bankrupt

I had a late afternoon gig yesterday, so I asked my dear wife to tape my favourite radio show: Cross Country Checkup on CBC. The host of CCC is the supremely intelligent and highly principled Rex Murphy. Easily the CBC'c best asset - along with Don Newman, the only other scrupulously neutral journalist on the network. I don't like the CBC because I don't think a national network should wear its bias on its sleeve. But I do often watch Don Newman's show "Politics" on Newsworld and always listen to Rex Murphy.

The gig was fairly long and exhausting. When I got home I found out that our fridge had given up the ghost and after having limped for a few days, had simply croaked. A new one is on its way but last night - not daring to use even the cheese - I just put some peanut butter and jam on stale bread, brewed a cuppa and started listening to my CCC tape - all about the current scandal and the looming elections.

Please help me out here - I don't get it!!! What's with this long parade of people saying they are "not ready for an election"? I simply don't understand what they mean! What is there to be ready for? In my buliding, polling takes place in the exercise room on the 23d floor. I take the elevator up, mark my "x" and go home. What the heck is there to be ready for? Do these people have to take classes on how to mark the ballot? Is the short walk to the polling station a problem? The time off work? I'll be thankful to anyone who explains to me what "the country not being ready for an election" means.

I do understand there is cost involved. But unlike the sleazy Liberal kickbacks or their impotent gun registry scheme - this is money very well spent. It's transparent, it's obvious, it's accountable. Elections Canada keeps a close watch and there is no hidden money, no hidden agenda. Is it not better to resolve to spend whatever it takes and have an election rather than hide behind a "the country is not ready for an election" shibboleth - which really only means "I don't mind the Liberal government staying in power"? That's ALL it means.

We should all be outraged, we should all be screaming with anger and clamouring for an immediate election in light of the Gomery revelations. The fact that we are not reveals a moral apathy and a societal rot of profound dimensions. It reveals that we are morally and ideologically bankrupt and that we are stupid. This is not about Paul Martin being a nice man and no doubt an honourable man. This is not about Jean Chretien being an arrogant street fighter and possibly a crook. This is not about any one given person or any one given act. This is about a government whose moral perfidy makes the Mulroney administration look like poor diletantes. The guys we have now are smooth pros at the game of deceipt, corruption and decadenece.

I do not buy the argument about having to wait for Judge Gomery to make his recommendations. Why? Have we not seen enough? And given what we have already learnt from the inquiry - do we REALLY need to know more? Do we REALLY need to know which persons will be found criminally liable and go to jail in order to know this government needs a kick in the butt NOW?

The Liberal cant about Steven Harper being "scary" is pure crock. Steven Harper is as scary as my accountant. He is an intelligent guy but also a fairly stodgy, slow, methodical and humourless character. He is not a bible bashing preacher, nor is he a motorcycle riding, machine-gun toting, tattood Easy Rider. Scared of Steven Harper? Give me a break!

What I am scared of is the limping, bankrupt government, the never ending stench of scandal emanating from Liberal Ottawa and above all, the apathy of Canadian voters who are "not ready" to throw these bastards out and who are afraid to engage in a real and meaningful discussion of our aims and values as a freedom loving, democratic country. The true North strong and free, eh?