Our two favourite political dynasties in Canada have been in the news on the topic of racism. The most recent is Ben Mulroney. He made the headlines apologizing for his wife Jessica over her much-publicized 'negative interaction' - a euphemism for 'racist interaction' with Sasha Exeter.
The lead line in one story reads: "Who needs the police force when the Laurentian elite can just abuse you directly?" And then there's the name dropping - Megan Merkle's name - as she and Jessica were friends. Jessica is quoted as "having deployed a classic defence: that she had a Black friend. As I told you privately, I have lived a very public and personal experience with my closest friend where race was front and centre,” she wrote in response to Ms. Exeter’s video, referring to Meghan Markle. Markle has been reported to have 'cast her adrift'.
Editorials consider Ben Mulroney's involvement in his wife's problems to be a strategic one - to be about protecting the "Mulroney brand'. I think that came from John Doyle of the Globe and Mail who recounted a situation where he was on the receiving end of Mulroney dynasty pressures and complaints related to coverage of Ben.
On the other side of the dynasty ring is Justin Trudeau. Remember not so long ago - in September 2019 - he apologized for a picture showing him in blackface at a party in 2001. He expressed "deep regret, declared that his privileged background left a blind spot to such racist acts and insisted he was no longer the man in the photo." That was just before the election, too.
It's easier to see privilege and racism way up there. Makes me nervous to think about Stephen Harper's children, now in their twenties, and what we could expect there. And then there's the Ford family.
Seeing as there's no easy answer on this topic, let's go on to the image of the day. What do you think of this water lily? It seems to be on its side in the water. I would think the water lilies just got placed into the gardens at RBG as they were all lying at the top like this - in tangled messes. They would have come from deeper water ponds, so their stems are too long.
I went about some photoshop hair-cutting and trimming, to form them into a very nice composition. Then it took some dyeing to make the water consistently black. Sounds like a COVID-19 hair salon appointment.
