The next time you feel dumb...

"The Bolt Adventure" - a true tale from the world of EVs

For those who are considering getting an EV (electric vehicle), we presents a report from one of Walt's assiduous readers north of the World's longest undefended border, who recounts his experiences driving a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt from (about) Toronto to Ottawa. Warning: The details may be disturbing to anyone on the green bandwagon. 

Notes from Ed.: We've deleted the name of the dealers and other information as to specific locations. For our US readers, "K" = kilometer. 100 km = about 62 miles. 

Picked up the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV from [a Toronto dealer], Tuesday afternoon October 31, 2023, at 3:15pm. Odometer showing 4 K’s, the indicated range was 413 K’s. Here's what the dashboard looks like. 

The picture on the right shows the actual size of the humungous battery that powers this little car.

Google indicates the distance to our destination in downtown Ottawa, as being 464K’s. On the road at 6:00am, November 1. Invited my buddy Bruce to accompany me. He has a curiosity about electric vehicles, and I thought he might be an asset if the vehicle needed to be pushed!

On Hwy 401 eastbound by 6:30am. Kept the speed at 100 K’s to conserve power. The Bolt is the only EV I've driven with a "power consumption gauge", measured in kilowatts. (And this is the third Bolt EV!)  

At 120 K’s consumption is around/over 24 kilowatts; at 100 K’s power drops down to 14 kilowatts; but at 60 K’s power is only 8 kilowatts. Anyway, the speed was kept at 100K’s on cruise control. 

The cabin area was kept at a comfortable 23 degrees C [73.4 F]. Was a strange sensation having everyone pass us, including trucks. The Bolt was very comfortable to drive, holds the road very well, and is extremely quiet! 

Had a ten-minute stop from 7:50am to 8:00am,at the first On-Route eastbound at Port Hope for washrooms, and grabbed a couple of Starbucks. (The line was too long at Tim’s!)  Arrived Trenton On-Route by 9:00am. Vehicle’s remaining range has dropped to 130K’s, from the initial range of 413 K’s even though we have travelled only 212 K’s. 

Connected to “IVY-0184 Charger,” the only one of four chargers that was working. Went through the hookup procedure using the IVY app on my phone. Unfortunately, the sole remaining IVY-0184 charger was also not working very well as it shut off after only eight minutes. Went through the hookup process again. This time it turned off, after only three minutes. 

Called the 800 number on the IVY machine to ask why? The young man answered promptly, but had no explanation. Blamed it possibly on the vehicle. Made one more connection which lasted seven minutes, and finally a fourth connection which lasted two minutes. The charge did give an additional 50K’s, for $7.22, bringing the vehicle’s range up to 187 K’s. 

In desperation phoned [a GM dealer] in Kingston to ask about charging a Bolt. They said no problem, bring it in and get it charged. Arrived there at 11:24am with 58 K’s remaining, having logged 318 K’s. Was expecting to charge for free at [the dealer], and could have, except the free charger was only a trickle charger…..would have taken hours. 

The fast charger turned out to be a “Flo Charger, AAL-00545.” This required another App to be installed on my phone. After downloading the App, phoned the 800 number on the FLO charger to find out what to do. A young lady with a soft voice, and a pretty French-Canadian accent walked me through the process! The gist of it was: “must transfer $25.00 from my Mastercard to the FLO account which was just created with the App.” These folks don’t take any chances regarding their payment. 

After this process, charging started at 12:25pm. The App on the phone controls everything. A button to start charging, and a big red bar to stop charging, located at the base of the program on the phone. Out of fear of accidentally turning the charger off, let the phone remain on the dash of the Bolt while we went for lunch at Tim Horton’s. Of course, this is the time everyone starts calling, wondering where I am. Since I didn’t answer, their assumption “missing in action!” 

