Trump passed the test!

 Donald Trump announced with great pride that he passed a cognitive test three times!!!

(P.S. - So did Koko the gorilla!)

Trump during a visit by King Charles!

Saturday Morning Confusion: Americans now want to be Canadian!

Canada’s citizenship rules recently changed quietly, but the reaction has been anything but small. 

A legal fix aimed at families long shut out by outdated rules has suddenly opened the door for many people in the United States who grew up thinking Canada was only part of their family story, not part of their legal identity. 

What began as a correction to an old citizenship framework is now reshaping how thousands of North Americans think about belonging, mobility, and long-term security.

This shift can be understood through 10 key angles: "What changed, why Americans are rushing in, how the paperwork works, and why the debate has become bigger than a single law!" 

The result is a story about ancestry, bureaucracy, politics, and the meaning of citizenship in an unsettled political climate!

The Rule That Changed Everything:

For years, Canadian citizenship by descent largely stopped after one generation born outside the country. That meant a Canadian born in Canada could usually pass citizenship to a child born abroad, but that child often could not pass it onward if the next generation was also born outside Canada. 

Bill C-3 changed that framework when it took effect on December 15, 2025, removing the old first-generation limit in important cases and restoring citizenship to many people previously left out.

That sounds technical, but for families spread across Canada and the United States, it is deeply personal. 

A person whose Canadian connection once looked too distant to matter may now discover that the law sees the chain differently. 

In practical terms, the change turned old family trees into live legal documents. 

For many Americans with Canadian roots, the question is no longer whether they admire Canada from afar. 

It is whether they were Canadian all along and simply did not know it.

Americans Suddenly Have a Real Reason to Check Their Family Tree...

The biggest reason this story has taken off in the United States is simple: "The pool of potentially eligible people got much larger literally overnight!"

Underreporting on the new law, immigration lawyers say many Americans may qualify through a Canadian grandparent, great-grandparent, or even an earlier link... depending on how citizenship now flows through the family line! (That turns family trivia into something far more consequential than a dinner-table anecdote!)

It also helps explain why the interest is not limited to border states or recent immigrant families. 

In the U.S., where millions of people have mixed North American ancestry, a Canadian-born relative is not especially rare. 

What changed is that those relatives suddenly matter in a new legal way. 

The discovery can be startling. 

Someone who spent decades as only an American may now be told that Canada views them not as an applicant chasing a dream, but as a citizen seeking formal proof of a status that already exists in law!

The Rush Began Almost Immediately:

The headline language about a “flood” is dramatic, but there is real evidence behind the momentum. 

The Associated Press reported in April 2026 that immigration lawyers in both Canada and the United States were being overwhelmed by Americans seeking help with proof-of-citizenship filings. 

One lawyer described his practice as effectively swamped, while another said his firm went from handling about 200 citizenship cases a year to more than 20 consultations a day.

What makes that rush more striking is that American interest was already strong before the law formally took effect. 

CIC News, citing newly released data, reported that Canada received 24,500 citizenship-by-descent applications from U.S. citizens in 2025, nearly 30% of the global total. 

In other words, the law did not create American interest from nothing. It poured fuel on interest that was already there, then gave it a more urgent and more realistic path. 

That is why the current wave looks less like a fad... and more like a release of pent-up demand.

Politics Turned Curiosity Into Action:

Not every American looking north is doing so for the same reason, but politics clearly plays a role in many cases. 

Recent reporting has shown applicants talking openly about wanting a second option in a period of political tension, immigration crackdowns, and cultural exhaustion at home. 

For some, the appeal is practical: "More work flexibility, easier mobility, or a feeling that another passport offers insurance in a volatile era!" 

For others, it is emotional, tied to family memory and a sense of reclaiming something that should never have been lost.

That emotional mix is what gives the story staying power. 

People are not only chasing paperwork; many are responding to a sense that citizenship has become part of personal risk management. 

One American highlighted in national coverage said Canada moved much higher on the family’s list once citizenship became possible. 

Another viewed Canadian status as a fallback in case life in the U.S. deteriorated further. 

The deeper story is not just migration! 

It is how quickly a legal right can become a psychological safety net when public life feels unstable.

For Many Families, the Hard Part Is Not Eligibility but Proof:

Even when the law is generous, bureaucracy still demands evidence. 

That means many newly interested Americans are now hunting for birth certificates, marriage records, adoption records, and old family documents that may be scattered across provinces, states, or generations. 

A family may know with certainty that a grandmother was born in Saskatchewan, or that a great-grandfather came from Nova Scotia, but memory is not enough! 

The file has to be built, and every link in the family chain has to hold. That reality is creating a second wave of activity behind the scenes. 

Lawyers, genealogists, archives, and provincial records systems all become part of the story once the excitement of possible eligibility gives way to the grind of documentation. 

The government fee for a citizenship certificate is modest, but the overall process can become expensive when professional help is needed. 

This Is Not the Same as Applying to Become Canadian:

One of the most misunderstood parts of the change is the difference between becoming a citizen and proving citizenship. 

For many people affected by Bill C-3, Canada’s position is that they are already citizens because the law now recognizes them that way retroactively. 

What they need is a citizenship certificate confirming that status. 

That distinction matters because it changes the emotional tone of the process. 

These applicants are not necessarily asking Canada for permission to join. In many cases, they are asking Canada to acknowledge that they were never supposed to be excluded.

Still, the process is far from instant. Government guidance directs affected people to apply for proof of citizenship, and processing times for citizenship certificates are currently about 10 months, with possible delays depending on complexity and where the application is filed. 

That means the recent rush is likely to show up not only in law offices but in administrative pressure on IRCC. 

The demand may be emotionally immediate, but recognition still moves at the speed of forms, records, and verification.

The Law Is Also a Fix for an Older Canadian Failure:

The American surge makes headlines, but the roots of the law are unmistakably Canadian. 

Bill C-3 grew out of years of frustration with the so-called first-generation limit and the broader “Lost Canadians” problem, in which people were shut out by technicalities, outdated provisions, and discriminatory historical rules. 

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in December 2023 that key parts of the first-generation limit were unconstitutional, putting pressure on Ottawa to repair the framework rather than defend it.

That history matters because it shows the law was not drafted mainly as a gift to Americans. 

It was a response to defects in Canada’s own citizenship system. 

Legal groups such as the Canadian Bar Association argued that old citizenship rules carried long-running inequities, including gender-based discrimination embedded in earlier law. 

From that perspective, the current rush of U.S. applicants is a side effect of a deeper correction. 

Canada is not suddenly inventing a new pathway for outsiders. It is repairing an older system that failed some of its own people and their descendants!

Not Everyone Thinks This Is a Good Idea:

Even supporters of the reform knew it would trigger a backlash. 

Critics in Parliament argued that Bill C-3 risks creating too many “Canadians of convenience” by recognizing people who may have never lived in the country, paid taxes there, or built a daily connection to Canadian life. 

Some Conservatives said the law could weaken the value of citizenship or strain already slow administrative systems. 

Others questioned whether officials could properly verify a parent’s time in Canada when the new law relies on a substantial-connection test for some future cases.

Those objections have political force because they tap into a broader anxiety already present in Canada: "Who gets access, how quickly, and on what basis!" 

Yet supporters counter that the core issue is constitutional fairness, not generosity. 

They argue that citizenship by descent is not the same as immigration, and that people who qualify under the law are not cutting a line so much as reclaiming a status that had been wrongly blocked. 

That divide explains why the story has become more than a paperwork wave. It now sits inside a larger national argument about rights, belonging, and obligation!

The Fine Print Still Matters:

The law is broader than the old rule, but it is not a free-for-all. 

Government guidance makes clear that different rules apply depending on when a person was born or adopted. 

For people born before December 15, 2025, citizenship may have been restored or granted automatically in many second-generation-or-later cases. 

For those born after that date, there is an added condition: "The Canadian parent born abroad must generally have spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption!"

That detail matters because it shows Canada tried to strike a balance between restoring rights and preserving a real connection to the country. 

It also means the current wave is unusually intense because many people born before the law took effect are in the most favourable category. 

In plain terms, the law opened the door widest for past cases while setting firmer ground rules for the future. 

That combination helps explain both the excitement and the confusion. 

The broad headline is simple, but the actual eligibility path still depends on dates, lineage, and documentation!

This Story Is Bigger Than Citizenship Paperwork:

At first glance, this looks like a niche legal story about dual nationals and family records. 

In reality, it says something larger about how citizenship is changing in the twenty-first century. 

