Thursday, June 24, 2004

NOTHING TO FEAR

Yesterday David Mader told people who are describing the prospect of a Stephen Harper Conservative government as 'scary' to get a grip on reality (I paraphrase). He says there are things in this world that are truly to be feared and that a democratically initiated change in government is not one of them. I conccur, for the reasons Mader lays out, as well as another.

This country has survived several bad governments and many bad specific policies or actions on the part of various governments. We survived Macdonald's handling of the Riel rebellion, we survived debate over war in South Africa under Laurier. We survived two incredibly divisive crises over conscription under Conservative and Liberal prime ministes. Conservative Canadians survived Trudeau, and liberal Canadians survived Mulroney, and we all survived the near-colosal failure of Jean Chretien and all of our elected representatives in October 1995.

My point is that the country, its history, its culture, its people are far greater than any government of five, ten, fifteen or even twenty years. The foundations of this country are strong and no democratically elected government is going to alter them so fundamentally that we should be scared. To think that any government is going to destroy Canada as we know it is to show an incredible lack of faith in and understanding of Canada and its citizens.

Posted by Matthew @ 1:03 p.m.