Returned from lunch, charger still charging. However, it automatically shuts off within a few minutes when the charge reached 80% of capacity. This brought the vehicle’s range up to 289 K’s This charge cost $15.93, leaving a credit balance in my FLO account of $9.07, which will likely remain until another FLO charger is used. 

Google calculates the distance to our destination in Ottawa as being 201K’s. Back on Hwy 401 eastbound by 1:45pm; again, speed limited to 100 K’s. Change to Hwy 416 north. Around MP-57 started having remaining range reservations. Consequently, reduce the speed to 80k’s. Range immediately starts decreasing at a noticeably slower rate. Probably some formula where power consumption increases with the square of the speed. 

Arrive [at the dealership in Ottawa] at 3:55pm, having travelled 512 K’s, with 63 K’s remaining. By 4:30pm, started our return trip in a tired dog, a 2004 Toyota Yaris with 104,787 K’s. The Yaris had obvious battle scars; still, a calming tranquillity came over us being back in comfortable familiarity. Cruise control worked, the power mirrors worked, and the heater produced lots of heat. Range anxiety disappeared! 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! ... And this is Walt's comment.

The hidden numbers and true cost of mass immigration

Agent 3 tells me that if you ask Johnny Canuck, the average Canajan, hanging out at Tim's, how many immigrants Canuckistan should accept next year, he'll tell you, "None is too many!"

The Honourable Marc Miller, the Liberal Minister of Immigration and Refugees and Citizenship and Refugees (etc etc, but did we mention Refugees), got up on his hind feet in Ottawa this week to tell Johnny Canuck that he's wrong! And/or that Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface doesn't care what his subjects think.

Instead, Mr Miller revealed that the misgovernment's "new" immigration targets for the next three years were... wait for it... pretty much the same as last year's historic high level. Canadians are expected to "welcome" 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024, 500,000 in 2025 and another 500,000 in 2026.

So, in the next three years, Canada will (officially) welcome another 1,5 MILLION "permanent residents". But that's only half the story! A report by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce shows that equally large or even greater numbers of aliens are getting into the Great No-longer-white North through the back door.

In 2022, the permanent resident figure was 435,000, but the CIBC claims the actual number of "newcomers" was more than 955,000. Statistics Canaada goes even farther, pegging the number at more than one million. No final total for 2022 has been provided by the Liberal government. 

To understand Trudeau's full plans for immigration -- aka the Great Replacement -- look at the numbers of "temporary residents" -- those who were provided visas for education (e.g. at the Singh School of Trucking) and work (as drivers of killer 18-wheelers). Temporary visa holders accounted for 58% (!) of the 2022 intake of newcomers (58 per cent) in 2022. 

That's based on the government's numbers, which may be off by as many as a million. Yet the Liberals plan to increase the pace of temporary immigration in the coming years. More than 900,000 international students are expected in 2024. 

But wait, as Vince Offer used to say, there's more. To add to the "front door" permanent residents and the "back door" temporary residents”, there are all those self-styled refugees and migrants who make it to Canadian soil to seek asylum. 

In 2022, the feds stated that nearly 40,000 people crossed through the notoriously open border at Roxham Road. However, reports from NGOs and the Québec government claimed that nearly 93,000 asylum-seekers had their bags carried for them by the Mounties. As well, there were 145,000 real refugees from Ukraine, and another 20,000 from Afghanistan.

Welcoming all these migrants -- the bad along with the good -- costs a shed-load of money. Supporting them puts increased pressure placed on social services, housing, and health care, all to be paid out of Canuck taxpayers' deep pockets.

In the federal budget for this year alone, there was a $1 BILLION ($700,000,000 in real money) for short-term accommodation and temporary health-care coverage for asylum-seekers and refugees -- $530 million for accommodations (in luxury hotels and the like) and $469 million for health benefits, some of which, like free dental care, are not available to Johnny Canuck. 

