Prorogues With Sour Grapes

When returning to Canada, I had the hope that I would be returning to a nation governed by grownups, people promoted and selected for their competence, and those who viewed politics as being both a referendum and a sport, to be played upon the field of public opinion.

Instead, I came home to the Steven Harper government, who has made more prorogues than Hunky Bill.

I will certainly make a point of voting against Steven Harper at the earliest opportunity. I may even become sufficiently motivated to actually Write Letters and Make Phone Calls. I could even volunteer to stump for my various non-Conservative candidates. You see, that's how Parliamentary Democracy works.

Sweet Goddess On High, I'm glad I'm back in Canada. Two years now, and I'm STILL kissing the ground. For as bad as Steven Harper is - and he's approaching the levels of arrogance established by William Vander Zalm - his sort of opportunistic politics would not even raise an eyebrow in the Disunited States of Uhmurika. Which is why Steven Harper and his govenment may take this throat-clearing as being Constructive Criticism.

It's not that he's being Too Conservative. The man is barely corrupt and cynical enough to be elected as a Democrat in the US of A. We entrust our public servants with a great deal more latitude than our American Cousins because, by and large, we insist on far higher standards of competence. We expect our public servants to be aware of the letter of the law, but to adhere first to it's spirit - even when doing so leads to "Just Watch Me" moments.

That is the essence of conservatism - a profound appreciation for the quality and importance of the individual entrusted with any small portion of responsibility regarding our common weal.


But this is not "just watch me," It's "Pay No Attention to The Man Behind The Curtain."

My Fellow Canadians, it's our reflexively conservative approaches to Finance and Governance, our insistence on a Conservative appreciation of the dotting of the Ayes and the crossing of Tees in favor of the Citizenry and not the "First Citizens" that has spared us the embarrassment of our cousins to the south, who are largely governed by people who seem likely to fall for Nigerian email scams.

It's that he's starting to approach the degree of cynical abuse of process required of being an American Republican In Good Standing. Which is to say, a lying ignoramus with pretensions of godhood, and in no sense a Conservative.

And that, Sirrah, is something up with which I will not put. Not because I am Liberal, Sir, or a Green or a member of the NDP, whom I respect for their intentions if not their effects.

No, sir. I oppose you because your cynical abuse of process makes you unworthy of appearing before Parlement. A person deserving of the office would not be afraid of Question Period. I do not recall an instance where Mrs. Thatcher visibly flinched at her duty to defend contentious policies. Indeed, she often came away with the rhetorical testicles of those who had the effrontery to ask when she had stopped beating her husband. It seems your standards of Conservatism owe more to George Bush than the Iron Lady.

As a former and natural Progressive-Conservative, Mister Harper, I do not believe it unreasonable of me to ask you to be half the man Margret Thatcher was.

If you must collude with a tracticable appointee to evade the oversight of Parliament in order to achieve your goals - very well. But let it be observed that you had to collude and machinate and manipulate and contrive your way to your "success." It has been noted. And, as has happened before, there will be a price to pay. And if I really must vote Liberal to achieve that end - I shall do so unflinchingly.

I voted for John Chretien because I know who he was and for what he stood for - which was continuing to be the Prime Minister. In order to achieve that goal, he knew that he had to ensure that certain things were done well enough to please me and millions like me well enough. Fortunately, he had few "principles" that would get in the way of doing his job.

Peace. Order. Good Government. These are OUR essentials, Sir.

And should your "principles" interfere with your ability to deliver peace, order and good government, than I suggest your principles are likely incompatible with my own and many other Canadians of diverse views - all of which are protected eccentricities under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

You wish to be Large And In Charge and Be In Photographs With World Leaders; well, in order to do this well enough to not be snickered at by your peers, at home and abroad, should you not be held to the same standards as a police officer or a sanitation worker? Good Government, Sir, does NOT involved the abrogation of the rights of Persons of or Parlament when it might frustrate your personal ambitions.

In order to be Right, sir, first you must be Correct. When you are incorrect - as does happen from time to time to the best of us - an honorable leader corrects themselves long before the apparent lack of honor comes to the notice those such as myself.

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