It must be silly season

Well for we citizens of the GWN (Great White North) looking at American politics is always an interesting and rather humorous exercise as well as being somewhat frightening.

First of all you have Michele Bachmann who said during the Republican debates that the countries that the US "liberated" should pay for their "liberation". I'm sure that the Iraqis really appreciated being liberated (read invaded) after 100000 civilians dead and four million displaced, as well as having their infrastructure destroyed and their standard of living crushed. First of all they never asked to be invaded and then occupied for the next nine years and I'm sure a lot of them that lost family and friends would love to payback the US although I'm not sure the US would like the payback. Now Ms. Bachman has a right to her opinion but there really should be an intelligence test to become President of t he United States.

The next person that caught my attention was Rick Perry who believes that it is the United Sates' god given right to rule the world. He also believes that the economic recession was god's punishment for not being good christians. He also doesn't believe in evolution and really believes that god talks to him. Here in the GWN we have special places for people who hear voices telling them to do weird things. What really boggles the mind is that he was elected governor, but then again Texas also elected George W. Bush. (Who, by the way, seems a real genius beside this yahoo)

Here in the GWN, we are also not exempt from political weirdness. We have the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour, who wants to change the labour code so that the economy becomes an essential service, which would in effect take away pretty much everyone's right to strike, letting companies pretty much do what they want…. Somehow coming from the conservatives this doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me is that the same workers elected them in the first place.

 

Hell it’s February

I’ve been brain dead for a while and couldn’t seem to get the energy to write something. No sun does that to me. To the contrary of my lil sister Jazz I like the cold crisp air of winter as long as I can get my dose of sunlight. No sunlight gets to me every time.

Now what is going on in our part of the world. First of all our elected representatives are being their usual brainless selves. Last week they voted unanimously to ban the kirpan from the National Assembly. Why, because it is a weapon of mass destruction and the person would be able to take them all hostage and create murder and mayhem. Mind you a kirpan is a small dull bladed knife about 3 inches long, in fact the table knives of the National Assembly restaurant are probably longer and sharper. (If someone did however take them all hostage with a kirpan, I for one would vote NOT to pay the ransom...) I sometimes wonder what could possibly go through politician’s heads besides currents of air. Are they obligated to get a brainectomy before taking office. Small wonder they are less popular than a Jehovah’s witness going from door to door.

This morning I was listening to the CBC when I heard a news report about Scott Newark’s new crime statistics report where he states that crime is really going up and the Stats Canada statistics saying that crime is going down are all flawed (with a soupçon of "Is there a conspiracy » thrown in). Now seems to be legitimate until you realize that it is the same thing that the Conservative Harper government has been saying to justify spending billions of dollars to beef up the prison system because they want to get tough on crime. Then you realize that he was the senior policy advisor (which also led to a scandal) to the minister of public safety, Stockwell Day, the same man who is pushing hard for more prisons, longer sentences because don’t you know.... OH MY GOD, CRIME IS GOIN' UP EVERYWHERE... PUT THEM ALL IN PRISON AND THROW AWAY THE KEY. (He is probably also a closet believer in capital punishment, but can’t say it yet...). Scott Newark is also the man who said, 

"Anything effective in law enforcement will inevitably be forbidden under the Charter [the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]. As we always say, the charter helps only murderers, pedophiles and judges. » 

Talk about respect for the highest law in the land from a law and order guy. Anyhow, I can’t imagine that the politicians think that we’d be taken in by such an obvious ploy, do they seriously think we are as stupid as they are? Hmmm maybe they do.

The best of times and the worst of times

As a Canadian we are used to a rather ho hum, middle of the road, type of leadership and government. The Liberals are just a bit to the left of centre, the Conservatives are a bit to the right (They would be much farther to the right if our PM had his way.) The leadership is pretty much grey with no real extremes. We could even say that we are a rather dull bunch.

