My weekly ramblings usually attempt to discuss a subject comprehensible to folks living here in the Niagara region.  Quite often, I collect the facts and attempt to think a bit differently. A bit off centre, as it were.

Sometimes it’s a stretch to develop a subject. This week, please bear with me because I have been shooting blanks. I am not stumbling around, but the world just seems so different to me.

The big news this week was the calling of a general election, with Canadians across our land going to the polls on Monday, April 28 to elect our 45th parliament. The writs of election were issued on March 23 after Governor General Mary Simon accepted a request to dissolve Parliament from Prime Minister Mark Carney.

And that’s about where my thoughts come off the rails. Normally, the most discussed Canadian issues would be fairly repetitive. Housing, healthcare, tax reforms, carbon tax, truth and reconciliation regarding our indigenous peoples, energy and pipelines.

Flipping through the TV channels for the last few days, I have been flooded with images of the President of the United States. It has been all-consuming, inescapable, and that man is totally dominating our current Canadian election.

The central question being asked regarding our federal election has been “Which Canadian political leader could best stand up to Donald Trump?”

This is where I find myself unable to relate. Let’s get a grip. Even the great Gretzky has been pulled into the fray. Truly a great Canadian for so many years, such a leader, and so studiously and cleverly apolitical. Even though lately we may think his choice of a certain friend is suspect.

Should so many Canadians have worked themselves into a lather regarding this unfortunate circumstance? Suggesting that a winery be renamed, writing graffiti on walls and defacing an iconic statue in Edmonton. Can we call a truce and come to our Canadian senses?

It is never my intention to whine or focus on the negative aspects of issues. So, imagine my happiness when Katharine Ward discussed the most recent “separatism poll from Quebec” on Global News earlier today. I lived in “la Belle Province” for four years just after the Montreal Olympics in the 1970s. How I loved les Quebecois, la ville de Montreal, and almost everything that makes Quebec Quebec.

Never has Quebec support for separatism been lower.

Back in the day, I understood why they felt their culture, including the French language, was continually being threatened by the dominant English majority. They were sometimes paranoid in their attempts to protect French. Bill 101, bilingual store signs and other attempts to fight for bilingualism.

Now, they have quickly realized that if they were to separate from Canada, they would be quickly chewed up by an unilingual, cold and dominating English majority in the United States.

So, I have rambled into unfamiliar territory and don’t want to get pulled into the seeming vortex of political news totally dominated by the American political situation.

I really don’t know where this is all going. Help me, please.