A Confederacy of Dunces

The last few weeks in Canadian politics have been nothing, if not riveting. The world's finances are going down the toilet, people are losing their jobs, their homes and their retirement savings, and no clear hero has emerged to help us weather this storm. Instead, the happenings in Ottawa bring to mind the title of John Kennedy Toole's 1987 Pulitzer prize-winning novel "A Confederacy of Dunces" and have left us all shaking our heads.

What's worse, the happenings have managed to ignite tensions long held in check, reopened old wounds, created an even deeper western-eastern divide and potentially spurred on a national unity crisis. Who does any of this benefit, other than the politicians themselves? And, while many were quick to take sides and point the finger, no one is blameless in this mess that's been unfolding.

Harper, either unable to count, or unwilling to come to terms with the fact that Canadian voters only gave him 37% of the vote, has been going around behaving like a majority, bullying the opposition, trying to roll back pay equity for women and wanting to abandon public funding of parties.

Lo and behold, the NDP and the Liberals, with the support of the Bloc (and the Greens) bravely united by the threat to their party coffers, join ranks and form a coalition. It would be nice if they were quibbling over the economy, but a blatant power grab is more what it appears to be. While the Conservatives did not offer a massive "stimulus" package, it's not quite clear what the coalition has been proposing, other than the promise of a lot of corporate welfare in the automobile, aerospace and forestry sectors.

"Treason!" shout Harper and his supporters, even though our Constitution legally allows the prospect of a coalition government in Ottawa whenever we're ruled by a minority government and a non-confidence vote occurs. Confusion reigns, cross-country demonstrations take place, "it's a coup" cries the West, "it's democracy at work," replies the East. Duceppe is accused of being a "sellout" and Dion is chastised for daring to seek the PM position when he can't even win his own party's confidence. Wasn't it Obama that said "politics is a contact sport?"

Harper speaks to Canadians in a televised appearance, using his usual "divide and conquer" scare tactics and we lose count of how many times he utters the word "separatists". Dion responds with grainy video footage of his own, possibly shot by his wife on her iPhone, and the whole country erupts in disbelieving laughter.

"Prorogue" becomes Canada's Word of the Year, as the GG agrees to Harper's demands and suspends parliament until January 26. Most Canadians have a sneaky suspicion that Harper will come back to work in the new year much more humbler and much more willing to play with the other children in the playground and actually get something done.

In the meantime, 71,000 Canadians just lost their jobs in November, three more Canadian soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan and the economy continues to spiral, but our politicians are busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it sinks. Like we said… a Confederacy of Dunces.