War of 1812 bicentennial

   Next year is the bicentennial of the War of 1812 which is not widely celebrated in America or Britain but is a really big deal in Canada since many Canadians consider it a defining moment on the road to the formation of Canada.  The federal government is going to mark the bicentennial by spending $28 million on historical education, supporting 100 events, a permanent memorial in Ottawa and infrastructure improvements to three 1812 national historical sites including Fort York in Toronto.

   PBS had an accurate two hour War of 1812 program on Monday probably because 65% of the paying members in the New York branch live in Ontario and a lot of the funding came from Canadian sources. The trailer for the program is at the top of the post.

Battle of Queenston Heights

  My Ex comes from a United Empire Loyalist family, the families who supported the Crown during the American Revolution, and  they moved to Thorold, Ontario in the early 1780s after their property was confiscated by the Continental Congress which was a common means of paying for the revolution. During the Battle of Queenston Heights in October of 1812, they got their payback by defeating the troops from Kentucky. The Kentuckians were in the wrong place and the wrong time because they had the loyalists and native allies in front of them and a 500 foot vertical drop into the Niagara gorge behind them. To make a long story short, they had a really bad day.

Fort York in Toronto

Fort York is a historic site of military fortifications and related buildings on the west side of downtown Toronto. The fort was built by the British Army and Canadian militia troops in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to defend the settlement and the new capital of the Upper Canada region from the threat of a military attack, principally from the newly independent United States. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923.(Wikipedia)

Fort York, soldier in British uniform c1812

One of the main canon at Fort York

  The battle of York which is the former name of Toronto was fought in April, 1813 and American troops burned and looted the town after defeating the garrison at Fort York. When the garrison was attacked the defending troops blew the fort`s magazine which killed or wounded many of the American troops and this was the probable cause for the plunder of the town. The British in retaliation burnt Washington, DC in 1814.

War of 1812 Historical Reenactor from Fort Meigs with a replica Howitzer cannon.
under creative commons licence from charissa

Those Unions

My mother who is a Tory and thinks that if you got rid of unions everything would be fine with the world got this Conservative fundraising material in her mail this week.

The lies that the Liberals are spreading about the Conservatives are 1) they want to replace public schools with vouchers and charter schools, 2) bust teacher's unions and 3) reduce the current teacher's compensation package with a lower "more affordable" package. The problem is that the last time the Conservatives were in power during Mike Harris' common sense revolution they tried to do all three and failed. I remember being in one of the largest demonstrations  against the cuts in Ontario history at the time. In general the Conservatives want to mimic the current situation in the States.  I wonder why Canada ranks number four in the world for education and America ranks 17th?  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we treat teachers better in many ways. Of course the States isn't resting on its laurels. Why be 17th when you can aim for 30th which they will achieve after they've pushed through all of their present plans. Its hard to be a superpower when a good percentage of your population is functionally illiterate.

The material talks about the extra $3 million dollars that the campaign will spend on advertising for promotion of the Liberals. In the states where the next presidential election is estimated to cost about a billion dollars that's pin money. Hudak's main mantra is tax cuts which is the Conservative solution to every problem.