When did political discourse in this country become a hate issue?

Politics has always has the ability to inflame passions and get the blood boiling, hence the long-standing warning that “sex, religion and politics are not to be discussed in polite company”. Now personally I believe that any discussion that does not include at least one (and preferably all) of the above is singularly boring, but the level of debate has certainly deteriorated recently and has now reached dangerous levels.

Historically political leaders have always served as something of a lightning rod for strong sentiments such as: “Stephen Harper, I hate that son of a bitch with a passion!” In fact pretty much every PM – Liberal or Conservative (with the possible exception of Kim Campbell) - has attracted that kind of comment from those who disagree with them. It goes with the territory. But what is happening now is that more and more frequently those strong feelings are being directed beyond the leadership to include supporters of the party. One need only peruse the comments made by Con trolls on any liberal, progressive, or left-leaning web site to see evidence of this.

But what is even more worrisome than their usual unintelligible and intellectually void jabberings in the blogosphere is that those expressions of hatred are now being manifested in criminal behaviour such as was recently seen in Guelph with the spray-painting and life-threatening vandalism to Liberal supporter’s cars.

No one yet knows who the Guelph criminals were and whether they were actually politically inspired or not, but it’s not hard to see where the sentiment comes from when, according to Tom Flanagan, Harper’s goal is not simply to govern Canada, but to utterly destroy the Liberal Party of Canada. Under Stephen Harper’s leadership, political “debate” on issues of importance to all Canadians has deteriorated from being an enthusiastic and vociferous sharing of opinions to the dismissive personal put-down and the nasty sound-bite. Combined with his deep-seated and frequently demonstrated rage against many of Canada’s institutions, his continued referrals to opposition parties being crooks and liars who are out to “screw” Canadians, and his divisive style of politics it’s not hard to see how impressionable and pliable Harper followers can make the leap to a passionate hatred of all things non-Conservative.

The Americanisation of Canadian politics continues.....

The way I see it

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the similarities between this video and Progressive Bloggers over the past while as the "puck" moved from Kick Ass Blogger Awards to the demise of Bill C-484 to the Harpercrite's current election posturing?

I'm just sayin'.....

"Just imagine what athletes could do if we actually funded them well"

The title to this piece is taken from Cam Cole’s commentary in the Ottawa Citizen today where he criticizes the Canadian government (and by inference all Canadians) for our “pathetically small” investments we make in our world-class athletes.

Well my question is why should we make any investments in them at all?

The number of medals Canada wins (or doesn’t win) in the bi-annual sponsor-fest known as The Olympics has not one iota of relevance for me or any other Canadian not directly affected. It doesn’t improve our standard of living. It doesn’t provide work to the unemployed. It does nothing to house the homeless. And no one out there seriously believes that the true measure of a country is how many gold, silver and bronze medals its athletes take home every few years. All The Olympics do is provide 2 weeks of 24-hour television coverage every 2 years of sports we would never pay to go and watch (weight lifting, equestrian, synchronized swimming to name just a few), and enough gnashing of teeth and angst-ridden editorial comments by the national print media when we don’t win our fair quota of medals to fell a few hundred thousand trees.

The entire Olympic movement has devolved from a celebration of amateur athletics to a huge political-commercial venture that impoverishes host countries (Don’t you think China could have used that $40 billion more wisely?) while enriching sponsors, television networks, and sundry others associated with the games. In fact, any use of the term “amateur athletics” and The Olympics in the same breath is simply laughable.

I say take the tens of millions we invest in the Canadian Olympic Committee and put it into true amateur sport. Build and staff arenas and swimming pools so that Canadian youth can enjoy sport for fun and fitness. Build more soccer pitches and ball diamonds. Increase funding for sports in schools. Actively encourage true amateur competition in all sports.

And if MacDonald’s and Coca-Cola and CBC and all the other sponsors still feel the need to host a periodic “world-class” sporting event let them pay the athletes to compete, the same as the NHL, the NFL, the NBA, and all other professional sports franchises.

There is a real world out there...

For the past month or so I have been lurking in the shadows, watching the blogosphere react to the Cons latest questionable actions related to the in-and-out scandal, the religious wingnuts’ (is that an oxymoron?) attempt to get Chief Justice McLachlin removed from the bench with, presumably, a scarlet letter of some sort attached to her robes, and the Harpercrite’s own musings about a dysfunctional Parliament (another oxymoron?).

