I've got to admit about being all set to weigh-in heavily on Canada's parliamentary paralysis over this business of a Federal election in the aftermath of the national budget which will be tabled on Tuesday next.
I still will. But, it may tempered by President Barack Obama's "time-out" to record his College Basketball picks on America's national sports network ESPN, at a time when many believe that the most powerful political leader on earth should really otherwise be occupied with matters of much more urgent nature.
Really, I don't think President Obama needs me to remind him of those current event issues that really matter...Though I find it hard to locate "March (basketball) Madness" near the top of the list.
Okay; that said: Back to Canadian politics. We may wanna be; but unlike the USA it's plenty clear that we're nowhere near the top of any one's list of the planet's influential powers. Regardless, it seems that our Parliamentary democracy has been hijacked, overwhelmed and paralyzed by this illogical death desire to plunge us into a two or three hundred million dollar Federal election which every public poll known to man suggests won't change a damned thing.
The implied suggestion that Her Majesty's loyal opposition thinks, repugnant as it is, that the ethical sludge seeping-out of Parliament Hill is a strategy for winning the election is seriously flawed. Clearly the top-of-mind issue is, and will remain through an election, the nation's economic performance.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been criticised for telling an audience in British Columbia that Japan's unfolding disaster is a reminder of the fragility of the global economy; subsequently adding that the fallout from the devastating earthquake means now is not the time for an election. Few would argue with the Prime Minister's conclusion. But actions speak louder than pious words. His party and his government continue feverish unabated preparations for securing the elusive Parliamentary majority which has eluded the Conservatives since taking office in January of 2006.
When the dust settles following next Tuesday's Federal budget, and if the Government is ultimately defeated in Parliament, the Conservatives will go into the election on the strenght of all of the wonderful things which would (or could) have resulted from what in effect will have been an imaginary budget. It's plenty obvious that is not the frame nor context within which Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals want to campaign. Clearly the Conservatives are vulnerable on their promises to clean-house in the aftermath of the last decade's advertising scandal. It's just that at this juncture the timing appears quite wrong.
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