Your Singhs today (Canada Post edition)

More evidence emerges today of how Sikhs have taken over the Canadian polity. On Sunday, Canada Post, a perennial money-losing agency of the Liberal government of Canuckistan, unveiled a new commemorative stamp paying tribute to Sikh Canadian soldiers.

Speaking at the 18th annual Sikh Remembrance Day ceremony at Mount Hope Cemetery in Kitchener ON, Balraj Singh Dhillon, Canada Post's General Manager of Platform and Partnerships [and Canadians wonder why Canada Post loses so much money! Ed.] said the stamp honours the service and contributions of Sikh soldiers in the Canadian military dating back to WWI.

Inevitably, Sandeep Singh Brar, curator of Sikh Museum.com, played the racism card, telling the meeja that during WWI, only ten (count `em, 10) Sikhs were permitted to serve in the Canadian army. "Thousands of Sikhs at the time tried to join, but they were turned away. They were told that ‘Sorry fellas, this is a white man’s war."

Later on, however, 1000s of Sikhs were recruited into Canada's military and police forces, their only demand being that they be allowed to wear their turbans and holy underpants, and carry their kirpans. 

One Singh who rose to a position of prominence in the modern Canadian [sic] Armed Forces is Harjit Singh Sajjan, Lt-Col. Retd., a former police office who became the first of his kind to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment.

Inevitably (again), Mr Sajjan became a Liberal politician, riding into office on the Trudeau wave of 2015. He served as the MP for Vancouver South until 2025, when, sensing imminent defeat, he chose not seek re-election in the federal election. 

Immediately upon his election, Mr Sajjan was named Minister of National Defence, in which position he served himself until 2021. In 2017, he was forced to apologize for exaggerating his role in Operation Medusa, a 2006 military operation in Afghanistan in which he was involved. Four years later (!), he was censured by vote in the House of Commons for his claims about Operation Medusa, as well as his handling of the issue of sexual assault within the Canadian Armed Forces. 

Although he was no longer the defence minister, Mr Sajjan was still in the Trudeau cabinet and in a position to help his co-religionists. In 2024, he came under criticism for prioritizing the evacuation of Sikhs with no links to Canada during the 2021 fall of Kabul, as well as for requesting troops to appear as backdrop to a pop concert by a Punjabi singer.

For some reason, Mr Sajjan, who is believed to be still alive and living in Surrey BC, was unable to attend the ceremony in Kitchener. However, the Liberal Party line was stated with admirable brevity by Sandeep Singh Brar (see above) who said that the stamp is a strong representation of Canada's diverse population.

In Brampton ON and Surrey BC, diversity began when the first Sikh family moved in, and will end when the last non-Sikh family moves out... probably sometime in 2026.

Get woke, go broke! e.g. Canada Post Corp.

Canada Post Corporation is a Crown Corporation (aka state-owned enterprise) which runs the postal service of Canuckistan on behalf of the poor frostback taxpayer. Any profit it makes goes to the Liberal government of Marx Carnage, to reduce the alleged country's ballooning deficit. 

Unfortuntely, the CPC hasn't made a profit in living memory. The size of its loss for the last fiscal year is such that it now pleads poverty in answer to union demands for more money, over which they have been threatening to strike for months.

One of the lesser-known profit centres on which the CPC relies is the sale of postage stamps for collectors. Under the Liberals, the cost of a single stamp has risen to C$1.44 ($1.05 in real money)... plus sales tax! (Hint to USPS: you're missing a bet there.) The cost of the service -- delivering a letter, for instance -- is such that Canada Post loses money on every piece of lettermail. Or so they say.

However, when the postage stamp is kept by a philatelist (look it up) in his little album, the only cost to CPC is that of printing and distributing the tiny scrap of paper, so the profit is considerable. What a pity that no-one buys stamps any more. When was the last time, dear Canadian reader, that you actually received a piece of mail with a stamp on it?

But (Walt hears you ask) don't the collectors buy them, even if the general public doesn't? Quick answer: NO. Canada Post churns out over a dozen "special" (collectors say "commemorative" or "pictorial") stamps every year, but liberal ideology prevails at CPC to the point where very few people want the miniaturized political posters which their stamps have become. 

