Blogging in the Darkness of Harperland

On a grey, wet, day in Harperland it wasn't too hard to imagine myself in the last scene of The Planet of the Apes. Or imagine myself giving up blogging. For it was the worst of days.

First there was this devastating blow

Which means we might never know who Jean Poutine is until after the next election.

And then there was the grotesque scene in the Commons. Where the Con ape Dean Del Mastro managed to turn the proceedings into a farce. 

There were at least three questions here, perhaps as many as four. Mr. Del Mastro acknowledged none of them. In fact, here Mr. Del Mastro very nearly inverted the entire notion of Question Period. “What we have learned and this is what the Liberal leader must respond to, is that the Liberal leader provided training sessions by four Liberal members at one o’clock on Saturday, April 30,” the parliamentary secretary explained. “They trained them on Liberal robocalls.”

By trying to make it sound like Frank Valeriote's perfectly legitimate phone calls, were worse than the attempt to steal an election.

Repeating the words "deceptive, dishonest, and disgraceful," over and over again. As if he wasn't describing himself. While his fellow Cons howled like hyenas.

Only to return later in the day to ram through their fascist crime bill. Which turns Canada into a backward prison state. And howl all over again.

On the same day when Stephane Dion emerged from years of well deserved obscurity, to beat this tired old drum.

This is a hard truth, but it must be said.
The New Democratic Party is now endorsing positions of the Bloc Québécois that are harmful to Canadian unity. It’s time we talked about this issue.

As if that's what we should be talking about, as the Harperites torch our country. As if progressives should be fighting each other, instead of uniting to defeat the Cons.

Oh boy. It's almost too much to bear. For I'm starting to feel like Kev, from Trapped in a Whirlpool does.

This is perhaps Harper's greatest accomplishment, convincing enough Canadians that democracy is not worth the effort nor the expense. This more than anything, even robocon, has delivered his precious majority and abets his neoliberal and social conservative agenda.

What's the point of blogging, or marching, or trying to save the country you love, when so many Canadians couldn't care less?

But like Kev, I know it's important not to give up. For every little voice counts. Just like it's important to keep smiling in the darkness of Harperland.

So tonight I just want to say I don't know from what Planet of the Apes those Cons came from eh?

But give me some hope. And a saxophone.

And I'll knock dance those aliens out of the sky...