By Steve Rowan
(This guest contributor shares a voice from Brewster, Massachusetts. He also owns a residence on Wolfe Island, Ontario.)
Well it’s nice to see that your country works like every other corrupted
government.
Enjoy the scrutiny. … Next your Christian fundamentalists
will hook up with your rabid capitalist (Whigs??) and soon you’ll be
able to save money on social security, medical costs, education costs
and other social programs. … All with the ideas of … ‘cutting
out waste’, at which time I think – ‘ what a shame’.
But who am I to complain, supporting a opportunistic exploitative, corrupt and criminal military power…even I can see Obama’s duplicity and I wonder about the reason his hair is turning gray….a young idealistic man facing really intense and dizzying pressures. I too believe in the ‘truth and hope’ that caused his election and like others am broken and dispirited by the continued corruption of our legal and legislative branches.
I wonder how such a young and hopeful man, with a lovely wife, children and supportive community has been so broken into a calm and workable dray horse for the power brokers of the North American society. I wonder if he gets the time to even dwell upon the wickedness of the entrenched power brokers, or is it something like ‘Do my best, try, and give it the best shot’ and then move onto the next horrific challenge to civilization. yet I believe that these meanderings are just hopes that have been kept on the shelves without any real impact on our real lives.
As for Mr. Stevie (Harper), obviously he’s thinking compliance with the raging
homicidal maniacs to the south is the safest and best route for the
people of Canada, and the concomitant suffering and murdering of the
Afghani and Irani and Iraqi people.
Wolfe Island (Ontario) has a ferry. If you don’t take it, you don’t have to go off
island. With any luck, it will somehow avoid some of this lousy
civilization…
So I just thought as you are the only contact with the Canadian
intellect that I have , that I’d just vent. … Vent, vent.
Old Tired Steve
P.S. Remember you can distort, lie, deceive, and manipulate the great
‘ average citizen’, too well trained by television and schlock media to
do any thinking of an independent or objective nature. …I think the
Quebec folks over time have shown the greatest intelligence with regard
to the political misery created by the Europeans and the Americans to
the south.
Just another day in paradise. How does Stevie Harper justify his
obsequious lack of character? Better yet, how does he rationalize the
move towards non-democratic actions, first to invoke the Queen’s agent
to deny calling an election and another little avoidance of the parliament?
He thinks that the lack of character he is showing will be absorbed by
the gentle and non-volatile nature of your fellow citizens.
Steve Rowan is a resident of Brewster Massachusetts who also owns a residence on Wolfe Island, Ontario. His article is, in part, a response to a BBC story that can be visited by clicking on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11748277 .
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region. And if you would like to hear more from ‘Old Tired Steve’, someone who has one foot planted in the heart of New England, America and another planted on Wolfe Island, Ontario. Let us know below in the comments section. )
Niagara At Large 
venting is good, especially when it throws itself at Our Great Leader.
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I would love to read more comments from Old Tired Steve. Ask him to further his thoughts on “I think the Quebec folks over time have shown the greatest intelligence with regard to the political misery created by the Europeans and the Americans to the south.”
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Democracy is really the right of the people to change Kings every 4 years or so. We rarely get to vote on any specific issues between elections (referenda). We choose Members of Parliament to make decisions for us on future domestic and world situations that arise, because we’re too busy living our normal lives to do it ourselves!
In our Parliamentary system, we usually elect a government with power to rule as if it were King … until the next election. Because most “Kings” (Prime Ministers) want to be re-elected, they generally respond to public opinion, although sometimes they lead us on major issues, even if it destroys them (eg. regardless of whether one agreed or not, Mulroney led us into Free Trade & GST).
Sometimes however, the collective electorate is split on which policies and personalities (or is it reverse?) we want to elect. Then we get Minority Government, where the party with the most MP’s is given the first opportunity to form Her Majesty’s Government. The largest of the other parties forms Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and if all of them combine to defeat the Government in a Motion of Confidence, the Prime Minister usually goes to the Governor-General (Queen) and asks her to dissolve Parliament and call an election, which by tradition, she usually does.
(It’s quite different in the USA. The Fathers of their Constitution were so distrustful of strong government that they built a system of ‘checks and balances’ [strong Opposition] with a weak central government that rarely has a majority.
(eg. The President proposes a Budget which he never gets because it gets amended by every Congressman and Senator who can wangle a deal for their folks back home.
(eg. Look at what they did with/to their banking system!)
In October 2008, the Tories won a minority, but the Liberals and NDP immediately proposed that they combine to form a majority Coalition Government. They had just finished running against each other with opposing policies, and people had voted accordingly, but now they would govern and do … what exactly?
eg. a Carbon Tax dedicated to greening the economy (NDP), or a Carbon Tax as an excuse to find more money to spend (Liberal)?
So Prime Minister Harper, with all of his personal and policy foibles, went to the Governor-General to argue why he should be allowed to govern and present a Budget (a Confidence Motion) until defeated by Parliament. You may or may not like the man or his policies, but what he did was quite reasonable. The Governor-General took 3 hours to make him justify his reasons – she didn’t just give him what he wanted after 5 minutes, as she did when he asked her to call the October election.
And after his minority government presented its budget in late January 2009, Parliament passed it. How were his actions non-democratic?
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