Here is Exhibit 1, the January-July 2025 Canadian Stamp Catalogue, through which you can order all wonderful new bits of  liberal propaganda shown on the cover.

The only stamps most Canadians ever see are the four little ones in the third row, which pay for things like oversize envelopes, and mail to the USA and overseas. They show landscapes, very typically Canadian since there are no people there.

So we come to the special stamps. The one in the top left corner is a liberal guilt stamp, reminding Canucks of how bad they were to intern innocent Japanese during World War II. Yes, it was wrong. Guilt has been admitted and reparations paid. That should be the end of the story, but noooo.

Below that is a stamp honouring Blue Rodeo, which I understand is an entertainment group of some sort, or maybe an act at the Calgary Stampede. Who knows.

The three stamps in a vertical column portray "Indigenous Leaders" -- two women, one man, no "two-spirited" indigines -- unknown to 99% of Canadians.

But hey, the Indians First Nations got three stamps, but the "black community" got only one, the big one showing Marie Joseph Angélique  a woman person of colour wearing a do-rag. No-one heard of her either, but she's a francophone, so that's OK then.

Under that are two stamps picturing peonies. Part of a long-running series and toally inoffensive.

In the upper right corner are special stamps which cost an extra dime per each. That's how you can contribute to the Canada Posts Community Foundation, which makes donations to worthy causes, such as buying picture books for libraries so they can be read to children during Drag Queen Story Hour. You understand the design now, eh.

Under that stamp comes a commemorative celebrating (for some reason) the life and legacy of Lyin' Brian Mulroney, the most reviled prime minister in Canadian history until Just In Trudeau came down the pike. The issuance of this stamp proves that Canada Post is not just another tentacle of the Liberal octopus, because Mr Baloney was, at least nominally, a Conservative... a Progressive Conservative.

Below and to the left of the late unlamented is the stamp issued for Eid, the Muslim holy day. What can one say except that at least Canada Post doesn't do kwanzaa.

Lastly we come to the pièce de résistance (or piece of resistance, if you will), a block of four designs publicizing "Places of Pride". Eh? What's up with that? Hint: these stamps were issued on May 30th. So? Enlarge the photo and take a good look. Get it now? They're promoting and celebrating Pride Month! Kinda makes you proud to be a Canadian, eh. Errr, maybe not.

So there you have it, dear Canadian friends. Run right out to your nearest post office -- if it's still open -- and plunk down your beaverbucks for whichever gay bits of paper tickle your fancy.

Further reading: "Canada Post is a vital Canadian institution—why doesn’t the government act that way?" Secondary headline: "The federal government, and Canada Post management, seem content to manage the decline rather than saving the postal service". By Jon Milton, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 5/6/25.

Signs of the inflationary times

So, farewell, then, to penny postage. The humble one-cent stamp, along with 2s, 3s, 4s and other practically worthless values have been quietly discontinued ["cancelled"? Geddit? Ed.] by Canada Post.

A hundred years ago, a one-cent stamp, with the likeness of George V, the Sailor King, was all you needed to send a postcard a mari usque ad mare -- from Squamish BC, let's say, to Dildo NL.

Today, that would cost you, for just one stamp, C$1.15 (84 cents in real money)... plus sales tax! Can you, dear American reader, imagine having to pay tax on postage stamps? If you're foolish enough to move to Canuckistan when Donald Trump is re-elected, that's what you'll have to do to help pay for Trudeau's refugee-friendly welfare state.

That $1.15, by the way, covers the postage -- still just one cent -- plus $1.14 for storage!

A hundred years ago, you could have paid for your one-cent stamp with a copper -- well, copper-coloured -- one cent coin, affectionately known as a penny. The pennies of that time were roughly the size of a modern US penny, but to numismatists they are known as "small cents", being about half the size of the "large cents" -- roughly the same as a British half-penny -- which had preceded them.

Alas, you can no longer find a Canadian penny to pay for a one-cent stamp. As Walt reported in "Canada doesn't make cents any more" (WWW 20/12/12), one-cent coins were declared surplus to requirements in 2012, since they would no longer purchase a single thing, not even a single stamp, which would have cost, including the sales tax, 1.15 cents.

