Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Stockwell Day Promotes Rural Bacchanal

In his latest weekly column (this link will change), Stockwell defends the reputation of The Merritt Mountain Music Festival, which is apparently the biggest C&W festival in Canada. It also sounds like a time for the locals to get smashed, ride around on the family hoss, and shoot heads off chickens. This year, according to The Province:

Police had 34 people in custody on Saturday night, including three women. Most arrests, but not all, were related to the festival.

Complaints ranged from causing a disturbance, disorderly conduct, assault and brawling but "nothing major."

"It's regular stuff we deal with with intoxicated people," said Linteau.

Two men were arrested for rolling a trailer over and setting it on fire.

Holy shit, sounds like a night at Jane/Finch! But one difference is when bad things go down in the City, you hear about them endlessly on the television. When they happen up in the mountains, your MP just tells a few fibs and nobody says nothin':

And how many crimes against rural humanity took place? A grand total of three. That’s right, trois, tres. And they were not exactly capital offences.

Off by a factor of ten, Stockwell! But I imagine any outsiders, like back-packers and college kids that could report any different, were killed and eaten to the sound of banjo music before they could get past the town line.

But it is true that crime at the festival was down from '06, when 150 people were arrested. In Toronto, they would call that a "gang bust", and Stockwell would be screaming that we should deport 'em all to Jamaica.

Our man in Kelowna ends by waxing philosophic on the significance of C&W:

It's long overdue for the cultured minds of centralized federalism to understand that the lore and tradition of our rural 'routes' are often transmitted through the channels of country music. Wish us luck in getting that message through.

Firstly, Stockwell, you don't have a urban centralizer to hate cowboy music. I know many rock-ribbed conservatives who puke at the sound of a steel-guitar. And as for getting the rural message out, well, we have enough wife-beating in Toronto, and don't need to reify it as some kind of cultural tradition.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

maybe we can get Stock to promote a Handgun & Hate Fest in Toronto. Seeing how there are more gun murders in Toronto every year than soldiers who die in Afghanistan in six years, maybe he can get the CBC to do the Death Watch thing for the juvenile thugs.

On second thought, just buy more ammo for them & encourage them to self-destruct each other. They won't be missed, unlike our soldiers.

Anonymous said...

I live in rural Ontario and believe me the teens here aren't into Q&W - this is 2007 and they do get to hear other forms of music on their modern gadgets.

Anonymous said...

Obviously anon you don't look at crime stats. Toronto is NOT the most violent city in Canada. That honour belongs to one of the precious piss pots in Alberta.

Anonymous said...

" Virtually all provinces and territories reported declines in their homicide rates in 2006. The most notable occurred in Ontario, where there were 23 fewer homicides.

The highest homicide rates were found in the Western provinces. Saskatchewan, which had 40 homicides, reported the highest rate (4.1 per 100,000 population) among the provinces.

The lowest provincial homicide rates were in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec. Quebec's 1.2 per 100,000 population was its lowest in that province in 40 years.

The highest urban homicide rates were reported in Regina, 4.5 homicides per 100,000 population, followed by Edmonton (3.7) and Saskatoon (3.3)."

There you go. Hot of the press. Published this very day.

Westerners are more violent that the rest of Canada.

Shame. Crazy hicks with shotguns.

Anonymous said...

Bingo. Canada should pull out of Toronto - it's just not worth it.

Anonymous said...

It's long overdue for the cultured minds of centralized federalism to understand that the lore and tradition of our rural 'routes' are often transmitted through the channels of country music. Wish us luck in getting that message through.

What the hell's he bibbling on about now? That the values of our rural heritage are passed on by the likes of Toby "Boot up yer ass" Keith? There's a distinction to be made between authentic country music and that over-sentimentalised crap that sends any true music lover straight to the nearest vomitorium.

bigcitylib said...

TiGuy,

I once scammed a University summer job studying old C&W tunes for a project in "existential Geography". The first wave of country, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter family et al, were quite good. The music has become more popular as it has decayed creatively (like Rap)

Anonymous said...

Note to Stephen Harper. Sponsor this event. Paint it with Tory blue decals. Might as well get the Con MPs to compete in a pit bull fighting contest.

My wager is on John Baird, hands down.

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Good ol' boys just wanna have fun. I reckon there's more'n one or two country music fans in Trawna. I play in a little country band here in rural Ontariariario. As far as polyticks goes, I figger the fellers an' gals in the band are left of centre. We ain't got a huge fan base but I wouldn't bet on all our fans bein' as pergressive as the band.

I saw Fred Eaglesmith play on Sunday. He commented about one o' his songs bein' recorded by Toby Kieth and ho some folks were givin' him a hard time about Kieth's polyticks. Fred asked if the other businesspeople in the audience made sure their customers were all pergressives before sellin' 'em anything.

I don't reckon music is a good wedge issue.

JB

Anonymous said...

Why is it that Liberals have the urge to 'spin' absolutely everything? Is it Day's fault people don't behave themselves? Is Day promoting the brawling or the music festival? Is your blind hatred causing you to make such desperate comments? I know, I know, he's not doing anything nearly as bad as the typical Liberal politician, so you have to grab onto whatever you can. If only he were caught stealing money from the riding association. THEN we'd hear about it, wouldn't we?

Anonymous said...

THEN we'd hear about it, wouldn't we?

The way Conservatives lie and cover for each other and never police themselves?

Not bloody likely.

Anyway, we criticise Stockwell because he's retarded. What's wrong with that?

Anonymous said...

I'll just say this about Merritt. I know many of the people who work the security detail at the festival. They have done so for many years. If I can believe what they tell me, and I have no reason whatsoever to distrust them, there are far worse things happening during that weekend than what is either reported by the media or reported to the proper authorities.

Anonymous said...

Jimbobby wrote,
"I saw Fred Eaglesmith play on Sunday. He commented about one o' his songs bein' recorded by Toby Kieth and ho some folks were givin' him a hard time about Kieth's polyticks. Fred asked if the other businesspeople in the audience made sure their customers were all pergressives before sellin' 'em anything."

I have to applaud Fred's reasoning there, jb. But then I am unabashedly an Eaglesmith fan.

Now, I can't say that I'm a Toby Keith fan in any way shape or form, although I did get a chuckle out of hearing his "I'm Never Smoking Weed With Willie Again" song. I didn't chuckle over his 'boot in the ass courtesy of the red, white & blue' song though.

But there's also an irony that those folks giving Fred a hard time about Toby Keith covering his song have missed. I'm sure that many people are unaware of this - that despite his fued with the Dixie Chicks, and his vocal support for GWB's presidency, Toby Keith is, and has always been, a registered Democrat, albeit a very conservative Democrat. He's also repeatedly stated that he never supported the war in Iraq, although he does 'support the troops'.

(Don't forget that the 'boot in the ass song' wasn't about Iraq)

And he's far from being the only registered Democrat within the Country Music world.
See - http://www.musicrowdemocrats.com/

"I don't reckon music is a good wedge issue."

Agree with you 100% there JB.

Anonymous said...

Hey jimbobby, were you at the Hillbilly fest?

Anonymous said...

You know, Hentai-guy, some people feel the term 'retarded' is kinda like using the N-word nowadays. It's a little insensitive to certain groups of people. Maybe you should be a little bit more progressive in choosing your derogatory terms.

Anonymous said...

I believe Toronto already has a Handgun & Hate festival.