Thu Apr 21/05
And the world will sing as one!

If anyone's looking for Gomery-related insights, I have none. I've had enough. Conceptually I see no reason that the inquiry can't run its course and touch bottom in this cesspool at the same time as a campaign is underway, and practically speaking I don't need to hear any more. What Martin has already admitted to is more than enough for me to vote with the expressed strategic intent of kicking these unbelievable pricks out of office. Please wake me when someone forces an election.

I will just pause here for a moment on my way out, though, to marvel at what an unfathomable disappointment Paul Martin has been. I never thought it was possible, but at this point I'd rather have Chrétien — corrupt, arrogant, bumbling, incoherent, plucky ti-Jean — than this half-man/half-vegetable lasagna. In 20 years, sixth-graders will read about Paul Martin and ask their teachers: "But why didn't he do anything?" Heck, maybe they'll know by then. Maybe there's something we don't know about Paul Martin that caused him to simply collapse when he finally got to where he always wanted to be, to be so paralyzed by indecision that most of the time he barely seems interested. But for now I'm happy to let him ponder the unmitigated disaster of his administration from the opposition benches, and to refer readers to this Paul Wells blog entry and comment thereon only as follows: "Yeah, what he said."

Were the stakes not so high in Quebec, this would be a happy occasion. Barring the unthinkable, in which case I will happily join with my Albertan brothers and sisters in blaming the idjit Ontarians for everything that's wrong with Canada, Stephen Harper will be our next Prime Minister, and he'll do a better job than Paul Martin. Necessity has forced us to see what he can do, so there's no point whinging about it. Meanwhile, the burnt out husk of the Liberal party can bring in some outside help and, freed from the apparently unbearable yoke of governance, recast itself as a party of actual principles. And then, or so goes the dream, we'll have two parties that are actually capable of running the country, which will be just super so long as someone manages to save the country in the meantime.

If we lose Quebec without one hell of a fight, we'll never really recover. We'll go down in history as a snot-nosed bunch of rich people so myopic and self-loathing that we looked in the mirror, saw one of the greatest countries in the world, shrugged, and went to bed early. But hey, since no one on either side of the floor is capable of winning the intellectual battle for Canada, except maybe (fingers crossed!) by accident, there's not much point worrying about that either. Stephen Harper for PM. Huzzah.