I tell you this sad tale, Canadian readers, to remind you how, under a succession of Liberal (and sometimes Cuckservative) governments, your beaverbucks have become "progressively" (geddit?) devalued. 

Dear American readers, you need not be so smug because (you might say) you still have one-cent stamps and your precious pennies, not to mention dollar bills, which Canada doesn't have either. The fires of Bidenflation are raging like California [Isn't that where Hock Ptui is from? Ed.] wildfires. Time to put them out with the hose of common cents. Geddit?!

Voting by mail: Canuck Conservatives show what can go wrong

In 2019 the Canadian sheeple were herded to the polls to vote for a new government. The Conservative Party of Canada, led by Andrew Scheer, got more votes, but because the Liberals won more ridings (= electoral districts), they formed the government, and Just In Trudeau is still Prime Minister. [Where have we heard that before? Ed.]

Mr Scheer duly announced his resignation and plans were made to hold a leadership convention this spring to choose his successor. The last time the Tories did that, in 2017, they adopted a one-member-one-vote system, rather than the traditional delegated convention, to signal that they too were in favour of participatory democracy, diversity, inclusivity, yada yada yada. And they decided to allow voting by mail, as well as in person. With 13 contenders vying for the poisoned chalice, determining the winner was bound to be a complex and tedious business, but they muddled through and, by a narrow margin, chose the aforesaid Mr Scheep over Mad Max Bernier. Bad move.

The plan this time, in part necessitated by the Covid-19 "crisis", was to simplify matters by having mail-in balloting only. And instead of having votes counted at various places around the world's second-biggest country (by landmass), all ballots would be sealed in special envelopes and delivered to Ottawa (the world's second-coldest capital city) by Canada Post. What could go wrong?

Did I mention Canada Post? The crown corporation that runs Canada's alleged postal system is marginally more efficient than the USPS, but when Canucks pay 92 cents (plus tax!) for a stamp, they say it's 2 cents for postage and 90 cents for storage! Canada Post also has very strict regulations about the size and weight of letters.

In 2017 the Conservatives' ballots were so large (13 names, remember) that they had to be stuffed into oversized envelopes, for which CanPost charged extra. This time, CanPost told the Tories, use smaller envelopes and you'll save thousands of dollars. Great idea, said the genius in charge of logistics. Sadly, though, the genius didn't think to reduce the size of the ballots to fit nicely into the smaller envelopes.

Oh, you're getting ahead of me. Fast forward to Friday afternoon, by which time 174,000 envelopes, fat with ballots, were in a Very Large Room in Ottawa, where they would be opened by electric letter-openers. [They have such things in Canada? Ed.] The ballots would then be removed by human beings [Looks like only men in the photo? Ed.] and fed into machines which would scan them and tabulate the results. Again, what could go wrong?

The Big Reveal was supposed to begin at 1800 ET, and Canada's two major TV networks had cleared three hours or so of time to broadcast the speeches (to empty rooms) and the pundits' dreary drivel. At 1800 the Tories annouonced that there was a slight problem and the results of the first ballot (of a possible three -- a ranked ballot was being used) would be forthcoming at 1930. Then it was 2000, then 2100. By this time the talking heads on CBC and CTV were running out of things to say, but kept talking anyway.

What's the problem, they asked? Conservative Party officials fessed up that there had been a little problem with... wait for it... the machines. Seems the letter-openers had cut pieces off some of the ballots -- only a few thousand or so -- which then had to be taped back together to be fed into the tabulator machines, which also mangled some of them. (Think what your printer/photocopier does when a piece of paper gets caught in a cog.) In some cases, the damaged ballots had to be rewritten... by hand... onto new ballots, under the keen eyes of scrutineers for all the candidates to ensure that the voter's intention was accurately reproduced. Can you imagine...

2100 came, and still no results, so the "organizers" decided to run with a canned speech by Mr Scheep and a video of the lowlights of his career, followed by a much-too-long explanation of how the votes would be allocated so that the smaller regions of Canuckistan would not be dominated by the larger ones. Sports fans were switching over to the basketball and hockey games, but the non-show went on... and on...

