Jeez whiz, the Prime Minister has been taking it on the chin this week over his nominations to Canada's Red Chamber: The Senate; of several new political hacks, has beens, wannabees and hangers on.
In a noteworthy obvious case of "do as I say...not as I do", Prime Minister Harper has abandoned his life long public political pledge to reform the Senate...er!...well at least stop the century old Canadian tradition of loading the Upper-House with one's friends, supporters and political bag men (and ladies) regardless of ability; knowledge; or (God forbid) conscience over taking a $130,000 / year political sinecure for towing the party line till mandatory retirement age of 75 years.
The Senate: Parliament's chamber of sober second thought; is the quintessential Canadian institution where, with a little help from well connected friends, "the milk rises to the top." - I speak with some knowledge of, and experience with at least several Senators with whom I have had professional working relationships in their previous lives...Lest I digress:
I'll venture a confession that I found some delicious irony in a report published on the trusted news syndicate "Agence France Presse" (AFP) just a few hours before Prime Minister Harper stepped in front of the media microphones in Montreal to announce his list of nine Senate nominees. Dinosaurs and pre-historic remnants are among the varied and descriptive adjectives which have previously, and frequently been used by Canadian observers, commentators, some politcians, as well as pundits to describe our Upper House of Parliament.
It seems that after a chance encounter with Jack Horner, a renowned American paleontologist and the technical advisor on the enormously popular "Jurassic Park" movies researchers at McGill University have determined to experiment with Doctor Horner's theory that chicken embryos can be manipulated to create dinosaurs. The theory is based on research in macro-evolution that birds are direct descendants of the enormous pre-historic, now extinct creatures which once roamed the planet.
In fact the Government of Canada, through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; as well as the Canada Research Chairs program and National Geographic in the United States are funding the McGill project. It is still just in its infancy, and scientists at McGill are cautious, because of ethical reasons, about predicting they will eventually hatch live pre-historic animals...But, the work is described as a demonstration of evolution done by flipping certain genetic levers during a chicken embryo's development that may reproduce a dinosaur's anatomy.
Prime Ministers of the future should now take note: McGill University may be on the verge of sourcing a whole new crop of candidates for the Canadian Senate willing to "peck","chirp" and "cluck" to support the governemment for mere chicken feed.
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