The Honourable Mr Miller says Canada needs more immigrants to fill labour gaps, that we cannot build the homes we need without them. That would be fine if all the newcomers were working, but many working-age immigrants arrive with dependent children and spouses (who do not work) and are often joined later by retired (and often sickly) parents, grandparents, and family members. (It's called chain migration.) So, for every worker Canada gains it also gains at least one dependent.

Here are some more interesting numbers, which presented without (much) comment.

* According to the Canadian census, prior to 2015, 28% of immigrants came from the UK and Europe. That number is 2% today.

* Nearly 98% per cent of immigrants now come from India, China, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, and African countries, well known for their civilization and democracy.

* In recent years there has been a record spike in the numbers of immigrants who have left Canada (onward migration) because of high cost of living, housing issues, underemployment (because of Canada's systemic racism, of course), and the cold.

* Concomitantly [How long have you waited to use that word? Ed.], US border authorities have seen an alarming 47% increase in north-to-south illegal border crossings. One Republican presidential wannabe has called for a wall to be built on the World's Longest Undefended Border to keep them out!

As Canadians have known for years, but the Liberals refuse to admit (M-106 in force!) some immigrants bring their own toxic beliefs with them. Need proof? Watch the daily anti-Semitic demonstrations in almost every North American city. Given the never-ending flood of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, and lack of enforcement of deportation orders (HA-ha!), not just Jews but all citizens are left in a compromised and vulnerable position. 

Remember this billboard from a not-so-long-ago election? It was deplored by the CBC and all other Forces for Good in Canuckistan. Max Bernier and the People's Party of Canada are still in search of their first seat in the House of Commons. However...

This week, Environics Research released survey results that showed 44% of Canadians feel that "overall, there's too much immigration to Canada."

Last month, an Ipsos poll showed 73%believe the government's "immigration targets should be reduced until the housing shortage eases," and 68% said there should be a cap on international students while the housing crisis is addressed. 

Keith Neuman, the author of the Environics report, observed, "The main thing we're seeing is that people are more concerned about the capacity of the country to absorb a lot of newcomers when things aren't working as well as they were before." 

No kidding?! You mean Johnny Canuck finally got it? Too bad for him, eh, because he's stuck with Junior and his gang of sycophantic elitists for the foreseeable future... or until the Liberal Party takes Junior out for a long walk in the snow... just like his dad.

The reality of mass immigration

Scraped from "Temporary Foreign Workers In Canada Have Skyrocketed Over The Past Decade, According To StatsCan" on Blazing Cat Fur, 29/10/23. BCF's opinion "Another scam run by corporate interests to flood the country with cheap labour and benefit their bottom line." Walt agrees. Hold the line!

Say it ain't so, Buffy! CBC outs beloved Pretendian

2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation, was made over by Blackie McBlackface, the Gliberal Prime Minister of all Canuckistan, into the Year of the Indian. It was time for guilty whites to acknowledge that they (or their "colonial" ancestors) stole the Great White North from the peoples who used to be called Indians and Eskimos, forever hence to be known as First Nations;and Inuit, respectively.

Canada's shrinking populaation of whites tried to give the land back to the indigenous ones, but they said they'd rather have money (prefereably US dollars), thank you. So "land acknowledgment ceremonies" became the order of the day, a Confiteor to be repeated at the beginning of any public event and even on radio and TV programmes such as Hockey Night in Canada (the only show that anyone watches).

Six years later, the "truth and reconciliation" bullshit goes on and on. But today the CBC (Canada's state-owned broadcaster) is set to reveal the real truth -- not the same as the fake truth which it normally broadcasts -- about one First Nations person who has become an icon of wokeness not just in Canada but also the US of A. 

Walt refers to Buffy Sainte-Marie, a musician known for decades of "Indigenous activism". CBC’s investigative show The Fifth Estate is scheduled to air tonight an episode titled "Making an Icon".

A description of the episode doesn't name Sainte-Marie but says an icon’s "claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members" and that its investigation includes genealogical documentation and historical research.

