Monday, February 23, 2004

MOVING ON?

Last week when I advocated creating the 'Sure It Was Wrong But Lets Move On Club' with regards to the sponsorship sacandal my fellow McGill student David Mader took me to task for advocating such a position and predicted that 'move on' would become a mantra for partisan Liberals in the coming weeks. I think we're seeing that happen.

Today in the Globe and Mail, William Thorsell, not even a partisan Liberal, said just that as he wrote: "The sponsorship scandal's the past; let's move on". Thorsell writes that Canadians, in national terms, are less likely to plan farther into the future than our neighbours to the south. He thinks the public focus on Adscam is just another symptom of our lower productivity and lack of vision. The comparisons to America and the bemoaning of the lack of Canadian initiative are all fairly charactersitic of the parochial conservative elite in Canada. Regardless, he concludes by saying,

We are enjoying a binge of venom against the marginal past, distracted from preparing for the important future. Let's move on

The prime minister would seem to agree. Today he announced a long-term plan for affordable housing in Canada and met with a low cost housing advocacy group in Montreal. Martin seems to have moved past his 'Mad as Hell' response back to agenda setting. More and more he is looking like a prime minister campaigning. I would expect the election in the spring as planned.

The media (as least some of them) are beginning to advocate 'moving on.' The government is clearly trying to 'move on.' Will Canadians follow?

Posted by Matthew @ 9:32 p.m.