But the old brain just won’t leave it alone with that simple thought. I think to myself, how do we keep this wonderful place, well, wonderful?  How do we keep what is arguably the most wonderful place not just to live now, but to ever have lived, that way for our kids?  The party in power is so American, its hard to imagine them in power. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that we laughed at the antics of the Reform movement, so Texan that it was too Texan even for my Texan friends.

Well, no one is laughing now.

Mr. Ignatieff, you have rejected an alliance with the NDP and the Bloc to oust the Harper conservatives. Are there any conditions short of total victory for the Liberals under which you would remove your support for the Harper government?  Mr. Ignatieff, are you even aware of how Mr. Harper is bringing into law, a Reform agenda, a set of policies that could never win a national election?  If you are aware, why do you continue to cooperate? Mr. Ignatieff do you realize your lack of action is costing your party the contributions it so desperately needs?  Mr. Ignatieff do you realize that in the short period of time you have been sitting across from Mr. Harper, Harper has made you irrelevant?
But my favorite question is:  ‘Mr. Ignatieff when will you do something?’.

Jack Layton will not bring the government down. Not even for a policy near and dear to the NDP’s heart, employment benefits for suffering workers.  To listen to Mr. Layton, Mr. Harper’s plan must pass, because of course an NDP government just couldn’t do a better job.

Prime Minister give a thumbs up.

Listening Mr. Ignatieff reminds me a lot of a neighbors toy dog.  Always making a lot of noise about something, always ‘talking tough’ but when the big dog comes along, the little dog just fades away with a few grumbles. And of course no one wants to run with a chihuahua. So for the time being, until one or the other opposition party comes up with a strong leader and by strong we mean, someone with a backbone, Mr. Harper can and has, been doing pretty much what his Reform party impulses tell him to do. The man is brilliant. Perhaps the smartest politician in power in the western world. To watch Mr. Harper maneuver, out fox and generally put down his opposites is to watch a master at work.

You may not love his policies, but you have to love Mr. Harper’s mastery.

Prime Minister Steven Harper on Election Night

And what a world it is. With policies that could never be sold under the Reform banner, unable to muster a clear majority or even much more than 30 per cent of the country, Mr. Harper gets to implement his dystopic Reform vision of Canada. Why bother to describe the vision?  A quick look at the Reform Alliance policy book will tell you where this all ends. And it ends badly for just about everyone except the extreame right wing.

So hail to the chief, and full speed ahead. Thank you Liberal party, thank you NDP, neither of which is the 500 pound gorilla in the room. Neither of which could set their own egos aside and think about the country. Neither of which, quiet frankly is up to the task of managing a country.  If this election were survivor, Mr. Harper would be walking out of the jungle right about now, with Jacks and Micheal’s bicuspids around his neck. And its going to stay that way I predict until at least 2012. By 2012 the Liberal party will have been in near revolt as the lastest of leaders failed to do the things necessary to take power. Jack Layton who was never serious about taking the country in an NDP direction will retire. And Mr. Harper who will have by that time run the country as long as any majority leader, will step aside, though for who is unanswered.

Whoo hoo.

Even now, with the management of the swine flu crisis being the first specular failure on Mr. Harper’s part, neither Layton nor Ignatieff can bring themselves to bring this government down.