Posted: Peter O'Donnell @ 01/ 18/ 06 2:06 pm
Comes the hour, comes the man
by Peter O'Donnell
Canada under the Liberal Party's near-perpetual rule has led the world in at least one thing -- navel-gazing. I am sure you would have to go to Liechtenstein or perhaps Syria to find another country that is so obsessed with self-validation. Our prime minister has only one weapon left, it seems, the ceaseless repetition of the words "Canadian values." The leader of the NDP similarly tells people they should rent a space on his bus tour because the NDP will temporarily drive forward this earth-shaking business of spreading the gospel of Canadianism while the Liberals fix their four flat tires. Our ruling elite tell one another, and such plebians as might overhear their lofty discussions, that we are the most wonderful nation on earth, full of enlightened, progressive people who more or less float over the landscape radiating an aura of super-perfection. In other words, we are not like mortal men and women.
The sordid reality is seldom allowed to come into the official consciousness of the nation. The fact that the Liberal Party has been exposed as a vast criminal conspiracy which has a long track record of lying or dithering to remain in power, is seldom fully discussed. And the NDP's world vision is not exposed to much scrutiny either -- when Jack Layton says "we must not go off to help George Bush with foreign adventures, the progressive people of the world oppose the invasion of Iraq," he reflects the earlier adulation paid to Saddam Hussein by his candidate in Vancouver Centre, Svend Robinson, the man for whom even freedom of speech was not good enough, let alone six thousand years of traditional morality.
This seductive behaviour by so-called progressive politicians, courting the voters with the base conjecture that they are better than the rest of the world, is the whole reason that Canada is in danger of coming apart at the seams. Whenever a nation falls into the trap of believing that it is getting a free ride from fate or destiny, the actual work of government often comes to a halt in favour of enjoying the spoils of an imagined entitlement. People rush into public office who have no business there, to grab pieces of the action and spread largesse to their clients and patrons. As we have all heard, "the last refuge of the scoundrel is patriotism."
Even in a small unitary state, such developments lead to corruption and the entrenchment of a privileged elite, which can only rule by controlling the media and the academic institutions, because how else would they dupe enough people into voting for their self-interest. Nobody with any understanding of how the real world works would ever imagine that 40% of the Canadian people are on the take, or have their snouts in the trough, but 4% probably do, so for everyone that gets a free ride through life thanks to our present government, there are ten co-enablers, as well as three others who feel good about themselves for supporting the cheering section. That means that a majority of our voting public has been bought, sold and paid for, over two generations or more.
In a country as vast and diverse as Canada, such a state of affairs will naturally lead to regional alienation. The dynamics of corruption and influence peddling are such that some will get while others must give. Consider this -- there are no outside donors in this macro-economic puzzle. If places like Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver get more, then other places must get less, than their fair share of government services and attention. The economic geography of Quebec separatism and western alienation are textbook -- you could predict a voter's preferences by the square of their distance from the nearest Liberal MP.
Stephen Harper has been wandering through this political wilderness, like Gilles Duceppe, and many of us, for about fifteen years since the failures of Meech Lake and Charlottetown led to the shattering of the PC party around 1989-92. Now the Mulroney PC party, even by a friendly analysis which you might actually get from me, was but a course correction of the generations-old Liberal way of ruling Canada. It was better like a hot summer night is better than a hot summer day, but its very lack of resolve to make fundamental change was its downfall. It guaranteed that a cynical opposition would destroy it at the earliest opportunity, as always, wrapped in the legendary flag.
But Stephen Harper has discovered that he is being pulled into an inescapable position by the dynamics of Canadian politics. He cannot rule from the right, as Randy White inadvertently demonstrated last June. Perhaps the right as defined in that instance had merit unseen, but we are speaking about politics, the art of the possible. Stephen Harper has learned that he can only govern from a position near the centre. He can only reach the centre by having some vision of federalism that applies to Quebec, some vision of compromise politics that does not alienate vast numbers of potential voters, and some strategy for incremental change if he wants to handle the problem of staying true to his base (and his conscience).
This is a challenge that requires no ordinary man or woman. Consider this: in the last week I have read opinions in the mainstream media that describe the newly formed Conservative Party as a group of dangerous neo-conservative extremists, and conversely as a spineless bunch of sell-outs, "dishrags" being the terminology used. So my response is, hey, they must be doing something right, because this sounds like wedge politics to me, and we don't stand a chance of electing an alternative government to the corrupt Liberals without some form of a broad coalition of interests. Harper has skilfully appealed to such unlikely groups as Quebec nationalists, eastern city dwellers, and even the students of Canada from what I'm hearing. He may not harvest a lot of votes in some of these stony pastures, but the momentum towards his vision of change is visible and has clearly impressed the media, in itself a sign that the party may be flirting with a majority win. Of course, we know that alone will be only a toe in the door of political change, given the forces arrayed against a conservative reform-minded government, one of which we must continue to understand is the natural inducement to follow the path of least resistance and enjoy the spoils of victory.