After the 2230 quasi-deadline passed in silence, Party flak-catchers started saying "We'll give you 15 minutes notice." That notice came at 2315 ET. [We're running out of space. Just tell us when and how it all turned out. Ed.] The announcement of the results of the first ballot began at 20 midnights past midnight. None of the four candidates got the 50%+1 needed to win. There followed another half-hour delay, even though the votes had already been counted, and finally, at 0115 ET, the results of the second and third counts were announced in the space of about two minutes.

For what it's worth, the winner was another dimpled, slightly overweight, blue-eyed, non-threatening Canadian type named Erin O'Toole, seen here with his dimpled etc etc wife and kids. Mr O'Toole beat the runner-up (and establishment favourite) Peter Mackay, by virtue of being able to speak halting French, whereas Mr Machackey's had apparently learned his French, as a lad, from John Diefenbaker. (Older Canucks will know what I mean.)

The CBC, owned and operated by and for the Liberal government, is already spinning Mr O'Toole's win as proof that "socons" -- social conservatives -- are gaining control of the Conservative Party. Mr Mackay, they say, was the last of the oxymoronical Progressive Conservatives, whereas "Erin O'Toole courted the right of the Conservative Party and won" (Éric Grenier, 24/8/20).

Walt says Mr O'Toole is just another bland contrist with no real vision of where he wants to lead his party or, indeed, the Great No-longer-white North. All he wants to do is beat Mr Socks in the next federal election which could happen as early as November 3rd. [Eh? Ed.] In that, Walt wishes him many good lucks.

VIDEO: Poor Len Canayen: The Ultimate Six hockey stars

Fans of professional hockey will be aware that the National Hockey League was founded 100 years ago, in the fall of 1917. It is 8 years younger than the Montréal Canadiens, founded in 1909, but a 100th anniversary is still something to be celebrated, and when the organization has a promoter like (((Gary Bettman))) (no hockey man, he) at its head, you can be sure the PR machine will be in top gear. Which it is.

Canada Post has been quick to jump on the hypewagon. They've been issuing stamps featuring hockey and hockey players since 1955 -- top that! NFL --
and this year have published a set of six stamps commemorating the Ultimate Six Canadian Hockey Legends. Here they are.

These are the six Canucks (meaning their nationality, not their team!) whose names, numbers and achievements recall legendary moments in the history of the game. This being a project of the Canadian government, it will be noted that there are three French-Canadians (Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau, and Mario Lemieux) and three Anglo-Canadians (Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky). Which is as it should be. (OK, Gretzky is a Polish name, but No. 99 was born in beautiful Brantford ON.)

It will also be noted that two of the Ultimate Six played for the Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge. Not one Toronto Maple Leaf is included in the group. Why the picture of Rocket Richard is in black-and-white and the rest in colour is a mystery, but hey, that's Canada -- a land of mystery. Walt approves of the choices, and recommends that you buy some of these stamps, not to put on letters -- who does that, in 2017? -- but just to look at them when you feel sad that hockey ain't what it used to be. Where else can you get a picture of Jean Béliveau (my personal favourite) for just 85 Canadian cents (plus tax, of course)?

BONUS VIDEO: I am shocked, shocked that Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] have never shared with you the excellent story of "The Hockey Sweater", written and narrated for the National Film Board video by Roch Carrier. Here it is. No subtitles. If you gonna come on top da country `ere you better learn to talk like we do!



Cliquez ici pour voir la version française.

In spite of rain, sleet, snow... or crows?

Here's what you don't want to see if you're a mailman ["letter-carrier" please. Ed.] going on your daily rounds. It's an angry crow, about to defend its nest.

For the past couple of weeks, a hammer of crows have been attacking letter-carriers and dog-walkers in a suburb of Winterpeg ["Winnipeg" please. Ed.] -- the dead centre of Canada [You can say that twice. Ed.] -- as they attempt to protect young chicks.

Canada Post, ever-mindful of the safety of its workers -- both of them -- suspended mail service to the area after one too many aerial attacks. Residents were told in a letter that the disruption was due to "aggressive crows". How the letter would have reached the householders is something of a mystery.

