we’re vigilant? But when someone comes at you with a huge gun, what good is vigilance?
The stark and very realistic truth is that G-d runs the world and there’s not much we can do. Here in Quebec we are not allowed to carry any weapons. Not so in the United States. As we were witness to in a recent trip to Rhode Island, people carry loaded guns when they go out. One man told me that if he’s in a synagogue or Jewish store and someone comes in with a weapon, he’s not going quietly. Such is life today, sad as it is.
Then there’s the genius Rashida Tlaib, a good friend of another brainwave, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who tweeted, obviously before thinking, which is the only way she operates, that white supremacy was responsible for the murders in Jersey City.
It was two black people – a man and a woman – who did it. They belong to Black Hebrew Israelites, a fringe black supremacist group claiming that Jews aren’t actually the true Jews — that the actual Jews are black Americans.
Those four women are not worth our time writing about nor your time reading about them, unless they say something so outrageous that we have no choice. This is one of those times.
While you may despise Donald Trump, as a Jew, you cannot not take this away from him: This past week he signed an executive order stating that Judaism is not just a religion, it is a nationality. Like it or not Irving, while you may be living in Boise Idaho, you are first a Jew and then an American. In 1958 there was a debate between a historian from England, Arnold Toynbee and the Israeli Ambassador to Canada, Jacob Herzog.The question on the table was that Toynbee said that Judaism is similar to Christianity and Islam in that it is a religion, not a nationality.
Herzog’s response was long, but in a nutshell he said the following: The Roman and Greek empires, both who chased out the Jews, are long gone. Why did the Jews survive and these mighty empires fall? Because we have kept the same language, the same faith, the same heritage, the same traditions, the same commandments, the same mitzvoth, the same values and faith, the same Shabbos, the same Torah of 3500 years ago.
So the BDS movement on campuses around the world should take a hard, long look at the fallen Empires. Jews have survived because, as Donald Trump just said – we are nation.
To all the Trump detractors, and there are many, yes he’s a boor and any other names you want to call him. But when it comes to the Jewish people, he just gets it.
The results of the British election will not be in until probably 3:00 or 4:00 am…
People best hope that someone comes forward – soon – to run against Valerie Plante, Montreal’s car-hating mayor. Her latest edict to try to completely kill business downtown is called Dynamic pricing — where the cost of parking goes up when demand is high and drops when it is low. So if you work and can’t get downtown to shop until, oh, 5:30 pm, you will be paying a hefty price to do so.
Ergo, you’ll most likely turn your car around and go to the nearest mall.
By the time the next election rolls around, people’s habits will be changed and she will simply walk away like nothing happened, while stores and restaurants turn our beautiful downtown into a ghost town.
Plante is a sneaky, deceitful woman, who had an agenda that she hid when running for election.
Next week Blanche will be on assignment in Israel. We will be doing the Blanche Report, but it will be coming to your inbox at odd hours.
Good Shabbos We’ll talk…