On the Canadian election today and U.S. elections past; a Georgian violinist; Central Park in bloom; and more
Today, Canadians go to the polls, to elect a new parliament — and hence the prime minister, etc. (Such is their system.) For a long while, the Conservatives were favored to win, bigly. But then Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term in America — and everything changed.
Immediately, Trump was belligerent toward Canada, threatening to subsume it, calling the country “the 51st state.” Then came “Liberation Day,” when Trump launched his trade war.
These things matter. Everywhere, people have patriotism. Everywhere, people have a sense of national dignity, national pride.
Naturally, Canadians rallied ’round their flag. At the same time, they rallied ’round their government, a Liberal government. Weren’t the Conservatives the partners of Trump’s Republican Party, in the U.S.? Our demeaners, our denigrators?
Who will win today, no one can say. According to voter surveys, the Conservatives have gained back some of the ground they had lost. But if the Liberals pull through, I think their leader, Mark Carney (the incumbent prime minister), should say, “Thank you, Donald Trump.”
Which reminds me of the 1988 presidential primaries, in the Republican Party . . .
Senator Bob Dole won the Iowa caucuses. Vice President Bush did not even finish second — he finished third, behind the televangelist Pat Robertson. Thereafter, the New Hampshire primary was extremely important to Bush — do-or-die.
Campaigning in that state, Bush said versions of: “If I win here, and go on to win the presidency in November, I’ll say, ‘Thank you, New Hampshire.’ ”
Bush won the primary. Celebrating that victory, he said he wanted to share “four little words — the same words that will be on my mind when I take the oath of office as president of the United States eleven months from now: ‘Thank you, New Hampshire.’ ”
On Election Night — November 8 — he said,
And one other thing. Once, in days that were a little darker, I made a promise, and now I’ll keep it: Thank you, New Hampshire. Thanks for everything, and God bless America.
You know what Bush also said that night? “I mean to be a president of all the people, and I want to work for the hopes and interests not only of my supporters but of the governor’s and of those who didn’t vote at all.”
By “the governor’s,” Bush meant the supporters of the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis.
Bush continued, “To those who supported me: I will try to be worthy of your trust. And to those who did not: I will try to earn it, and my hand is out to you, and I want to be your president, too.”
Doesn’t that sound weird these days? Cuck-RINO-globalist!
Early in his presidency, a few weeks after his swearing-in, Bush gave a speech in Manchester, N.H. He said,
And so today, now that I’ve returned to your state for the first time as the 41st president of the United States, let me repeat those four little words that I said on Election Night: Thank you, New Hampshire.
A report in the New York Times, published two days ago, is headed “Canada’s Anti-Trump Finds His Moment.” The subheading reads, “Mark Carney, the new prime minister seeking a full term in Monday’s election, has built his campaign around President Trump’s threats to the country.”
I fastened on one statement. In March, Carney said, “If it’s not a crisis, you wouldn’t be seeing me. I’m most useful in a crisis. I’m not that good in peacetime.”
This made me think of another presidential year in America, and another round of GOP primaries. I’m talkin’ ’96.
One of the candidates for the nomination was Senator Phil Gramm. (Bob Dole eventually won that nomination.) I interviewed Gramm five years later. Let me quote from my piece:
He raised a lot of money, but not a lot of supporters. What went wrong? “I was a poor candidate. I did a bad job. There’s no one to blame but myself.” What’s more, “America was never going to elect me unless there was a crisis. And people didn’t see a crisis in 1996. I was the wrong person at the wrong time. And there may never have been a right time for me.”
A memorable statement, insightful and self-aware.
I was a “Gramm cracker,” as we said, and still am.
(Let me also say that I have great respect for Bob Dole — in whose office I was an intern, back in ’84.)
• News out of Las Vegas:
President Donald Trump has pardoned a Nevada Republican politician who was awaiting sentencing on federal charges that she used money meant for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.
Sure. The latest pardonee — or has there been one since? — is Michele Fiore.
Federal prosecutors said at trial that Fiore, 54, had raised more than $70,000 for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer who was fatally shot in 2014 in the line of duty, but had instead spent some of it on cosmetic surgery, rent, and her daughter’s wedding.
Ah.
You often hear a slogan: “Back the blue!” But that slogan should come with an asterisk, rather than an exclamation point. The real meaning, it seems to me, is: Back the blue in particular circumstances, at particular times — not, for example, on January 6th . . .
• Before he pardoned Michele Fiore, Trump pardoned Trevor Milton — who founded the electric-vehicle company Nikola, and “was sentenced to prison last year for fraud,” as this report says.
The pardon of Milton, the report continues, “could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors.”
Why would the president pardon this fellow?
“Milton, 42, and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election.”
Ah!
A reporter actually questioned Trump about why he had pardoned Milton. The president’s answer: “They say the thing that he did wrong was, he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president.”
Ah, right. Sure. No doubt that was “the thing that he did wrong.”
This is not the rule of law, it is Caesaristic whim, and corruption.
• Speaking of which: “Trump Offers Private Dinner to Top 220 Investors in His Memecoin” (article here). I know many, many people who would be calling for the president’s impeachment if the president were a Democrat.
• Ekrem Imamoglu is the mayor of Istanbul. Was? He is Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s principal opponent. Was? I guess so. Erdogan is Turkey’s dictator. He had Imamoglu arrested and imprisoned.
In Washington, Trump said, “I have a great relations with a man named Erdogan. Have you heard of him? I happen to like him, and he likes me. I know the press will get very angry — ‘He likes Erdogan.’ But I do, and he likes me.”
No doubt. Also, this is evidently the criterion in U.S. foreign policy.
• Some political news, and constitutional news:
.@EricTrump rocking the new Trump 2028 hat! 👀🔥 pic.twitter.com/5EsCkvHORI
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 24, 2025
Just “trolling,” are they? Yup, that’s what the apologists say, until the trolling enters a more substantial stage, and the apologists have to adjust accordingly.
• Do you care to see some poetry in motion?
Satchel Paige’s windup is incredible to watch 😮 pic.twitter.com/I0gynHqEJo
— Baseball’s Greatest Moments (@BBGreatMoments) April 26, 2025
I would file this under “American Artistry.”
• Speaking of artistry: Lisa Batiashvili is a Georgian violinist, one of the outstanding instrumentalists of our age. She is a beautiful human being, in every way. (I have heard her and written about her for years, and I once interviewed her and her husband, the French oboist François Leleux.) For a long time now, she has had the habit of appearing in Ukrainian colors: blue and yellow. She does not say anything. All the “talking” she does is with her violin. But she expresses herself with those colors. It is a way of conveying solidarity.
She was born in the Soviet Union. She knows. She is entirely unillusioned.
On Saturday night, she played a Mozart concerto with the New York Philharmonic, garbed in blue and yellow. I doubt this was lost on many in the hall.
Ukraine has support in this country. Sometimes you wouldn’t know it from the news, but it does.
• Yesterday, Central Park was garbed in different colors. Have a walk down an un-dark allée:
Here is a tree with a carpet, or a “skirt,” if you like:
A final scene:
Have a beautiful week, y’all.
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