Our American cousins on the other hand, seem to love going from one extreme to the other. They have had presidents that have inspired generations and changed the world. Men such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, who had a glorious vision of what their country could be and inspired their citizens to reach out and grasp that vision. But they also had presidents that were the opposite, Nixon, Reagan, Bush. Men who would do anything to win power, who would bring out the lowest common denominator of pettiness and narrow mindedness.
The last president is a perfect example of this. He was an unmitigated disaster for both America and the world. Under his watch America went from a balanced budget with a surplus to a veritable ocean of red ink, the American and world economies were devastated because greed and stupidity were allowed to go unchecked, America has lost thousands of young men in a futile war, whose drive and creativity are lost forever, America has made enemies across the world by its highhanded ruthless disregard for basic human rights. Under his watch we have seen examples of torture, wrongful imprisonment, an almost complete disregard for all international conventions that the United States has signed such as the Geneva Convention. He has masterminded an erosion of the rights laid out in the American Constitution that he was supposed to uphold and has trampled the very rule of law on which all democracies are based. And George W Bush was elected twice, wasn't once enough?
And yet just when the world despairs of ever seeing an America that plays a leadership role instead of being the world bully, the American electorate does a "beau geste" and elects an African American to the White House. Not only a visible minority but a man with a vision who can inspire the American people to reach out and grasp a dream of a better world for everyone who shares our common humanity. America can once again become an inspiration instead something to be reviled. Congratulations for having elected President Obama. There is now more hope for the future.
As for we Canadians, we'll muddle along with our grey uninspiring Prime Ministers. We'll probably never have a Barak Obama, ... but then again hopefully we'll never be stuck with a George Bush.

Our own eccentrics

In the interest of full disclosure to our friends in the homeland south of us, we have also had our share of weird and wonderful leaders. Our first Prime Minister, John A. McDonald, (the equivalent I suppose of your Washington) was a binge drinker. No holier than thou, I cannot tell a lie type of guy, but a larger than life personage who could drink like a fish and still function. He was once quoted as having said to D'Arcy McGee (another heavy drinker, today there is a great Irish pub named after him in Ottawa) that there was only room for one drunk in the cabinet so he (D'Arcy) must reform...

Then we had William Lyon McKenzie-King. This was the prime minister who would go for a walk on his estate and discuss the nation's business with his dog and his mother. Now I know that this doesn't seem all that strange, but you have to realize that they had both been dead for many years. His hobby was building ruins. Some men build houses, mansions even castles. He deliberately built ruins. No not let a building fall into ruins, he built new ruins. He would scour Ottawa for buildings being torn down so that he could use bits and pieces in his ruins.

We also had our philosopher prince, Pierre Eliot Trudeau. Canadians either loved him or hated him. He was charismatic, flamboyant and down right arrogant. He would wear sandals to parliament and once did a pirouette behind Queen Elizabeth's back at an official function. He once told the opposition to, as the journalists put it, "fuddle duddle" I'll let you guess what he really said. He is probably the only thing that Québec Separatists and Western Conservatives can agree on... they both hate the man. Like him or hate him, he certainly left nobody indifferent.

In the last couple of years we have had Jean Chrétien. He was perfectly bilingual. Not strange you say? It has been said that Jean Chrétien was the only Prime Minister to speak both of Canada's official languages poorly at the same time. He also once tackled a demonstrator who got too close and scared the hell out of his body guards. But to give the devil his due, he did tell Dubya to go somewhere when he refused to be drawn into the debacle that is Irak and the wily old fox served 3 terms as Prime Minster (1993-2003) and had one of the highest popularity ratings in recent history despite the scandals.

It is somewhat ironic that Canadians, who have a reputation as being rather staid and middle of the road, elected and then re-elected these men to the highest office in Canada. McDonald served for 19 years as Prime Minister, McKenzie King for 22 years, Trudeau for 15 years, and Chrétien for 10 years. Hmm I wonder what that really says about us?