Mario Beaulieu is greeted by a supporter in Montreal Saturday, after being named new leader of the Bloc Quebecois. GRAHAM HUGHES / THE CANADIAN PRESS.

Yes Virginia there is life north of the Great Lakes after the June 12, 2014 Ontario election. And here in fact is growing evidence that there actually may or may not be a Great Spirit of Canada :

(1) On Tuesday, June 10, 2014 Reuters reported that : “US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has given up his Canadian citizenship, roughly nine months after learning he was a dual citizen, his office said on Tuesday … Cruz, a Republican who is believed to be considering a bid for the White House in 2016, received a ‘certificate of renunciation of Canadian citizenship’ …”

(2) Hard-core Quebec separatist Mario Beaulieu became the new leader of the beleaguered federal Bloc Québécois in Montreal on Saturday, June 14, 2014. Former BQ leader Gilles Duceppe was disappointed when, during Beaulieu’s acceptance speech “cries of [the old] Front de libération du Québec (FLQ)’s slogan, ‘Nous vaincrons,’ or ‘We will conquer,’ emanated from the crowd …” Meanwhile : “Within the first 24 hours of Beaulieu’s leadership, two members of the Bloc [ie half the BQ’s current four-member caucus in the Canadian House of Commons] voiced their displeasure with his election and vowed to resign.”

(3) A new piece by Scott Feschuk on the Maclean’s website notes that Canadian federal Prime Minister Stephen Harper is “growing suspicious, isolated and rage-prone.” Feschuk goes on, further noting, eg, that :”Tom Flanagan–a key player in Harper’s rise to power–used the pages of his latest book to describe the PM this way: ‘He can be suspicious, secretive, and vindictive, prone to sudden eruptions of white-hot rage over meaningless trivia.’ Other than that, great guy.” At the same time, Feschuk ends with : “So yes, maybe Stephen Harper seems a little withdrawn and miserable these days. But he is always going to be that way. Right now, this job–it’s likely the most happiness that being miserable is ever going to bring him.”

Pierre Trudeau at the Calgary Stampede, July 1978.

(4) Enraged over meaningless trivia or not, one thing we ought to have learned over the past 10 years is NEVER UNDERESTIMATE STEPHEN HARPER! So the Canadian Press is reporting : “ Canadians have handed the Harper government a Top 10 list of the country’s greatest heroes … The list, compiled from online consultations in the run-up to Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017,” includes (in order, from 1 to 10) Pierre Trudeau, Terry Fox, Tommy Douglas,  Lester B. Pearson, Chris Hadfield, David Suzuki, Jack Layton, John A. Macdonald, Wayne Gretzky, and Romeo Dallaire. Stephen Harper may or may not be embarrassed by how many Liberals and New Democrats are on this list. But pretending to half-admire Justin Trudeau’s father could also bring the Harper Government closer to actually getting re-elected in 2015!

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Migrante Canada members in Toronto dramatize the plight of migrant workers as they call for an end to human trafficking of Filipino migrant workers worldwide.

(5) As if the misadventures of Rob Ford are not enough, it has now been revealed (yet again?) that Toronto is ”the ‘most common destination’ of human trafficking in Ontario, and a hub on the larger map of national and international trafficking routes, according to a new study released Saturday at a conference on modern slavery …”

Toronto, this study goes on, is “a hub for a number of human trafficking routes.” Victims of “sexual exploitation, forced labour and forced marriage” are “moved between provinces or brought into and out of Canada” through this hub. The people involved come from such places as Afghanistan, India, the Philippines, Ukraine, and the USA. Earlier this month “Toronto police arrested eight people … alleging that gang members recruited girls as young as 14-years-old to work as prostitutes under the threat of violence.”

Malta’s ambassador to the US, Marisa Micallef, presented her credentials to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, at the White House in Washington DC in September 2013.

(6) Malta is a small archipelago in the central Mediterranean Sea, with a population of less than half a million people. It became part of the British empire in the early 19th century, and then gained its independence in the mid 1960s.  An article in the Times of Malta, dated yesterday, notes that recently “Malta’s High Commissioner to Canada Marisa Micallef presented her credentials to Governor General of Canada David Johnston …”

The article goes on : “In a ceremony at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence in Ottawa. Mr Johnston noted the many similarities between Malta and Canada … reinforced by the 50,000-strong Maltese-Canadian community.” Malta is a small country, and there are limits to what it can afford. And so “High Commissioner Micallef is also Malta’s Ambassador to the United States of America and is resident in Washington D.C..” (Which will make any red-blooded Canadian wonder just how many other countries have their ambassador to the United States serve as diplomatic representative to Canada too?)

André Boisclair,leader of the Parti Quebecois, 2005—2007.

(7) The grass parkettes always look greener etc, etc. Preliminary estimates suggest that province-wide voter turnout in the June 12 Ontario election was about 52% – up at least from 48% in 2011! Yet turnout for the most recent election in Ontario’s fabled sister province of Quebec, this past April 7, 2014, was some 70%. And many anglo Ontario intellectuals (insofar as anyone seriously qualifies for such distinction) are understandably jealous.

Now, however, one franco Quebec intellectual (Philippe Orfali)  has expressed compensating jealousy about the June 12 Ontario election in Le Devoir : “Première lesbienne à diriger une province canadienne, Kathleen Wynne devient avec sa victoire la première première ministre LGBT élue dans un pays du Commonwealth. Un jalon accueilli dans la plus grande indifférence par les médias et le public ontarien, alors qu’André Boisclair avait dû, lui, essuyer des railleries homophobes lors de la campagne électorale de 2007.”

Kathleen Wynne, her spouse, Jane Rounthwaite, her daughters (from a previous mixed-sex marriage) Jessie and Maggie, son Chris, son-in-law Stan Wesley, and granddaughters Olivia and Claire. (The family portrait was taken shortly before the birth of her grandson, Hugh.)

A very imperfect translation might be : “First lesbian to lead a Canadian province, Kathleen Wynne is also the first LGBT first minister elected in a Commonwealth country. A related welcome landmark is the great indifference of the media and the Ontario public, while [the also openly gay former leader of the Parti Quebecois] André Boisclair had to face homophobic taunts during the 2007 election campaign” in Quebec.

All contrasts and comparisons between Ontario and Quebec aside, the ancient Toronto social democratic sage Gerald Caplan expressed vaguely similar thoughts a few days ago on the Globe and Mail website, in a piece entitled “Liberals were lucky they won – and so is Ontario.” Mr. Caplan concluded : “Finally, this province just made history by electing as premier a woman who happens to be a lesbian, yet it’s barely of interest. Nor did the Conservatives ever attempt to make an issue of it. That means Ontario’s not just lucky. It’s blessed.”