This morning, June 10, I have a persistent pain in my belly. This is because I have begun to believe I know the guiding blueprint being followed by the regime in Ottawa. It seems to me that our shepherding prime minister and his voiceless flock are the true time travellers, the rugged individualists who believe all Canadians should stand bravely on their own two feet and governments should avoid stepping on any free enterprise toes. They are historians. They want to take Canadians back to the times when there wasn't much distinctively Canadian except hardship.
The federal power structure has been shedding responsibilities and functions like a hyperactive snake. Unfortunately, a snake in a new skin is still a snake. When we, the Canadian voters, decided to boot out the scandal-ridden Liberals and rejected the paternalistic NDP, we turned to the Harper-shaped Conservatives. Whether they leaned right or left, the one thing Canadians wanted from Ottawa was honesty. We aren't getting it.
Support for the Harperites has been almost rock solid in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but the swirling political mists in Ottawa may well be the beginning of a violent political storm. Although there are still loyalists who trust the Harperites in all things, many people in Alberta and Saskatchewan are unhappy with what they have received. The farmer-controlled Canadian Wheat Board is no more. Community pastures will go next.
So will the tree nursery at Indian Head. Health care spending is being cut, as is staffing at national parks. Museums are being starved for funds. The CBC is under attack. The trade deal with Europe will make Canadian local governments in the management of capital contracts and water supply subject to the regulations of a trade pact rather than the arrangements of the Canadian constitution. We didn't expect this kind of a shooting gallery when we turned the fate of Canada over to a Conservative government.
We wanted honesty above all else. Now we see people intelligent and accomplished enough to be appointed as senators who don't know where they live. They also don't know when fraud is fraud. If they lose the protection of their political masters, it seems almost certain that they will not be seriously penalized. Fraud is a crime and a crook is a crook. People who cover for them are abetting in a criminal act. This is an honest statement that can't be hidden by politically-contrived smog.
