Monday 23 June 2008

Thank Heavens for Stephen Harper

Canadians should be thankful that Stephen Harper is our prime minister. At a time of economic uncertainty, of increasing anxiety over climate change, of worries over the diminishing amount of available fossil fuels and the concomitant rapid increase in fuel prices, of political tensions among the provinces and the federal government, it's re-assuring that we have an intelligent, consensus-seeking, visionary as our head of government.



It would have been so easy and harmful for our country in a minority government situation to have as prime minister an ignorant, foul-mouthed lout, whose idea of public policy debate is to call other people's economic proposals "crazy", to accuse people with ideas for problem-solving of trying to "screw" Albertans in particular and all Canadians in general.

Of course, it's a hallmark of people devoid of ideas of their own to try to ridicule anyone intelligent and thoughtful. It's something our latter-day Tories have adopted from their mentors, the Republican Party of our neighbours to the south. It remains to be seen if enough Canadian voters are as stupid as the Tories think they are. The next election, probably due this fall, will show the world if Canada is a modern, forward-looking country, or one mired in the mud of Tory mediocrity.