The howls of outrage emanating from Canada’s punditocracy over the adscam revelations will ultimately reverberate through an empty chamber, as many Canadians, particularly those living in southern Ontario, couldn’t give a rat’s butt. The quality of our electorate has degenerated to such a precariously low level that our democracy has fallen into grave peril.
Those displaying righteous indignation have to remember that less than a year ago, when adscam was already in the public light, the voters, holding their noses, went to the polls and handed the federal Liberals a fourth, albeit minority, mandate. Clearly, the voters didn’t care that their government was robbing them blind. On the contrary, they expected it.
as I recall, the campaign being waged between the Liberals with their shiny new leader and a rejuvenated and newly amalgamated Conservative party, boiled down to the voters choosing the crooks over the fascists. So there is little point in being outraged by the smoking guns turning up at the Gomery Inquiry.
The fact that the party that has governed us these past 12 years is dishonest, incompetent and criminally negligent in representing the interests of Canada isn’t so much a reflection of how bad the party is. It’s a scathing indictment over how moronic the voters are.
It is abundantly clear that voters, like spouses who know their mates are cheating but don’t want to rock the boat, expect to be lied to. The guy running for office making all those promises isn’t really going to keep them- we all know that. Mike Harris learned that the day after he took office and started dismantling photo radar amid howls of protest from those who didn’t think he’d actually keep his promises. Today Ontarians are making all the right noises when they talk about the length of Dalton McGuinty’s nose, but if we were to go to the polls tomorrow, I’d give odds that the rubes of Ontario would vote him back in.
The people that represent us in government are a mirror of who we are as a nation. We have diluted our national identity to the point that we do not know who we are or what we really stand for. We have also been deluded by clever politicians into believing that our interests and theirs coincide. You often hear our politicians talking about Canadian values and how voting for them is a vote in favour of those values. Frankly, I’m inclined to believe that they are really talking about beer. after all, the most popular nationalist slogan was dreamed up by an ad agency to sell beer.
When one looks back over the past 12 years and details all the horror stories for which the Liberal government of Canada is responsible, it would seem that alzheimer’s has become Canada’s national disease. Does anyone remember the 1997 aPEC Summit during which the RCMP brutalized peaceful protesters with pepper spray at the behest of the Prime Minister? What about the shady loan made by the Canadian Business Development Bank to the Grand Mere Inn, which just happened to coincide with the Prime Minister’s personal interests? The Somalia Inquiry that was cancelled prior to being complete in order to protect the Liberals? What about all the HRDC "billion dollar boondoggle" in which the current and the last Prime Minister are both prominent figures?
any one of these "scandals" should be enough to bring down a government. But in the Great White North they are everyday occurrences that fall within the realm of normalcy. I believe that this, like all the other scandals in which the Liberals have been centre stage, will blow over and be forgotten. and the next time Canadians go to the polls they’ll reaffirm the Liberals’ right to steal.