While fun and amusing in a watching-a-train-wreck sort of way, it is all so tedious and predictable. Religious fundamentalists of all stripes will never be satisfied or silent until all of society adheres to their own little warped and twisted view of what constitutes acceptable behaviour coupled with suitable obeisance to their imaginary god(s). And politicians are simply elected idealists who have morphed into opportunists who will tell any lie, break any rule, abuse any trust to continue to manipulate the levers of power. Fakes and phonies all.

Contrast that to a couple of weeks ago when I had an opportunity to mingle with some real people – people who had no pretences, no hidden agendas, no ulterior motives, and who wanted nothing from me but respect and friendship. I was in Sturgis South Dakota for the 68th Annual Black Hills motorcycle rally, along with 450,000 other pilgrims, for it is, in fact, a pilgrimage for many of the people who attend year after year. These were men and women who crossed continents and oceans for one reason only – to be in Sturgis for the rally and ride the Black Hills of South Dakota. I guess that’s actually two reasons, but whether it was the guy who allowed as he’d “had some trouble with the law”, the UPS pilot, or the Wisconsin firefighters, what you saw was what you got, most everyone got along, and all had a great time.

There is no comparison between the two worlds, and right now I know which one I’d rather occupy. So I guess I’ll go back to lurking for a while, periodically reminding myself that not everyone is a cheat and liar and that there are still real people out there, living real lives, outside the political bubble.

Everyone complains about the weather....

One of the defining characteristics of being Canadian, they say, is that we like to complain about the weather. Well there’s certainly good cause to do so this summer (?), especially in Eastern Ontario.

The only thing that got us sanely through a miserable winter with near-record snowfalls was the weather forecasters promising us a “long, hot summer”, starting in April. Well, to be fair, we did have a week of summer-like weather in April, but since then it’s been in the crapper. May was just miserable and cold. June, with 22 days of rain, has been dubbed Junuary by some. July, which is when we expect to be basking under hot, sunny skies, has been mostly below normal highs, grey, and with at least a 40% chance of precipitation virtually every day. And there’s no end in sight as rain and cool temperatures are forecast to the end of the month.

Enough is enough! Golfers are wearing out their umbrellas from the constant opening and closing as shower after shower passes through. Motorcyclists have stripped every last piece of raingear off the shelves at the local dealers. Vegetable gardens, if they are growing at all, are weeks behind where they should be. Mosquitoes, deer flys and other damp-loving insects are out (and biting) in record numbers. My furnace actually started up one morning. In July! @#%&#@

Now the weather guys are insisting that, in fact, they were right all along and that the summer so far has been warmer than usual. The justification for that stunning assessment is that it isn’t getting as cold at night because of all the cloud cover, so the average temperatures were slightly up over previous years.

Well, I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me it’s going to be warmer than usual, I don’t expect to have to enjoy that excess heat swatting mosquitoes in the dark!

Poilievreian wisdom

I have no intention of getting into the Ethics Committee hearings on the Cons in-and-out scheme, but I just had to comment on Kady O'Mally's live blogging report where she refers to "Poilievreian wisdom". Aside being an obvious oxymoron, that expression made me think of what could be the shortest book ever printed: "Poilievreian Wisdom - The Collected Original Thoughts of Pierre Poilievre, Conservative MP".

Great one Kady!

Summertime, and the living is easy

It seems it’s finally here. After a long, snowy winter and a miserable spring, we’re now into the 30-degree days of summer. The water temperature in the lake has reached 27 degrees (about 80 on the ‘old’ scale) – perfect for floating in the lounger with a cold beer at hand. The golf courses are in great shape after all that rain. Bass season has just opened. And plans are afoot to take the new ride to Sturgis for the 68th Anniversary Rally in August.

So with all those reasons to exit the cocoon and enjoy this all too brief respite from the other 9 months of the year, why on earth would anyone waste any time at all paying the least bit of attention to all the political posturing, gamesmanship, and general bullshit that sadly never takes a break?

But I do have to relate this one told me last week:

“Why is it that our politicians all seemed surprised by the sudden shortage of oil?”
“Because the oil is in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. And the dipsticks are all in Ottawa.”

All of which is to say that unless something catastrophic happens over the course of the summer such as Stephen Harper deciding to become an NHL General Manager (Please, someone make him an offer!) I don’t expect to be doing much political blogging. I’ll leave that in the hands of far more capable folks than I.

And you’ll find me in the lounger, on the golf course, in the boat, or on the road.

Have a great summer!