Sunday, November 30, 2008

We Are Sinking


We are crawling back into the sludge from whence science tells us we originally escaped.

I am thinking about the recent municipal elections and the current Cirque De Oy Vay in Ottawa.

I understand people's reluctance to vote. I vigorously don't agree with this decision, but I understand it. The price of democracy is ever steady vigilance and that includes casting a vote for the worse of numerous evils and dunderheads. It's the act of voting that counts first.

In the case of the civic elections, try to use the fingers of more than one hand to add up the candidates, let alone the elected, who were worthy of public service. In Vancouver, for example, Suzanne Anton, NPA, David Cadman, Independent, and Raymond Louie, Vision, come to mind as serious, well-informed councillors who have a contribution to make. There may be others; that's up to you to decide.

But what a paucity of leadership. What a vacuum of inspiration or excitement.

Neither of the two leading mayoral candidates could qualify as a political high-jumper. Good fellows, dull as last week's sports page, and without any real muscular argument.

Where are the Walter Hardwicks, Harry Rankins, Jonathan Bakers or even George Puils? Where are the vigorous hearts and minds of men and women who really know the territory and who have a clear point of view and some sense of what the City ought to be?

At the federal level, we are now saddled with the most unseemly mess I can remember in a long, long time.

Do you really believe that Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton or Gilles Duceppe cares a whit for your welfare at this time? Did they ever?

This is a transparent and ugly case of children fighting in the sandbox about who has the biggest toy truck.

Which might all be mildly amusing were it not for the fact that, given a world economy in disaster mode, we have rarely needed more a non-partisan effort of clear and focused minds on the task in front of us.

There are some among you that believe that Canada is curiously inoculated against the tides of bad news flowing daily from every index in the world. You are wrong.

We need leadership. We need people who can look ahead and make decisions today about the auto industry, about health, about defense, about crumbling infrastructure in our cities.

What we have instead is an abomination of self-aggrandizing cupidity.

Will we ever again have real political candidates and leaders?

The Four Fools do not qualify.

Where We Are


Following is a letter currently in circulation. It speaks for itself. It tells us about a Conservative Party that is as full of blarney as the parties they rightfully oppose. This now is the devolution of government and politics in action. Four parties with not a whit of concern for Canadian citizens. Four parties utterly self-involved. A pox on all their shabby houses.

----- Original Message -----
From: Irving R. Gerstein, Chair, Conservative Fund Canada
To:
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 3:47 AM
Subject: The privilege to govern must be earned, not taken.


[]
The privilege to govern must be earned, not taken.

November 29, 2008

Dear Ms. Dickinson,

The Liberal Party was completely rejected by Canadians in the last election. They received their lowest share of the popular vote since Confederation.

Now the Liberals are trying to take power through the back door.

As you read this letter, the Liberals are holding secret negotiations with the socialist NDP and the separatist Bloc Québécois to overturn the wishes of Canadian voters and take power.

They want to take power and impose on Canadians a Prime Minister without a personal mandate, a Liberal-NDP Coalition not one voter has ever endorsed and have it all backstopped by the separatist Bloc Québécois who simply want to destroy the country.

We need your help to ensure that they do not succeed!

Senior Liberal insiders are trying to fool Canadians into thinking their scheme has something to do with the economy.

But it is clear the Liberals do not care about the economy. They only care about re-gaining power and re-gaining their entitlements. They've learned nothing since being turfed out of office over the sponsorship scandal.

On October 14th, Canadians passed judgment on the Liberals.

The Liberals have no mandate to lead a government.

The Liberals have no mandate to cut a deal with the NDP.

And the Liberals certainly do not have a mandate to cut a deal with the separatists who want to destroy our country.

This backroom deal is so unprecedented and so undemocratic that Canadians must have their say.

This is Canada. The privilege to govern must be earned, not taken. We cannot let this happen.

When an election occurs - and it must - the Conservative Party will have to wage the fight of its life.

We now know we are no longer competing just with the Official Opposition. We are competing against a coordinated campaign between Liberals, socialists and separatists to impose their agenda on Canadians.

I am asking you to make an emergency donation of $200 or $100 - whatever you can afford to protect Canada's future and protect Canada's democracy from being hijacked by politicians who care about nothing more than power and entitlements.

In the last election, Conservatives stood together and spoke out loud and clear about the kind of Canada they wanted.

Now we must stand together once again to ensure that the wishes of the voters are respected.

Time is of the essence. Please respond immediately.

Sincerely,


Irving Gerstein,C.M., O.Ont
Chair, Conservative Fund Canada

PS: We also need you to write letters to the editor, call Talk Radio and let the Liberals and NDP know what you think of their plan to overturn the Government without seeking the consent of Canadians.