Author: Blazingcatfur

“Celebration? What celebration? It feels more like a funeral” – the damning words of a former senior Nato figure to describe this week’s ceremonies marking Victory in Europe Day.

The top-level diplomat who spent years at the transatlantic defence alliance asked not to be named in order to speak freely, but why so nihilistic? VE Day was a joint Allied triumph over Nazi Germany; over hatred, dictatorship, the Third Reich’s territorial expansionism and heinous crimes against humanity.

So much blood was spilled achieving that victory. Some 51 million Allied soldiers and civilians died during World War Two, united in a pursuit to rid the world of the scourge of Nazism.

You can hate Trump all you wish, that doesn’t make him wrong for calling out entitled NATO partners who expect America to carry the brunt of defence costs.

The rebuilding of post-war western Europe is dismissed as mere US self interest. That’s Euro gratitude for ya.

Despite the knee-jerk anti-Americanism that taints Canadian mythology it is inevitable that we will be grateful for our Southern neighbor again.

I recently noted that even struggling New Mexico, the only U.S. state to end the last four decades less economically free than it began, is still more prosperous than most Canadian provinces. That’s largely a result of Canada losing ground in terms of wealth relative to its southern neighbor after decades of hand-in-hand growth. But Canada’s provinces outstrip almost all states in at least one area.

There are few entities that embody the close, fraternal ties between the US and Canada quite like the Saginaw Spirit junior ice hockey team.

In a place whose fortunes have been more down than up in recent decades, the Dow Event Center hockey arena in Saginaw, Michigan, comes alive with more than 5,000 fans once these young stars take to the ice. A huge banner depicting the players adorns the main street into the city.

Nearly all the players, aged 16 to 20, come from Canada, and stay with local Saginaw families during the regular playing season, which runs from September to April.