Older and grumpier

What a ridiculous week! Political excitement roared across the country followed by the anticlimactic whoosh of wind from all of the trial balloons. There is still lots of buzz, but but the low pressure zone is gone; the entropy of the hi has prevailed. Meteorologically speaking, it is as if nothing has happened. A moderate front has passed through, but there was more agitation in the clouds than on the ground. A few dead autumn leaves whipped about for a short time, but now all is placid, calm, boring. So why am I grumpy, I wonder?

Here it is. Canadian politics are a useless waste of time and money. We have people whining all the time about "tax payers' money." So why do we not do something about it instead of just whine? Are we a lazy-minded lot content to do like feeble-minded Lennie wanted in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men to "live of the fatta the lan'?" It sure looks that way. We surely have no interest in looking for new and imaginative solutions to problems that we have.

So, maybe we get the politicians we deserve. They sure seem to have no ideas worth pursuing. The Prime Minister put the country through an election that only he wanted so that he might better deal with the economy, he assured us. Well, in the seven weeks following that election, he and his government came up with nothing on the economy except the news that Canada is in pretty good shape. Well, that is clearly not so; thousands of Canadians are losing their jobs every day. Today's lead stories, ahead of the political nonsense, are about bankruptcies and job losses in November. If Mr. Harper was unaware of the situation, it is an even greater condemnation of his worth than is his inaction.

On November 16, after the G20 Washington meeting, he said, "Look, it there is a worldwide agreement, then we will engage in sufficient stimulus to do our part in carrying global economic demand," he said. "We will fulfill our part of that agreement." OK. That is clear.

However, as reported in today's Globe and Mail, Robert Fairholm, director economic forecasting of the Centre for Spatial Economics, one of four firms the Department of Finance depends on to provide thorough economic forecasts upon which the government's budget track is based, says the government is not fulfilling anytyhing of the sort. He says, "The only way to break the credit logjam is for fiscal policy to leap into action, and boost the economy." Mr. Fairholm added that his analysis of the situation is shared by the IMF and was signed on to by leaders at the Group 20 summit in Washington last month, including Mr. Harper.

Well, proroguing the House of Commons is a leap alright--out of the way of the bus that would have run Mr. Harper down. He was the fool that released the park brake on that bus with his ridiculous decision to destroy the opposition parties by suspending their funding. How on earth did he have time to think that up when the economy is crashing. I guess everyone has personal priorities.

I don't like Stephane Dion; I don't like Jack Layton; and I don't trust the intentions of Giles Duceppe. But Stephen Harper is a dangerous man. He wants absolute political power--a majority government, and he is willing to take unconscionable risks to get it. How many people will suffer because of the three months of inaction by his government since the last election? All he has done is to bait three foolish politicians into trying something they have neither the wit nor the public support to pull off. He really has destroyed the opposition. Will he now force another election to get his majority?

Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." Well, for the sake of my children's future, I deeply hope that we are in the third of those times.