Canada will need a much stronger-willed leader than most, who can stand up to the assaults coming at him from every side, should Harper win this election. We are seeing some encouraging signs of such a man emerging from the shell of the old Stephen Harper, a man who many of us might agree had his merits but hardly seemed like a man of destiny before the success of the party merger and the relative success of Montreal last March. The events of the spring then reminded some of the limited version of Stephen Harper, and had people looking around for possible alternatives. One of those quickly jumped ship and swam to a sinking vessel, a rather counter-intuitive move that in some ways will last as an iconic event of the Paul Martin "era."
As I say, comes the hour, comes the man. Perhaps no human being can heal this broken and dare I say this deluded nation. Perhaps Stephen Harper has the potential to be a great leader who will have the resolve and the staying power to create that twenty-year dynasty that Canada may need to work through the various stages of counter-revolutionary change that will restore our nation to a more suitable path into the future.
One thing has become clear to me -- Martin is our Gorbachev. He sees himself, perhaps with some justice, as a reform-minded liberal from a party which governed through corruption and oligarchy, and manipulation of public opinion. Like Gorbachev, Martin has been overtaken by a much deeper and much more robust desire for change than he can either manage or stomach.
In such a volatile situation, competing voices clamour for the attention of the voters, searching for the right to wear the mantle of change. Does Jack Layton really represent change, or reform? After all, his party stood mutely beside the Liberals for twelve years while they destroyed the foundation of national unity and integrity. They were a dog that could not bark, and now they say they can hunt. I doubt that as well.
Comes the hour, comes the man -- but how about the nation's voters? Will they rise to their duty and throw the Liberals so far into the penalty box that it will take them a term or longer to get their act together? And will they coalesce around the one political force that can bring real change, or will they dissipate this opportunity among a variety of pretenders? Every great nation has great men and women. And our potential leader has already mused that Canada was turned into a second-rate socialist backwater by decades of philosophical socialism. We have to pray that Canadians will find the inner strength they require, and then it should be a lot easier for Stephen Harper to display more of his own inner strength.
As we press to the finish line, pray for Canada. Pray for the success of the candidates who represent real change and authentic values.
Comes the hour, comes the man
by Peter O'Donnell
Canada under the Liberal Party's near-perpetual rule has led the world in at least one thing -- navel-gazing. I am sure you would have to go to Liechtenstein or perhaps Syria to find another country that is so obsessed with self-validation. Our prime minister has only one weapon left, it seems, the ceaseless repetition of the words "Canadian values." The leader of the NDP similarly tells people they should rent a space on his bus tour because the NDP will temporarily drive forward this earth-shaking business of spreading the gospel of Canadianism while the Liberals fix their four flat tires. Our ruling elite tell one another, and such plebians as might overhear their lofty discussions, that we are the most wonderful nation on earth, full of enlightened, progressive people who more or less float over the landscape radiating an aura of super-perfection. In other words, we are not like mortal men and women.
The sordid reality is seldom allowed to come into the official consciousness of the nation. The fact that the Liberal Party has been exposed as a vast criminal conspiracy which has a long track record of lying or dithering to remain in power, is seldom fully discussed. And the NDP's world vision is not exposed to much scrutiny either -- when Jack Layton says "we must not go off to help George Bush with foreign adventures, the progressive people of the world oppose the invasion of Iraq," he reflects the earlier adulation paid to Saddam Hussein by his candidate in Vancouver Centre, Svend Robinson, the man for whom even freedom of speech was not good enough, let alone six thousand years of traditional morality.
This seductive behaviour by so-called progressive politicians, courting the voters with the base conjecture that they are better than the rest of the world, is the whole reason that Canada is in danger of coming apart at the seams. Whenever a nation falls into the trap of believing that it is getting a free ride from fate or destiny, the actual work of government often comes to a halt in favour of enjoying the spoils of an imagined entitlement. People rush into public office who have no business there, to grab pieces of the action and spread largesse to their clients and patrons. As we have all heard, "the last refuge of the scoundrel is patriotism."
Even in a small unitary state, such developments lead to corruption and the entrenchment of a privileged elite, which can only rule by controlling the media and the academic institutions, because how else would they dupe enough people into voting for their self-interest. Nobody with any understanding of how the real world works would ever imagine that 40% of the Canadian people are on the take, or have their snouts in the trough, but 4% probably do, so for everyone that gets a free ride through life thanks to our present government, there are ten co-enablers, as well as three others who feel good about themselves for supporting the cheering section. That means that a majority of our voting public has been bought, sold and paid for, over two generations or more.
