Taking Leave Of Their Senses

It's as though a blanket of delusionary insanity has fallen upon the opposition parties in the House of Commons. A previously barely-functioning Parliament has descended into utter chaos. Where, in his first Parliament, Stephen Harper made sincere attempts - although it went against the grain of his personality - from time to time to consult, to seek co-operation, to ensure that his minority government wasn't inconveniently toppled before time, his renewed larger-minority appears to have given him an incautious edge.

What irony, that in their exuberance through their initial success in destabilizing the Conservative-led government, the Liberals have called upon the advice of their esteemed former leader, Jean Chretien. The very individual who imposed a moratorium on corporate donations to political parties. And since the Liberal Party was so highly dependent on large corporate donations, they've not quite since recovered. The antidote to that lapse in political donations was to enact legislation to ensure that taxpayer-support funds would be forthcoming.

It was the current government's decision, too hastily arrived at, during an imprudent time, to revoke political funding through taxpayer largess, that provoked the current contretemps, that has the prime minister grimly surveying the very real potential of the ruination of his plans to govern for several more years. A self-inflicted wound, to be certain, simply because Mr. Harper could not tear himself away from the personal glee it would afford him to materially wound his opponents.

Now his government is not only the target of the opposition parties, but increasingly of unions as well, who somehow lead themselves to believe that union rights will be more respected by the coalition of the usurpers of government than a government attempting to respond to a financial crisis threatening to visit Canada. How soon is forgotten the history of the recent past, where a Liberal government expanded upon and hardened constrictions against the civil service originally imposed by a predecessor Conservative government.

With the current government we were embarked on a responsible steady course of action to face down the financial crisis wreaking havoc internationally. With the imperious demands that this government resign with dignity in the face of the indignity of a putsch, the country can look forward to a rash allocation of funds where they are not particularly required, ensuring that we begin to acquire really stinging deficits, and that our national debt will increase exponentially.

We have the pious assurances from the Liberals and the NDP that they have the very best interests of the country foremost in mind, while demonstrating how greedily entitled they feel to govern a country whose electoral population resoundingly informed them that they rank fairly low in the public trust and esteem. The country that refused the prime ministership to an inept Stephane Dion now looks to the fearsome possibility that he may indeed become prime minister.

And seasoned intellectuals like Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, both jockeying for position as future leader of the Liberal Party haven't the common good sense not to ally themselves with this folly of taking matters out of the hands of a duly elected government, to launch a plan to install an unworkable coalition in its stead. Both Ignatieff and Rae have obviously not given too much thought to the very real possibility that Stephane Dion may have a change of heart come May 2009.

Nor have they thought further down the road to the future political repercussions of these unspeakably third-world shenanigans. Just exactly how do they think this makes Canada look, internally and externally? Why, we have quite a few examples of dysfunctional governments who contest election results; look no further than Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and think of the aspirations of leaders such as those in Russia and Venezuela, to extend their leadership roles. Are we ready to join their ranks?

Looks like it, it most certainly does. The country can writhe in agony at the disruptions imposed upon it by political one-upsmanship and personal ambition, but do we really have to? Is this what the quality of our political elite have descended to?