A spokesthingy for CanPost said, "We’re just trying to keep our carrier safe. He’s been ducking out of the way, they haven’t hit him yet, but it’s been very close. Birds are not a normal hazard in the delivery business."

Wildlife specialists say that humans fall into the predator category for birds, especially if the person is walking a dog or cat on a leash. Birds actively defend their young for up to a week after they are born, longer if the young birds struggle to fly.

So what do you do? Manitoba's ministry responsible for conservation and annoying wildlife says you could wear a hat with large eyes painted on the back, since most birds will not approach the front of a predator. Sounds like good advice. I must run right out and get one... just in case...

Canada Post: is dis a system?

Yesterday, July 8th, Walt received a letter posted from Canada's biggest city on June 10th. Agent 3 says the delay was caused by Canada Post/Postes Canada being on strike "as far as we can tell".

Canada Post's American equivalent, the USPS, sells "forever" stamps. No matter what you pay -- the price will increase with inflation -- each "forever" stamp is good forever. It says so on the stamp.

Agent 3 reports that Canada Post has similar stamps which just bear the legend "P", presumably for "permanent". Perhaps they were afraid that customers would take "forever" to mean the amount of time it takes them to deliver a letter.

A brickbat for Canada Post

This week Canada Post Corp issued a special stamp to publicize mental health. "Support mental health or I'll kill you!" -- just kidding.

If you want to buy one, it'll cost you an extra 10¢, which goes (it says here) to the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health. (Do the words "going postal" mean anything to anyone?)

So far so good, right? But get this. Just as you pay GST on a postage stamp -- Canada is one of about three countries in the world that adds a tax to a tax -- so you have to pay GST on your 10¢ donation! A book of 10 mental health stamps will cost you $6.40 + 32¢ GST, total $6.72. Only in Canada you say?!

If you want to support the struggle for better mental health, Walt suggests you make a donation to a registered charity. You'll get a receipt for income tax purposes...and you won't have to pay GST!

A bouquet for Canada Post

Canada Post Corp. has unveiled its stamp issuing programme for the rest of the year. Walt is happy to tell you that this year we're going to have some really nice, Christian Christmas stamps.

It hasn't always been so. Christmas stamps have been issued since the 1960s. For over four decades they have almost always featured religious and/or secular designs that bore some relationship to Christmas: nativity scenes, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, that kind of thing. And they have almost always carried the legend Christmas/Noël.

But in this century the winds of political correctness are blowing through Canada Post. In 2005 they decided to produce, in addition to a nice three-stamp set of creche figures (from St. Joseph's Oratory in Montréal), an "unChristmas" stamp with a nice picture of a snowman...and no reference to the holiday. So the heathen (surely "non-Christian", ed.) minority was appeased. Now they had their own "winter holiday stamp".

The next year, the position was reversed. Canada Post issued one small stamp marked "Christmas/Noël" showing the Falardeau Madonna and Child, and three "winter" stamps. Since the three-stamp set includes the stamps to be used on mail to the USA and overseas, people in those countries might well conclude that Canadians forgot about Christmas.

Quite understandably, Christians complained. "We're not a minority yet!", they said. And in 2007 we went back to the status quo ante, with one secular stamp and a set of three religious Christmas stamps.

And last year, Canada Post went the other way, with three "winter fun" stamps and one smaller (but very beautiful) Christmas stamp featuring a sculpture of the Baby Jesus created by Canadian sculptor Antonio Caruso. But at least the "winter fun" stamps had the words "Christmas/Noël" printed in the corner, in tiny type.

This year we're getting a beautiful set of three more sculptures from the nativity scene by Caruso, in a large format, bearing the words "Christmas/Noël". The anti-French gang will be annoyed that "Noël" is in much larger type than "Christmas", but then "Noël" is a word in English too. Right?

The Muslims, Hindus, Jews etc etc will have to make do with a smaller stamp featuring a Christmas tree. Or it might be a Hannukah bush. Who knows? But if you look closely, it does say "Christmas/Noël".

So...three cheers from Walt for an apparent end to overarching political correctness. May I be the first to wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS!