Wednesday 22 September 2021

Jagmeet

The wonderful thing about Jagmeet

Is Jagmeet’s a wonderful thing!

His top is made out of rubber

His bottom’s made out of a spring!

He goes bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

But the most wonderful thing about Jagmeet is

He’s the only one.

(Adapted from the lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman) 


Ever since I watched the post-election speeches and saw the NDP leader bouncing around the stage with his followers, the jingle from the Walt Disney film of Winnie the Pooh has been bouncing around in my head. The leaders gave predictable speeches with rhetorical flourishes and mounting passion, but I felt that only Jagmeet really meant what he said. If only Trudeau had kept his important promise to replace FPTP with preferential voting, then many of us would have voted NDP without the risk of splitting the liberal vote and being governed by a party that doesn’t believe in climate change.


The original song is about Tigger, a wonderful character who can’t stop bouncing around, much to the concern of Piglet, who worries about being bounced upon, and Eeyore, who is bounced into the river and mistaken for a Poohstick. If Jagmeet is a tigger, then perhaps Erin is a leopard trying to change his spots.

Tuesday 14 September 2021

Knitting


A
fine cartoon appeared in the Globe and Mail a night or two after the English debate of the Canadian party leaders. Obviously, the viewers in the pub found the debate boring. 

The cartoon evoked a response from a reader:

Re The Knitting Channe(Editorial Cartoon, Sept. 10): Who is The Globe and Mail calling boring? We knitters take offence that our craft was used as a foil for a perceived lack of interest in the debate. Perhaps if the leaders stuck to their knitting, we’d all be in a better place! (Joe Schwarz Penticton, B.C.)

Indeed! During the debate M. Blanchet urged his Anglophone counterparts to stick to their knitting and not interfere in Quebec politics. Mr. O' Tool  is knitting his brow as he tries to stitch the extremes of his party together, and the Greens are certainly not a close-knit group. Mr. Singh is constantly needling his opponents, and Justin Trudeau has certainly dropped a stitch or two.

For other idioms and metaphors, see Nautical Metaphors and It's Not Cricket.