YOUR VIEWS: Canada’s Caithness roots and looking back at the General Election
Canada proud of it links with Caithness history
It's Canada Day, July 1st and we are celebrating, with many of my thoughts going to the people that made this unbelievably beautiful country possible.
My family came to Canada from Caithness in 1888. My grandfather (a Wick Harrold) and grandmother (a Thurso Nicholson) came with five children, and worked with pioneer resilience to help carve out an incredible place. My family story is not unique. They came to Edmonton, which was named for the home town of one of the first governors (Chief Factor) of Fort Edmonton, a fur trading post. The town had only hundreds of people at the time.
Forward to now, Edmonton is now a city of a million-plus. The city is loaded with honours for the Caithnessians who contributed to make it happen. Groat Road, MacKenzie Ravine, John Walter Landing, Harrold Crescent... Look at a map of our region, you see many Scottish names.
I live in a place where you see the contributions of these remarkable, adventurous pioneers who chose to come here, and worked so hard.
I just wanted to pause to say thank you to the current people of Caithness. You can be proud of what has been accomplished here, and you should come and see for yourself someday. Please look me up, I'll buy you an ice cold Canadian beer.
Love and respect to all,
Kim Harrold
Edmonton
Alberta
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Looking back on the election that was
On July 5th 2024, we woke up to the news of a Labour landslide. King Rishi was gone – long live the new King.
It was inevitable. Rishi Sunak never had a plan for the country. His only plan was to be Prime Minister.
Billy Connelly once said: “The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever being one.” No one had that desire more than Sunak, and that was the problem.
I’m sure having it on his CV will do him no harm when he sails off to the sunset to his $7.2 million property in Malibu with his equally, if not richer, spouse.
To say he didn’t achieve a successful election campaign would be a gross understatement, most notably the spotty teenagers in the Cabinet Office thinking it was a good idea to leave the D-Day celebrations early.
Then there came a media round of beleaguered Tories describing things they got right. Tumbleweed blew gently through the studio in a ghostly hush.
Big names fell: Jacob Rees-Mogg had already phoned “nanny” to prepare his milky cocoa and a hot water bottle, and ”would she mind reading him a bedtime story before lights out?”; Liz Truss was devising her own sitcom - she would collaborate with Bear Grylls on “Strictly Come Thames Baptisms”. This is a woman who was only in power for 49 days yet still received the out-going PM tradition of producing an honours list.
Jeremy Hunt managed to cling on, but has ruled himself out of a Tory leadership race. Phew! This is a man who makes Joe Biden look positively athletic.
Take Cruella Braverman, PLEASE! How she kept her seat beats me.
Her election speech was hilarious. “I am sorry that my party didn’t listen to you. The Conservative party has let you down.” No? Really? Not a wet eye in the house. A strong proponent of the Rwanda policy, she still claims it was a success. She’s clearly lost her marbles. Unless of course by success she means not one asylum seeker boarding a plane and £370 million wasted on a ludicrous and cruel policy.
Depending on which channel you watched as election results trickled in, you may have heard the panel describing Ed Davey’s stint as Coco the Clown. Ed tried a new tactic, and unlike Johnson’s zip-wire fiasco it seemed to work. Davey did look foolish but he successfully displayed to the electorate that politicians don’t take themselves too seriously. Plus, his is, of course the only party willing to talk about re-joining the European Union.
One TV channel had Ed Balls tried not to look too smug, suppressing his urge to jump up on the table and give his opinion “Gangnam” style. Whereas George Osborne laid into Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, his amnesia on the austerity measures he introduced was hard to swallow.
Reform Party? What can I say? Nigel Farage wins a seat after seven attempts. A dangerous man who has somehow convinced his voters that he has the answers to their problems, who wants to ride the wave of right-wing populism, and wants his party “to be the opposition around the country”.
Keir Starmer has been deliberately vague about his policies in the lead up to the election, trying to please everybody.
Let’s see what he can do now he has the reins.
Fiona Murray
Braemar House, Weydale
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