Monday, June 28, 2004 :::
I should have been sleeping a long time ago, but first I had to check Canadian Colby Cosh. The Iraqi people are now sovereign, and the Canadian people are not, but the Canadians will be choosing a new government come dawn, while the Iraqis continue to live under Anglophonic appointees (the Canadians, of course, are mostly Anglophonic, have an Anglophonic sovereign, and are ruled by Francophones).
My first thought, as the page was loading, was "Cosh had better go vote". My second thought -- still before the page loaded -- was "actually, his riding's probably a lock, so it doesn't matter." [UPDATE: I was probably wrong about that.] My third thought was, "I hope he pushes other Conservative-leaners to vote."
Almost four years back, I thought the best microcosmic (is that a word?) argument for electing Bush came at the end of George Will's last pre-election column:For the official World Series magazine, Gore and Bush provided written answers to some questions pertaining to baseball, including, "What do you think of domed stadiums?" Gore's complete answer was:
"The design and construction of domed stadiums--in Seattle (the Kingdome was the first free-standing cement dome ever built), Houston (the Astrodome was the first stadium to use Astroturf) and Minnesota (the Metrodome is the only stadium in the U.S. whose roof is suspended without beams or rods--it's supported by air pressure), for example--have been feats of architectural and engineering excellence. But the real measure of any stadium, domed or otherwise, is how much fun you have inside."
Bush's complete answer was: "I like to go to baseball games outdoors."
Let's vote. Cosh has come up with the Canadian equivalent:On June 4 Stephen Harper made a campaign appearance on a farm in Jarvis, Ontario. I've heard it was a tobacco farm, or that there are tobacco farms in the area, so naturally Harper was asked about the great and pressing subject of tobacco reduction. He basically shrugged and said:
People are going to have a drink and have a smoke and that's kind of the way life is going to be.
Any other significant Canadian political leader in my lifetime--probably even that bibulous bon vivant Ralph Klein--would have recognized the question as the occasion to (a) waggle a finger at those naughty drinkers and tobacco users and (b) lay out elaborate, expensive plans for persuading people to live a little bit longer and a lot less joyfully. Harper addressed the question as though he were running for the leadership of the House of Commons, and not for the office of National Scold, National Role Model, National Health Czar, or National Bully.
Today few conventional politicians regard their mandate as limited in any respect, even if they're running for county ratcatcher. They are obliged to have an opinion on every subject (which generally causes them to possess uniformly stupid ones), and must be prepared to intervene in any area of human life according to the media-stoked collective whim of the moment. Harper is different. He does not believe it would be his job, as Prime Minister, to lash Canadians onward to a New Jerusalem of state childcare, equal incomes, fit bodies, and pure thoughts. When Paul Martin is asked about health care he sets about defining "Canadian values" for you, exactly as an archbishop might define "Catholic values" for a querulous parishioner. When Stephen Harper is asked about health care, he points out that our health-care systems are the responsibility of the provinces under the Constitution, and in logic. He doesn't insist that every province should conduct its affairs the same way, or every person possess the same habits. Go vote.
::: posted by Steven at 3:56 AM
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