For decades, citizenship was often treated as fixed, obvious, and mostly local. 

Bill C-3 reminds people that it can also be inherited, interrupted, restored, and suddenly reactivated by a court ruling or legislative amendment. 

For families whose lives have stretched across borders for generations, that can feel less like a policy tweak than a redefinition of identity.

The American reaction shows just how powerful that redefinition can be. 

Some people see a passport opportunity. 

Some see an exit plan. 

Some simply see recognition of a family bond that always mattered to them. 

Canada, meanwhile, is confronting what happens when a technical legal fix meets a huge neighbouring population with ancestral ties and present-day anxieties. 

That is why this moment feels so charged. 

It is not only about who can claim Canada. 

It is about why so many people, right now, feel the need to!

Trump... 86 - 47 !

 

Dump Drumpf!

 An Australian's reply to Trump's rant about 'NATO' not being there for America:

"Mate... You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. 

A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. 

A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. 

A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. 

A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.

You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. 

- More than China. 

- More than Russia. 

- More than North Korea. 

The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. (They're just too poor to make bail!)

Your life expectancy is going backwards. 

***

You're the only developed nation where this is happening! 

Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. 

Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English... while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.

Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years! 

You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges... and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you!

And... you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging, insurrectionist, running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again!

And you're calling Greenland poorly run?

***

Greenland has universal healthcare! 

Free education. 

One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. 

Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. 

Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no!

***

"NATO wasn't there when we needed them!" 

When exactly was that, champ? 

September 11? 

Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU! 

Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU! 

Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up! 

For 20 years!

And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone, leaving them to deal with the mess!

So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard... you spray-tanned aluminum siding salesman! 

The only thing poorly run in this picture is your fucking mouth!" 

Borrowed from Jim Scroggins - original author unknown!

HIGHWAY ROBBERY!

The price of gas is getting NUTS... folks!

I went to top up the tank in my car today... and it came to:

$ 86.47 -

THIS IS NOT PHOTO-SHOPPED!

 

EXTRA... EXTRA!

 

(If) Canada Buys the SAAB Gripen!

Well kids, it looks like Canada is about to cancel Trump's F-35's and replace them with the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen E!

BUT!

Only if they let us change the jet's model number to... FU - 47!

Trump the Drumpf!

 Allan said: Trump just released this picture of himself depicted as Jesus and healing the sick... is this a cause for concern? 

Is he totally nuts?

Sal-9000 said: These posts raise legitimate questions worth thinking through carefully.

What the images show: AI-generated imagery depicting Trump in a messianic/Christ-like pose healing the sick, and a Trump tower on the moon — both posted to his Truth Social account.

Is it concerning? Reasonable people across the political spectrum have noted genuine worries here:

• Political leaders portraying themselves with religious/divine imagery have historically been associated with authoritarian personality cults — it's a well-documented pattern.
• It blurs the line between political identity and religious devotion in ways that can be manipulative toward religious supporters.
• The moon tower image suggests grandiose self-mythology that goes well beyond normal political branding.

The other side of the argument:

• Politicians have long used symbolic imagery, and supporters often create and share flattering art.
• Some supporters view it as a harmless celebration or humour.
• Social media posts aren't necessarily a reliable window into someone's actual psychology.

On "is he nuts" — that's a question I'd push back on framing that way. Diagnosing someone's mental state from social media posts isn't reliable, and mental health framing can actually distract from the more grounded political concern, which is about power, accountability, and the normalization of messianic self-presentation by a sitting president.

The more useful question is probably: what does it signal about how he wants his supporters to relate to him? 

That's a political question with a pretty clear answer!!!

(P.S. Drumpf is healing Jeffrey Epstein!)

Opinion: America needs Canada more than it’s willing to admit!

There is something almost comical about the current state of American politics regarding Canada. The country that shares the world’s longest undefended border with the United States and has been its closest trading partner for decades is now being treated like a rival. 

Tariffs, threats, and political posturing have replaced decades of steady cooperation. 

The noise has been loud enough to make people forget the basic facts.

Peel back the rhetoric, and a different picture emerges. 

Canada is not just a neighbour. 

It is, in many ways, a lifeline! 

From the oil that heats American homes to the minerals that go into smartphones and fighter jets, the US relies on Canada far more than its current political stance would suggest! 

