Opinion

Things are really not so bad, I tell myself. I just finished watching Lewis Mackenzie give a speech on his experience of reading a local Ottawa paper the first morning he returned from the Balkans. In his speech, the general relays the story of watching some kids being blown limb from limb in front of his eyes. In his speech the general points out how the lead story on that day in that paper was to GST or to not GST. The point of the story being how wonderful a place our country is. I so agree with him. And so, I tell myself things are no so bad.

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.

A Few Questions for Mr. Ignatieff

A person has to be in the rarefied national press core in order to interview a national party leader. Haven’t you ever wanted as a citizen to ask a Canadian political leader a question? Well I have a few questions of my own to ask the current Liberal Party leader.

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?’.

Prime Minister is thumbs up

And why wouldn’t the Prime Minister be thumbs up?  It’s not as ‘good as it gets’, but the lack of any real spine on the part of the opposition parties, has landed the Prime Minister in a pretty nice spot.

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.

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.

The Upcoming Election

The upcoming election they all say. What election I ask?  Does anyone really believe that Mr. Harper a master strategist, will allow an election that is not overwhelmingly predicted to produce a majority for his conservatives?  Does anyone really imagine that the twin egos of Jack Layton and Micheal Ignatieff will be able to set aside their own personal glory to join forces to defeat the Harper conservatives?

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.