You’re right, they don’t.

The ones beginning with “d” generally translate as “of the,” while the “à” ones generally translate as “to the” or “at the.”

French has three words that mean “the”: “le” (masculine), “la” (feminine), and “les” (plural).

I had an surprising one, actually: I went to a private religious school, but I had a strangely comprehensive sex education.

It started with unvarnished discussions of human anatomy and cautions about sexual abuse around age 8, and then moved on to the basics of (hetero)sexuality by the time I was a preteen. In high school that continued, though talk about birth control was postponed until the health units of later physical education courses, which not everyone took. Of course, the stress was always that sexual activity should be limited to monogamous (heterosexual) marriage, and there was no mention of anything outside of the hetero-normative.

The last wrinkle was that it was all opt-out. At every point, there was at least one person who would leave the room for the duration of the class because their parents really didn’t want them learning about naughty bits.

So it ended up actually providing a pretty good foundation. It was still incomplete and biased, but a lot better than what you would expect when you hear “private religious school.”

I’ve been cautioning people as well. Right-wing politics aren’t unpopular in Canada, it’s just that the the centrist voters got spooked my Trump.

No one should bet on another miracle for the next election. The best case scenario may be that the PC wing retakes control of the federal Conservatives and we just get a raft of deregulation and privatization without all the culture war grievances.

Anyone else bothered by the grammar in the first panel? Or is it just me?

Yeah, they are in different ridings, though they are adjacent.

I was thinking Flagpole Sitta, but that works too

Or a 90s indie song.

Originally from hockey legend Gordie Howe. He was famous for using his elbows aggressively, among other things.

It’s been recently adopted by Canadians as a rallying slogan against American economic warfare.

If I can’t find a Canadian version of a product, I look for Mexico next.

Help your neighbours, everyone.

I’d be interested to see the full breakdown, if only to find out how different my tastes are from the average lemmy.ca user. I nominated four songs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one received zero points because I didn’t even vote for it.

I did have Fake Friends at the top of my French list, though.

That’s a sea border, but the idea is the same.

In fact, the distance between the shores of Newfoundland and St. Pierre and Miquelon is shorter than the width of the English Channel at the Straits of Dover (25km vs 34km).

That’s the one.

I don’t know if my memory of that era comports with actual history, but this is how I remember it playing out:

It looked like the Conservative attack ads were going to win the election for them again, just as they had against Dion and Ignatieff. They were ahead and gaining in the polls, and the Liberals seemed to have no response. The slogan was, “Trudeau: he’s just not ready.”

Then the polls stabilized for a few days, and the Liberals released that ad. The polls started rapidly reversing, and the Liberals decisively swept into power. I don’t think I even saw another, “he’s not ready,” attack ad from the Conservatives again after that.

EDIT: One can debate how much of an effect that ad had, and whether Trudeau’s actions matched it’s promises, but for me it will always stick out as a good bit of political strategy.

I remember the John Oliver bit where he laughs at how quaint it was when our media described a 45 day campaign as “grueling.”

I’ll also always remember how the Liberals pulled a judo-reverse on the Conservatives by turning their main line of attack back against them. I knew from the moment I saw that ad with Trudeau on the escalator that the Liberals would win.

As Liberal party leader, it’s Mark Carney, a former central banker and economic policy guru.

As Prime Minister, it remains to be seen. In theory, Carney could take over from where Trudeau left off before Parliament was prorogued. In reality, the opposition parties have already promised to topple the government and trigger an early election.

Our election cycle is much shorter than the USA’s, so even if there’s an election called tomorrow we’ll have a new government and PM by the summer.

Deep End by Spiritbox (Victoria, BC), released 7 March 2025 in English

Hallways by PUP (Toronto, ON), released 12 February 2025 in English

Change Me by DYLYN (Vancouver, BC), released 31 January 2025 in English

I looked back at all the new songs I added to my favourites in Spotify during 2024, and found surprisingly few songs by Canadian artists. Only one, in fact. I don’t think this one song is particularly great material for a popularity contest, but I’ll throw it in anyhow:

Low Tide by Deer Fang (St. Catherines, ON), released in 11 October 2024 in English.

The first few months of 2025 have been way more fertile, so I have three more nominations in the posts to follow (would be four, but I’m assuming that something from Our Lady Peace’s newest album wouldn’t count).

Year? I’m thinking generations. It took decades to build our relationship with the USA, and mere weeks for Trump to destroy it. This can’t be rebuilt in a single lifetime, especially when more than 2/3rds of American voters are at the very least okay with what has happened, if not enthusiastic about it.