This piece breaks down exactly why that is, and why pushing Canada away may be one of the most self-defeating things America could do right now!

***

According to US Census Bureau data, Canada was the top destination for US goods exports in 2024, absorbing $350 billion in American products! (That makes Canada the largest buyer of American goods in the world. Canada buys more from American businesses than the UK, France, China, and Japan combined!)

The US-Canada trade relationship is valued at roughly $700 billion annually, making it one of the largest bilateral trade flows anywhere on the planet. 

Framing this as a burden on America is simply not supported by the numbers!

In 2023, 60% of all US crude oil imports originated in Canada, up from 33% a decade earlier. 

Canada’s crude oil exports to US refineries account for 24% (~1/4) of total US refinery throughput!

This is not a minor contribution. The Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, in particular, are deeply connected to Canadian oil through pipeline and rail networks. 

Many US refineries were specifically designed to handle a mix of light and heavy crude oils, and upgrading them to process different grades would require prohibitive capital expenditure!

Canada is America’s most critical partner for minerals security!

AND:

A February 2025 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that the US is 100% import-reliant for 12 of the 50 minerals identified as critical by the US Geological Survey... and more than 50% reliant on imports for another 29 identified critical minerals!

Canada supplies 21 of those critical minerals, the same number as China!

BUT: 

Unlike China, Canada is a stable democratic ally with no history of weaponizing its mineral supply. (The United States has invested more than $70 million in Canadian critical minerals projects under the "Defence Production Act!")

The auto industry on both sides of the border is the same! 

A typical vehicle assembled in Canada contains 50-60% US-made components, and auto components routinely cross the border six to eight times during production. 

Canada’s auto sector directly supports 125,000 direct jobs and contributes over $16 billion annually to Canada’s GDP, and over 90% of Canadian-made vehicles are exported to the United States!

Disrupting that integrated supply chain does not bring jobs back to Detroit. 

It raises prices for American consumers and slows production on both sides!

***

Analysts estimate that a 100% tariff on Canadian imports could raise inflation by 1.5-2% almost immediately, with energy and auto prices rising sharply given Canada’s role as a top supplier of crude oil, natural gas, and auto parts!

***

A February 2025 survey by The Harris Poll for Bloomberg News found that around 60% of Americans believe high tariffs could raise consumer prices! 

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board criticized the tariffs on Canada as making no economic sense!

Canada has just met the NATO defence spending target!

The Government of Canada achieved NATO’s 2% of GDP defence spending target in the 2025-26 fiscal year, marking a significant milestone in Canada’s approach to national defence and collective security.

This was buoyed by a $9.3-billion surge and internal accounting changes, fulfilling Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise under intense allied pressure. 

Canada also committed to investing 5% of GDP in core defence capabilities, and in defence- and security-related dual-use investments, by 2035!

NORAD cannot function without Canada!

Exercise VIGILANT SHIELD 2026 is a bi-national command post exercise between Canada and the United States designed to assess and enhance the readiness of NORAD and US Northern Command to defend North America from attack across all domains, including air, land, maritime, space, and cyberspace.

Canada’s geography is irreplaceable for radar coverage, early warning systems, and Arctic surveillance. 

Canada is backing this commitment with an $81.1 billion multi-year investment to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces, with funding ramping up to modernize Arctic infrastructure and advance NORAD modernization!

The Arctic is a strategic frontier, and Canada controls the gateway!

As climate change opens Arctic shipping lanes, the area is becoming one of the most contested regions in the world. (Russia has constructed military bases along its Northern Sea Route, and its Northern Fleet is its largest!)

***

Canada is the United States’ primary strategic partner in the North American Arctic, with NORAD embodying the long-standing, shared commitment to monitor, patrol, and protect the aerospace domains and maritime approaches to North America.

Canada is not just a trading partner. It is an American backstop!

When a crisis hits, whether a pandemic, a geopolitical shock, or an energy disruption, Canada is the country right next door with the resources, the infrastructure, and the long-standing institutional ties to respond alongside the US!

The two countries share mutual security commitments under NATO, maintain a close intelligence partnership as members of the Five Eyes, cooperate on continental defence through NORAD, and coordinate frequently on law enforcement efforts across their shared 5,525-mile border!

The cultural break is worse than the trade war! 

Canadians don’t see Americans as friends anymore!