My accomplishment level is low as I still have 30 matches to look at but yesterday was confirmation of some Rawlings DNA. I had one really good match, a known 2nd cousin but it was in 23 and Me so just two other siblings present. I wondered about one sibling in particular and the match at Living DNA gave me that answer so that great news. Continuing with the matches today and perhaps I might get through more three or four perhaps; time will tell.
Yesterday I cleaned out part of the front garden and it looks great. I will try to finish the other part today. Perhaps get the lawn raked as well. We will see how that goes but it is going to be mostly sunny although just seven degrees celsius to start.
I read the National Post article today. As a nation we have survived much in our nearly 159 years since Confederation. In 1867 we were a group of just four colonies who came together to form the Dominion of Canada. It was a struggle and early in the 1870s the British withdrew their military so we were literally on our own. But we came together to cast off the Fenian raids from the south and forged a friendship within Eastern Canada that still is a strong part of who we are as a people. British Columbia wanted to be part of Canada and so we promised a railroad and we did it and it was hard and costly. Manitoba joined us and I always think that was the beginning of the First Nations being prominent in Canada other than earlier times before Confederation when the First Nations stood side to side with the colonials, British Regulars and threw off attacks from the south. Prince Edward Island also came into Confederation having withdrawn initially at the time of union in 1867. Rupert's Land became the new sighting for our young and prospering nation and we bought it and shared the lands that lay below the agreed 1818 treaty with the United States giving up freely that portion of the purchase which was below the 49th parallel. We were on good terms with our American neighbours except for the Fenians and that has continued throughout the next century and a bit that has followed all of that. At the moment trade is a problem but we will resolve that I am sure. But as a nation when I was a child you were Canadian first because that is what works best in this modern world to be part of a greater whole than just the one province (basically an administrative unit within Confederation) that you live in. We shared when another struggled. The western part of Rupert's Land that lay north and west of Manitoba all the way to the Rocky Mountains was gradually filling up with settlers including actually one of my great grandmother's brother's family Henry Knight and his son Samuel Knight with his wife Rose Anna (Yates) Knight and their five daughters who arrived in what is now Saskatchewan in the early 1900s. The middle daughter married in particular and her daughter is one of my DNA correspondents although I must get back to that for sure. I am dreadful at corresponding; I am better at being a hermit. But the First Nations have many many areas in the west that are lived in and have been lived in by them for thousands of years and very little of Rupert's land has been ceded I do believe.
The Founding Fathers saw a great future where they seized opportunity and ran with it and it is that great future (we are living it) that makes Canada the country that it is. We need to build Canada though and it is not going to be easy; it is going to be expensive like the railway and like buying Rupert's Land but so worth it because being a country is more important than its parts. The First Nations plays a huge role in all of this because they do not think of parts; they see it as a whole and I think we need to do that in order to be the most successful country that we can be. We have to loosen those greening ideas but keep them in our minds as we will forge ahead with the intent to eventually make Canada greener. The process needs a lot of money input and we need to make that money to ensure the best situation for Canada. So who really gets to decide on Canada - it should be all Canadians. People always yearn for more money; money is the root of all evil and destroys societies. We have to yearn for the best Canada for the future for the children of the future. If we weaken and let money control our thoughts then we lose that great opportunity that people sought when they came to Canada in the 1600s/1700s/1800s/1900s and yes even the 2000s and were welcomed by the First Nations. We have to let possibility rule the day and build that pipeline to tidewater in British Columbia, create those mines and extract the value from the ground and sell both of them for full price. We can do it; we just need to want to do it. If it scares you the thought of all that cost then find a better place for yourself to live where you feel that you will be happy. Most Canadians are happy with what the Founders have created. We are not greedy; we willingly share with the rest of the country. I too share my dislike of the waste during the Trudeau eras (I do not like the 1982 Constitution - it restricts our rights in my personal opinion). I do not like it that mines pipelines were refused during that Trudeau time (but also during the Harper time same thing for some items). Money at that time during the Harper government was poured into Alberta to support the oil industry. I do not object to that as it was necessary but some money could have built that mine in Northern Ontario and we would be looking at an operating mine for the last fifteen years instead of nothing (that was one of the failures of the Harper government and I will not relate further on that as it does tend to annoy me).
I still think that this Governor General to be brings to Canada a knowledge that we need simply because of this idea that one can supposedly democratically slice out a part of Canada that was created by the Founders. We are held in chains in the east by this supposedly democratic idea that an area can simply extract itself from Canada.I look at it from a viewpoint that is perhaps different as I see the Prime Minister as a westerner - born in the North West Territories and raised in Alberta. His world wide experience as well as at home gives him a unique vision and I support that vision because it is the vision of the Founders of Canada. The West is very well represented in this Prime Minister as he strives to do what can be done to get that pipeline to the west coast. One notes that the leader of the opposition is also from Alberta. Greed though is the biggest problem and is a terrible part of humanity and does need to disappear from our world. The Prime Minister balanced himself very well by choosing a Governor General who represents the East in many ways as she grew up here and is part of the East and he is part of the West along with the leader of the Opposition - interesting really.
And I haven't even been listening to the news and will not for a bit. It annoys me at the moment but the article at the National Post caught my attention.
On to the matches but first the Solitaire Puzzles - they soothe my thoughts.
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