There's none so blind as those who will not see

There is no soft way into this one. The state of Canadian political life is truly shocking. Cut Harper a bit of slack - maybe he was just a young gun hot-shot politician learning at the feat of Hey Presto Manning of Flannel Flannigan, maybe with a bit of gung-ho Klein to go with it. Maybe he was a pliable mind just waiting to be moulded into the ultimate CanConBot. Surely there is no man who has not a shred of decency somewhere, not even the Harper. Can he really look at the carnage that was Canadian Parliamentary Democracy and not wonder where it all went so wrong? Is there one promise that he has kept? What about the shining light of Accountability, the swift sword of Senate reform, the rough redneck honesty of the Calgary farmer? What do we have instead? Secrecy on all fronts, run-and-hide behavior when things go sour, thrashing around at a blame game for anybody but themselves, behavior from three Harper Senate appointees which would shame the worst welfare bum. What better example is there of the worst stereotypical Right Wing Ayn Rand disciple? Selfish is good, rip off whatever you can - it is your duty to show the world how to behave in the capitalist world. If the Harper goal was to make everybody sick of politics and politicians, then he has done a truly awesome job. Is there one person in Canada who can honestly (now there is an adverb that has seen its day, whose race is run) look me in the eye and say that he is proud of the Harper Government? How does the Harper feel, in the lonely watches of the night, when he contemplates that scion of Conservatism that he raised to the higher offices of the land - Senator Duffy? Can he honestly say that this was a good thing that he did? Putting in front of the world the image of Toryism whose only excuse is that he was too stupid to figure out how to claim expenses and too blasé about tax dollars that he failed to notice vast wads of it dribbling through his fingers. Ignorance is no excuse - isn't that another Conservative (tough on crime) cliché? Christ on a bike, how sad it is that the best we can think of a senator is that he is as thick as pigshit? To err once is a mistake, to err twice is incompetent, what about thrice? This is the cream of Canadian Right Wing demographic - a bunch of money grubbing buffoons with about as much respect for the average citizen as Pol Pot. Is this the shining example of the new Canadian that Harper wants to project? And Harper is too far up his own fundamental orifice to ever admit that perhaps he might have made a mistake. What sort of self-image must he have? That he can do no wrong, it is always somebody else's fault, he did not know, there was a rogue Senator (or half a dozen), or that nobody understands him (poor dear). What of dear Laureen and the little Harper soldiers? There must be vast swatches of social conversation that are off-limits in the Harper household. Maybe they stand, near to tears, as husband-daddy puffs out his chest as he bravely walks out the front door to face a world that must look like Hell. To abuse another metaphor, it is late in the third, down by 6 goals and only two skaters left standing. Looking through a veil of blood and sweat in the general direction of an enemy that he can barely see, is Harper capable of rational thought? Just dig a hole at centre ice old man and lie down quietly to sleep.