the blog quebecois

The Province:

I am disgusted to be a new Canadian. Although I felt considerable satisfaction when I cast my ballot Monday for the first time ever in a Canadian election, all pleasure at participating in my country's electoral process vanished in the face of the Tory majority.

I wish I could believe that vast numbers of Canadians support Prime Minister Stephen Harper because they're stupid.

I wish I could persuade myself that almost half of voters are so fantastically dim that they believed the contempt of Parliament finding against Harper's government was political manoeuvring instead of an attempt to impose accountability on an evasive authoritarian regime.

I would feel so much better if I could think that legions of Canadian morons believe shutting down Parliament for political purposes is OK because they don't understand what "proroguing" means but anything starting with "pro" must be good.

I want so badly to comfort myself with the thought that Canadians aren't outraged by the Harper government's unprecedented secrecy and muzzling of public servants because they're too dull-witted to understand that government transparency is crucial to democracy.

I wish I could believe the Canadian populace is so rife with idiots that Harper's proclamation that the Government of Canada is now the Stephen Harper Government was seen as creative branding rather than a minority party asserting absolute control over the nation.

I think it quite unfair that a cultured fellow such as yourself should be forced to live amongst barbarians. So let's pack up your massive brain and even more enormous ego -- wait, a wheelbarrow won't do: make it a U-Haul truck, and we'll even have room for your carpet-bags -- and trundle you south where you can lecture the natives how fortunate they are to live under kindly King Obama's reign. For the next year-and-a-half, anyway.

Write if you find work.

Via Charles Adler