Ooh, lookie here, it’s another disputed island. This time we’re duking it out with Denmark:” Defence Minister Bill Graham says Canada will assert its sovereignty over Hans Island in response to a letter of protest from the Danish government. There is concern that global warming has made the Northwest Passage more accessible to shipping and Graham says Canada needs to act.” The United States, for example, still considers [the Arctic waters] to be international waters.”Yo, Bill: The country with the largest military in the developed world is claiming that the water surrounding Baffin Island is as much theirs as ours, and we’re all worked up over Denmark claiming a land mass that’s half a square mile in area? (ETA: you want your threat to national sovereignty? I got your threat to national sovereignty right here.)”So much to make fun of in this story, so little time at the library computers. For instance:” Graham was not clear on exactly how Canada will assert its sovereignty without the equipment to keep foreign vessels out of Canadian waters. “Um, we’re Canadian. And we’re dealing with Denmark. We’ll ask nicely?”And: the battle of the Google ads!” Toronto resident Rick Broadhead googled the matter and found an ad that touted Hans Island as Danish. “Does Hans sound Canadian? Danish name, Danish island.”"Oh, spare me the parochialism of Western Europe. What the hell does a homogeneous nation know about these things? Galiano Island has an Italian name, but unless it migrates out of the Georgia Strait, it’s ours for keeps. And are you going to point at us and laugh at our funny place names like Ottawa and Manitoulin Island which sound funny and not-English? I mean, kindly do school us, Denmark, on what “sounds” Canadian, will you? We’re how many of us immigrants or first-generation, who fled countries like yours? Because, in part, we have a less narrow view of what it means to be from “around here”?”Idiots. Watch this one totally not get resolved.

I’ve never been to the Maritimes before. This year, I’ve been feeling particularly Canadian, and particularly ready for a vacation. Freshly graduated, with some real income coming in in a few weeks from my (high-paying) new job – it seemed like the right time. And camp’s in Maine this year, which I interpreted to mean that God is telling me to get my ass over to the Maritimes this summer.”This afternoon, I sketched out a vague itinerary, which can be summarized as follows: Visit three national parks in three provinces, stopping at convenient and interesting places along the way. I bounced up and down at length, and then phoned my parents to tell them about this, and they asked me if I was aware that Canada’s national parks workers were on strike. I might want to change my summer plans, they suggested, and the Fisheries Museum is interesting “Crap.Or not: There were various disruptions and waived fees at the country’s 40 national parks and 150 national historic sites yesterday. ” Many drivers honked. Others asked what was going on. Some stopped to pay an entrance fee, but nobody was collecting.”Sweet.”For now. It’d be best if this ended soon, as entrance fees pay for park upkeep, but a few days of free tourism while I’m in the neighbourhood? Sign me up.”[Edited Aug 18 to say - This is classy. The strikers are not backing down, but they are also making a point of not pissing off the public. If the TA union I belonged to had figured out a way to do that last year, we might have managed to finagle a decent contract.]

I predict a sudden spike in the number of listless, ambitionless teenage boys who suddenly know exactly what they they want to be when they grow up. (Particularly what with the shortage.)