In a country as vast and diverse as Canada, such a state of affairs will naturally lead to regional alienation. The dynamics of corruption and influence peddling are such that some will get while others must give. Consider this -- there are no outside donors in this macro-economic puzzle. If places like Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver get more, then other places must get less, than their fair share of government services and attention. The economic geography of Quebec separatism and western alienation are textbook -- you could predict a voter's preferences by the square of their distance from the nearest Liberal MP.
Stephen Harper has been wandering through this political wilderness, like Gilles Duceppe, and many of us, for about fifteen years since the failures of Meech Lake and Charlottetown led to the shattering of the PC party around 1989-92. Now the Mulroney PC party, even by a friendly analysis which you might actually get from me, was but a course correction of the generations-old Liberal way of ruling Canada. It was better like a hot summer night is better than a hot summer day, but its very lack of resolve to make fundamental change was its downfall. It guaranteed that a cynical opposition would destroy it at the earliest opportunity, as always, wrapped in the legendary flag.
But Stephen Harper has discovered that he is being pulled into an inescapable position by the dynamics of Canadian politics. He cannot rule from the right, as Randy White inadvertently demonstrated last June. Perhaps the right as defined in that instance had merit unseen, but we are speaking about politics, the art of the possible. Stephen Harper has learned that he can only govern from a position near the centre. He can only reach the centre by having some vision of federalism that applies to Quebec, some vision of compromise politics that does not alienate vast numbers of potential voters, and some strategy for incremental change if he wants to handle the problem of staying true to his base (and his conscience).
This is a challenge that requires no ordinary man or woman. Consider this: in the last week I have read opinions in the mainstream media that describe the newly formed Conservative Party as a group of dangerous neo-conservative extremists, and conversely as a spineless bunch of sell-outs, "dishrags" being the terminology used. So my response is, hey, they must be doing something right, because this sounds like wedge politics to me, and we don't stand a chance of electing an alternative government to the corrupt Liberals without some form of a broad coalition of interests. Harper has skilfully appealed to such unlikely groups as Quebec nationalists, eastern city dwellers, and even the students of Canada from what I'm hearing. He may not harvest a lot of votes in some of these stony pastures, but the momentum towards his vision of change is visible and has clearly impressed the media, in itself a sign that the party may be flirting with a majority win. Of course, we know that alone will be only a toe in the door of political change, given the forces arrayed against a conservative reform-minded government, one of which we must continue to understand is the natural inducement to follow the path of least resistance and enjoy the spoils of victory.
Canada will need a much stronger-willed leader than most, who can stand up to the assaults coming at him from every side, should Harper win this election. We are seeing some encouraging signs of such a man emerging from the shell of the old Stephen Harper, a man who many of us might agree had his merits but hardly seemed like a man of destiny before the success of the party merger and the relative success of Montreal last March. The events of the spring then reminded some of the limited version of Stephen Harper, and had people looking around for possible alternatives. One of those quickly jumped ship and swam to a sinking vessel, a rather counter-intuitive move that in some ways will last as an iconic event of the Paul Martin "era."
As I say, comes the hour, comes the man. Perhaps no human being can heal this broken and dare I say this deluded nation. Perhaps Stephen Harper has the potential to be a great leader who will have the resolve and the staying power to create that twenty-year dynasty that Canada may need to work through the various stages of counter-revolutionary change that will restore our nation to a more suitable path into the future.
One thing has become clear to me -- Martin is our Gorbachev. He sees himself, perhaps with some justice, as a reform-minded liberal from a party which governed through corruption and oligarchy, and manipulation of public opinion. Like Gorbachev, Martin has been overtaken by a much deeper and much more robust desire for change than he can either manage or stomach.
In such a volatile situation, competing voices clamour for the attention of the voters, searching for the right to wear the mantle of change. Does Jack Layton really represent change, or reform? After all, his party stood mutely beside the Liberals for twelve years while they destroyed the foundation of national unity and integrity. They were a dog that could not bark, and now they say they can hunt. I doubt that as well.
Comes the hour, comes the man -- but how about the nation's voters? Will they rise to their duty and throw the Liberals so far into the penalty box that it will take them a term or longer to get their act together? And will they coalesce around the one political force that can bring real change, or will they dissipate this opportunity among a variety of pretenders? Every great nation has great men and women. And our potential leader has already mused that Canada was turned into a second-rate socialist backwater by decades of philosophical socialism. We have to pray that Canadians will find the inner strength they require, and then it should be a lot easier for Stephen Harper to display more of his own inner strength.
As we press to the finish line, pray for Canada. Pray for the success of the candidates who represent real change and authentic values.
Comment