In a statement yesterday, Ms Sainte-Marie said "I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know. Which is why to be questioned in this way today is painful. To those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am."

The octogenarian also posted a video on social media addressing the upcoming episode, saying she has shared her story for 60 years. She called herself "a proud member of the Native community with deep roots in Canada.... But there are also many things I don’t know, which I’ve always been honest about. I don’t know where I’m from, who my birth parents are or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England home."

Buffy Sainte-Marie became popular in the hippy-dippy `60s for her singing and songwriting, and used her fame to push the "Lo, the poor Indian" agenda at a time when it wasn't receiving much attention and indigenous women were still called "squaws". Her debut record, It’s My Way!, featured several notable songs, including "Universal Soldier", written about the individual responsibility for war. 

Her appearance on Sesame Street began a symbiotic relationship with the PBS groomerfest which has lasted right up to last year.* Here's a stanza she wrote for her first appearance on the show in 1976.

I’m an Indian and I like sunshine

I’m an Indian and I like friends 

And I am real and I can feel and I’d love to take your hand 

Way heyo he-yo! 

Way heyo he-yo!

*Source: "My time on 'Sesame Street' with Buffy Sainte-Marie", "American Masters" on PBS, 6/12/22. 

Excerpt: Sainte-Marie is iconic. She embodies a combination of fierce activism in her quest to fight for Indigenous rights and dignity and a strong belief that everything and everyone can change and ripen. The lyrics in her songs teach us about the devastating history of colonization while encouraging us to stay hopeful. Her educator roots shine bright in everything she does.

What a shame she isn't really an Indian, or First Nations or whatever. Still, she's the first Pretendian to rise to such lofty heights, even earlier than Fauxcahontas, the Senator who (for the time being) represents the great (?) state of Massachusetts, which is where Ms Sainte-Marie was raised. 

*Further reading if you want to brainwash your kids: "Celebrate Buffy Sainte-Marie and Amplify Indigenous Peoples With Your Kids", PBS (who else), 16/11/22.

Walt congratulates Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House

Dontcha love it? Dontcha just love it? Walt does! Just waiting for the other members of the Squad to declare Mr Johnson "completely unacceptable"!

"Because his name is Mohammed?" Another Air Canada story

While navigating the minefield of wokeness, Air Canada seems incapable of avoiding the meadow muffins. It seems like just yesterday [It was just yesterday! Ed.] that we posted an account of how The People's Airline (the epithet used when it was government-owned), lost the wheelchair of its own "Chief Accessibility Officer" (WWW 24/10/23). 

Today the BBC reports that Clive Betts, a British Member of Parliament, has accused Air Canada of delaying another MP at Heathrow "for a considerable period...because his name is Mohammad."

Mr Betts, standing on a point of order in the House of Commons this week, said fellow Labour MP Mohammad Yasin was pulled aside for questioning at London Heathrow (LHR) while other lawmakers he was travelling with were allowed through.

According to Mr Betts, Mr Yasin was asked "by “officials from Air Canada and, we believe, the Canadian government", where he was born and whether he was carrying a knife -- this despite Mr Yasin's having a visa to enter Canada.

Mr Betts said Yasin was eventually allowed to get on the flight, but he was "challenged" again at the Montréal (YUL) and Toronto (YYZ) airports -- both named after Liberal prime ministers, not that it matters. Hey, it's Canada.

Mr Yasin has received apologies from Air Canada as well as the parliament secretary to Canada’s Minister for Refugees and Immigration. In a statement, AC told the Beeb "Unfortunately Mr Yasin was designated for additional screening prior to his flight after a security check, but he was still able to travel as planned as he was quickly cleared." The airline went on to say that it regrets any inconvenience or upset caused.

So what's the problem? Mr Betts said it was important to put Mr Yasin's experiences on the parliamentary record due to their "racist and Islamophobic nature." Of course.