by Sean Orr | Seeing red, not wearing it: Not everyone will be celebrating Canada Day. Not everyone will not be not celebrating it, too. I, for one, did neither.

I mean, how could I celebrate when this sort of thing is happening: British man kicked out of Canada for helping girlfriend fix up her apartment. I blame this on that show, Border Security.

I did, however, celebrate the great Canadian ambivalence to patriotism. Like how my Facebook feed can be filled with A Lament for Confederation and How Many Canadian Slang Words Do You Know? simultaneously. That quirky, self-aware, ‘I love this country, but…”. Kevin Howes nailed it in his write-up for Exclaim’s Canada Day Playlist: Artists Pick Their Favourite Canadian Albums of All Time:

Despite the theft and atrocities that this country was founded on, Canada is comprised of a wide range of people from all over the world. This is a good thing. Together with the Indigenous people of this land, we have a lot to share and learn from each other. Racism, as we know, is front-page Canadian news in 2015. It’s clear to see that an open and positive, however challenging or difficult, dialogue is needed to improve our relationships with each other. Music can certainly help with this. For artists courageous enough to take on social commentary in their craft, there is an opportunity to help foster unity and togetherness.

And if that doesn’t work, hack: CSIS website falls victim to yet another cyberattack.

And if that doesn’t work, just pour maple syrup on the ground in an act of revolutionary defiance: Man arrested for pouring syrup on sidewalk.

I guess you could always…ugh…vote: The aboriginal vote: Can indigenous Canadians swing the election?

Timing is everything: Mulcair’s secret meetings with the Tories. Not secret. Not news. Rather, an extended Tory attack ad questioning the loyalty of someone who chose the fourth-place party in a province where they had only won a seat one time before by a man, Dimitri Soudas, who had himself switched parties. If Mulcair is an opportunist, his championing of proportional representation will make it so that party leaders no longer have to be. It also means that because the Tories asked him to join they can hardly question his political savvy.

But as this piece in Jacobin Magazine The Globe and Mail asserts, it’s not the middle class Mulcair should be fighting for — A new class: Canada neglects the precariat at its peril.

While Canada’s three major political parties are all aiming their bids for October’s election at the idea of a middle class, they ignore this new class. Their neglect is producing a fragmented society in which the old middle class dwindles; an elite, well-employed “salariat” quietly thrives; a plutocracy smiles; and the precariat takes shape in anxiety, alienation and anger.

Meanwhile, the Green Party courts the all-important chemtrails vote: Elizabeth May’s Party of Science seems to support a lot of unscientific public policies. It’s an older article but she’s still retweeting conspiracy theorists.

Meanwhile, the Liberals are the only party without a climate change target: Trudeau’s climate change target won’t be ready for UN summit on global warming.

Restrict water use in Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley: province. “Government calling for voluntary 20% reduction in consumption”. Nestle. Fracking. That is all.

Wow, Vancouver has changed a lot: Vancouver 1972-1982. Did you know it once snowed here?