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http://innocentsabroad.blogspot.com/2002_11_24_innocentsabroad_archive.html#85731076
My Shameful Homeland
Amidst the furor and fuss over Israel and the Palestinians, the United States and Iraq, Europe and Turkey, the best my homeland – Canada – can do for excitement is the pathetic comment of an aide to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, referring to George Bush as a “moron.”
What interests me here is not this particular incident or the question as to whether the name-caller in question was correct to resign. What interests me is the broader state of Canada today. Having lived in Canada, the United States and Europe I’m more or less of the view that Canada has become a joke. On the international scene, Canada is fast losing credibility. My nation’s less than stellar leaders have turned Canada’s once productive relationship with the United States into little more than a sniping match. Granted, Canada, especially its provincial (I’m using the term here with all possible derogatory connotations) elite of unsophisticated bureaucrats and would-be cultural snobs, has long since registered an arrogant disdain for its southern neighbor. But never has this sort of inbred anti-Americanism reached such lows as under the leadership of the bumbling Jean Chretien. Today, a whole host of nations from Australia to Mexico to Romania can claim closer ties with the US.
Now, if one is going to snub the United States, you at least expect the snubber to make up for his folly by moving closer to other western democracies like France or even Schroeder’s Germany. Alas, such is not the case. My brave Prime Minister prefers to curry favor with the likes of the Cubans and the Zimbabweans. After all, after Robert Mugabe, Jean Chretien won the loudest cheers during this year’s sustainable development fun fest in Johannesburg when he roundly chastised both the Americans and the Europeans for taking advantage of the poor nations of the world. Never mind that Canada, so prone to bragging about the superiority of its health care system (one now in serious financial trouble), relies almost completely on the United States for its defense. Indeed, among NATO nations, only Iceland and Luxembourg spend less on defense.
But international concerns are perhaps less embarrassing than the domestic disaster which is the Canadian Liberal Government. Canada has become a virtual one-man state with Jean Chretien in the driver’s seat. The fracturing of Canada’s opposition party has allowed an inept and constantly deceitful Liberal government to win three consecutive elections with a percentage of the vote ranging between 38 and 41%. What’s worse is that Canada, among the democratic nations that use the British parliamentary form of government, has the most restrictive parliamentary procedures that ensure the stifling of debate and a concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office that renders almost every single Member of Parliament irrelevant. As it stands now, the Canadian Prime Minister appoints all cabinet ministers, senior level bureaucrats, judges to the Supreme and Federal Courts, the Governor General, the Lieutenants Governor of the provinces, ambassadors, Senators and heads of government owned corporations without even the most limited review by any parliamentary body. Even the federal ethics commissioner is appointed and answerable to the Prime Minister, not parliament.
Worst of all is that Canadians acquiesce in this sad state of affairs. We throw away our political freedoms and institutions to a muddling clown, while mocking the Americans, among others, for defending themselves. Most notable in this regard is the selfish spectacle of Jean Chretien’s long good-bye. In order to avoid a possible parliamentary defeat by his own party, my esteemed Prime Minister undermined the procedures of the institution that grants him power, by doing an end run around Parliament. He simply announced he would resign, but not until February 2004. Not wanting to appear to stab him in the back, his own party was forced to draw in its claws and allow Chretien to play with the Canadian political system like a puppet on a string.
Still, this sort of collective surrender to tyranny on the part of my fellow citizens doesn’t occur in a vacuum, there is a broader cultural context for this absolute lack of responsibility and self-respect on Canada’s part. As the National Post reports, in the name of inclusiveness and equality, Canada is progressively eliminating the freedom of its historic institutions, including the church. Canada is becoming little more than a vast humanitarian waste land, without substance, imbued with arrogant and unconsidered self-righteousness, and saddled with a detestable and corrupt government. And I’m afraid that Canadians like it that way.
posted by Collin May at 11/30/2002 09:37:23 AM
My Shameful Homeland
Amidst the furor and fuss over Israel and the Palestinians, the United States and Iraq, Europe and Turkey, the best my homeland – Canada – can do for excitement is the pathetic comment of an aide to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, referring to George Bush as a “moron.”
What interests me here is not this particular incident or the question as to whether the name-caller in question was correct to resign. What interests me is the broader state of Canada today. Having lived in Canada, the United States and Europe I’m more or less of the view that Canada has become a joke. On the international scene, Canada is fast losing credibility. My nation’s less than stellar leaders have turned Canada’s once productive relationship with the United States into little more than a sniping match. Granted, Canada, especially its provincial (I’m using the term here with all possible derogatory connotations) elite of unsophisticated bureaucrats and would-be cultural snobs, has long since registered an arrogant disdain for its southern neighbor. But never has this sort of inbred anti-Americanism reached such lows as under the leadership of the bumbling Jean Chretien. Today, a whole host of nations from Australia to Mexico to Romania can claim closer ties with the US.
Now, if one is going to snub the United States, you at least expect the snubber to make up for his folly by moving closer to other western democracies like France or even Schroeder’s Germany. Alas, such is not the case. My brave Prime Minister prefers to curry favor with the likes of the Cubans and the Zimbabweans. After all, after Robert Mugabe, Jean Chretien won the loudest cheers during this year’s sustainable development fun fest in Johannesburg when he roundly chastised both the Americans and the Europeans for taking advantage of the poor nations of the world. Never mind that Canada, so prone to bragging about the superiority of its health care system (one now in serious financial trouble), relies almost completely on the United States for its defense. Indeed, among NATO nations, only Iceland and Luxembourg spend less on defense.
But international concerns are perhaps less embarrassing than the domestic disaster which is the Canadian Liberal Government. Canada has become a virtual one-man state with Jean Chretien in the driver’s seat. The fracturing of Canada’s opposition party has allowed an inept and constantly deceitful Liberal government to win three consecutive elections with a percentage of the vote ranging between 38 and 41%. What’s worse is that Canada, among the democratic nations that use the British parliamentary form of government, has the most restrictive parliamentary procedures that ensure the stifling of debate and a concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office that renders almost every single Member of Parliament irrelevant. As it stands now, the Canadian Prime Minister appoints all cabinet ministers, senior level bureaucrats, judges to the Supreme and Federal Courts, the Governor General, the Lieutenants Governor of the provinces, ambassadors, Senators and heads of government owned corporations without even the most limited review by any parliamentary body. Even the federal ethics commissioner is appointed and answerable to the Prime Minister, not parliament.
Worst of all is that Canadians acquiesce in this sad state of affairs. We throw away our political freedoms and institutions to a muddling clown, while mocking the Americans, among others, for defending themselves. Most notable in this regard is the selfish spectacle of Jean Chretien’s long good-bye. In order to avoid a possible parliamentary defeat by his own party, my esteemed Prime Minister undermined the procedures of the institution that grants him power, by doing an end run around Parliament. He simply announced he would resign, but not until February 2004. Not wanting to appear to stab him in the back, his own party was forced to draw in its claws and allow Chretien to play with the Canadian political system like a puppet on a string.
Still, this sort of collective surrender to tyranny on the part of my fellow citizens doesn’t occur in a vacuum, there is a broader cultural context for this absolute lack of responsibility and self-respect on Canada’s part. As the National Post reports, in the name of inclusiveness and equality, Canada is progressively eliminating the freedom of its historic institutions, including the church. Canada is becoming little more than a vast humanitarian waste land, without substance, imbued with arrogant and unconsidered self-righteousness, and saddled with a detestable and corrupt government. And I’m afraid that Canadians like it that way.
posted by Collin May at 11/30/2002 09:37:23 AM
