Robert Mugabe is probably proud of Paul Martin and his indomitable Liberals right now, given that they managed to usurp parliamentary power and hang on to their jobs without actually having to kill someone. Mind you, they came close, but the fact that one of the Conservatives’ caucus members was having a cancer operation a day before their preferred budget vote and the fact that they bought Belinda Stronach’s vote with a cabinet post, kept them from having to take that drastic measure. Not that they aren’t up to it. But it seems they have managed to keep their jobs without having to take such precipitous actions and I do not for one minute doubt that it’s beyond the Libranos to put a hit on an opposition parliamentarian in order to get what they want.
It isn’t like anyone in Canada would care if they did whack the odd opposition member. So long as women can continue to use abortions as a birth control measure on the government’s dime and so long as gay people can redefine matrimony and so long as we can fool city dwellers into believing that the $2 billion gun registry is keeping them safe and so long as the Tamil Tigers can continue to raise money uninterrupted in Canada, the Libs will get their vote. after all, you can‘t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, isn’t that right? So the Libranos will continue doing what they do best and the country will continue to function in a manner of speaking.
all the while we Canadians will go about telling ourselves how great and morally superior we are and how we will lead the rest of the world into a brave and gilded new future. The mere fact of our inherent goodness will keep us all safe from whatever evil might be lurking out there is a given, assuring us of safe passage no matter where we go. Or so we think.
a pantheon of Liberal prime ministers has had it right in that Canadians could care less about democracy; it’s a concept that many of us cannot understand. From Pierre Trudeau, who felt it necessary to declare military martial law because a few crazy Quebecers kidnapped a corrupt cabinet minister and a minor British diplomat, to Jean Chrétien, who knew that the power of the prime minister’s office placed him above the law, to the current paragon of mediocrity whose shenanigans have yet to be completely documented, the Liberals would turn their grandmothers into soap if it meant an extended mandate.
So ignoring the passing of a non-confidence vote in parliament is one of those small oversights the Liberals know they can get away with, because after all, this is Canada. Canadians know they have The Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect them and that has nothing to do with what happens in parliament.
For the few Canadians who do care about keeping Canada a democracy, last Thursday was a dark day. The superlatives that Martin and his Liberals bandied about after the Speaker of The House broke the tie in favour of the Libs had nothing to do with the budget and everything to do with the certain knowledge that in Canada the Liberals can do anything and still be able to stay in power.
When Martin gushed, "What we voted for was a vision of a Canada dynamic and leading the world. We will set the standards by which other nations judge themselves," he was gushing about a repositioning of the concept of democracy by which other governments can get their way. Nations like Cuba, Syria, Sudan and yes, Zimbabwe. We’ve finally proven that guns, secret police and troops aren’t really necessary in taking over a country. all you need is a population that’s mired in parochial self-interest and a way to keep them at each other’s throats.