Finally a Canadian with some sense

Pankrat · Posted: 01/24/04 - 21:47 Post subject:

Enjoy

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http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/comment/story.html?id=7dce5d97-deea-44bc-b3b1-d6826b530bcf

America's war of ideas is exactly what we need

Elizabeth Nickson
National Post

January 23, 2004

It is simply not fair that the Americans can have a Civil War and we can't. Like every other political junkie in the known world, I have been living with my satellite feed since the Iowa caucuses on Monday, and the next few months, well, I have a plan, which is to absorb as much American politics as I can. Canadian politics? Bore me later. I mean Belinda Stronach is, upon consideration, a fine and interesting thing. At least she doesn't look like she'd been buried and dug up again, like everyone else. But shouldn't she have started with senator? Oh right, she can't, because the Senate is filled with Jean Chretien's stooges and besides, no one out of there has said anything, in any even tiny way, useful or interesting ever. They just cost money.

Not fair, not fair, not fair. The Americans can have a war of ideas and we can't discuss anything. Because anything not out of the Bigger Government playbook is called right-wing extremism, and worse Christian, and thus demonized. Meanwhile, the sleepiest country in the world, which lives next door to the most vibrant country in the world, continues to tumble into the wormhole of complete irrelevance. Unluckily for us, the extraordinary American growth and innovation can float even our dozy economy, and we never have to grow up and behave like adults.

And on Tuesday, the State of the Union. You'd have to go back to the Greeks to find theatre like that. There was the scarlet-faced Ted Kennedy stuffed into his $2,500 suit, and the harridan Hillary, her selfish little ferret face looking punched and puffy, like the schoolyard bully she is. As every policy initiative slipped from their grasp, the Democratic side of the aisle, visibly shrank. It was bliss, bliss, bliss.

What do we have here? Crony capitalism, and every 50-year-old with a graduate degree still left in the country, running around under the big Ottawa money tree, hands grasping at a nice six-figure gov'mnt job with travel allowance, car, driver, and big entertainment budget. The highest form of Canadian accomplishment: to spend your 60s living high off waitresses in Kamloops, discussing impenetrable and useless things. Just as long as they are so boring that no one notices.

Meanwhile, in the States, everyone is talking ideas. What's working, what is not. Yes, it sounds vulgar and loud. And some of it is egregious. There are flagrant lies on the left and the right. A lot of it is bonkers. Most people in the entertainment left, for instance, firmly believe that Bush is part of some infernal conspiracy that aims to strip the planet of oil, and control its price forever. With the next breath, they charge he's so stupid, he can't find his feet. Some think the CIA planned 9/11 so that we would support Israel. The rhetoric is astonishing, even from the so-called sane. George Soros announced that "America under Bush is a danger to the world." Excuse me? Does he need lithium? Columbia professor Nicholas de Genova called for "a million Mogadishus." A Berkeley professor claims that the U.S. planned the Bali bombing. The entertainment elites specialize in using their soft power to insult their government whenever they get a microphone in their hands and don't have a script.

At least they're alive. Up here, with the exception of the Post, most of our press is so conciliatory and so boring, no one bothers to read or watch it. The CBC can continue with its hardline, socialist world view unchallenged, and no one really gives a damn because the showdown south is just so fine. What are their audience figures anyway? Bet they're in the tank.

What if we had a real press? One that was actually competitive, and free-thinking, not skewed by the need to suck up to bureaucrats and MPs? And be honest now, hundreds of millions of dollars can trigger extreme amounts of sucking up. If the press were free here, it would mean actual stories would be told, that you wouldn't have to force yourself to buy a Canadian magazine out of patriotism, you'd actually want to because, strange new concept, it was interesting.

It was a great shame for journalists all across the country, for instance, that the Bloc Quebecois, not our so-called media, had to break the story about the revolting 40% increase in federal government spending over the past five years. There was a 90% increase in the Justice Department budget, 129% in legal services alone. What on God's green earth would they be doing with that money?

Why don't we know more about the connection between the Desmarais family, TotalFinaElf, the Bank Paribas, Jacques Chirac, and the UN's Oil for Food program? Given the relationship between the Desmarais family and Chretien, did that have anything to do with our refusal to join the war in Iraq? If this were the States, that story would be front and centre for months. Why do we not know more about the $250,000 the Canadian government gave to Human Concern International, an Ottawa-based organization headed by Ahmed Khadr who is reputed to have links with Osama bin Laden. Khadr used the money to open refugee camps in Pakistan that CSIS now says were used to aid Islamic fighters waging holy war in Afghanistan.

Let me tell you why we don't have a free press. If we did, things would change for our plushy elites pretty fast. As economist Roger Cass observed in his December newsletter, the C-Wave, the free and vibrant discussion of ideas in the States has meant that the Democratic party is shrinking. From over 50% of registered voters identifying as Democrats in the late 70s, they now stand at 34%. Conversely, the number of registered Republicans has risen, from 20% in the late '70s to 33% today. Even-steven. A free and vital exchange of ideas. A close observation of government operations, actual reporting on what works and what doesn't.

Does anyone else wish they were living in a real country?

enickson@nationalpost.com

© National Post 2004

Finally a Canadian with some sense

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