Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind

Been watching the news lately? You should - OK maybe not CNN with its wall to wall coverage of Paris Hilton - but seriously, watch the news, because if you pay close attention, you find out what your Canadian citizenship is worth; right now you can sum that up with three small words: Not a lot. If that didn't piss you off, then I worry about you, because it should. In fact it should enrage you. Why? Simple. If you've gotten the same picture of the current government of this (once?) proud nation that I have from the available media, you begin to realise that Steve and the Gang up on Parliament Hill will hang us all out to dry if it serves their own (party or personal, take your pick) interests.

Where to begin? First off, Omar Khadr: Picked up by the US Army in Afghanistan at the age of fifteen, and locked up in Guantanamo these last five years, he is a Canadian citizen. His crime was throwing a hand grenade at a US soldier and killing him. What were you doing at fifteen? I don't even remember, personally, but I'd bet that it didn't involve being shot at by a bunch of foreigners. I didn't even see the Soviet Union as a threat back then (I just didn't see the point - they couldn't make decent cars, for God's sake). To be fair, Omar is believed to have been raised in close proximity to Osama Bin-Laden, and who knows what that did to his young - and likely impressionable - mind. My point? This was five years ago! The man is now twenty and if the US government has its way they will keep him there until he's dead; of old age or due process is one and the same. Where the HELL has the Canadian government been? Do they even care? Where is their accountability? This Blog alone probably means I should avoid travel to the US, although I get the feeling that being white and English-speaking would get me better from the Conservative government. Not that I think for a single second that they are bigoted in any way, but they are politicians, and that does make them pathological.

Moving on to the environment. The government's stand: We'll just sit it out until the US tells us what to do. Like the planet will put Global Warming ON HOLD! Deep breath. Count to ten. Canada could have shown some true leadership on the point at the G-8 summit in Germany this year, but no, Your good buddy and mine, Stephen Harper, decided that signing his name to something that would be good and decent for the world was too much effort. Christ only knows why I expect better from the man. Citing the notion that our drive to meet Kyoto targets would place Canada at an 'economic disadvantage' if no one else (read: The U.S.) does it too, the government has basically chained our hope of having a planet worth living on to the environmental policies of the world's biggest polluter. It's probably just as well I don't have kids.

Domestic Economy. The 2005 Atlantic Accord let both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador keep all their offshore oil and gas revenues, with no clawbacks from the federal equalization program. This year's federal budget, though, increased the equalization pot, but put a cap on payments. Naturally the provinces are mightily annoyed about this. They feel (not without cause to my way of thinking) that this constitutes a breach of contract at best, at worst, a betrayal. Harper's response - and I don't make this up - "Sue me." And it was done. Saskachewan's Premier has decided to do just that, and he is likely to be joined by others soon. What really shows Stephen's true party colours is that veteran Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey was expelled from the Conservative caucus after voting against the federal budget after being told that the party members had the freedom to vote their conscience. Probably be a while before that political character flaw gets the better of any one in the Conservative Camp.

Mark Twain once said "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it." Well I don't see the conservatives as being smart, so that pretty much narrows things down. I intend to hang on to my citizenship, if for no other reason than to keep voting against Stephen Harper and his Band of Merry Twits. Right now, that's all the worth it has.