I must say I am shocked by what is going on over at the Shotgun. This whole debate of "political escapism" has gone to ridiculous extremes and if I contributed to it all with my post then all parties have my apologies. While I agree with Norman Spector that we could be more Canada-centric at the Shotgun this is out of line:
In the Montreal Gazette, Environment Minister Stephane Dion acknowledges that Kyoto makes no sense, is a lousy deal for Canada and he's looking for an alternative.
You'd think Canadian conservatives would be all over this statement, but I've not seen any comments on the Shotgun site.
Kathy, perhaps it's your position on abortion that has taken you out of the Canadian political arena. It would be great if you didn't try so so hard to take others with you. We need them here.
It is frustrating to me that you can be a pro-life NDPer, BQist or Liberal and not catch any slack from the CBC/Star et al, but it absolutely unacceptable to be a pro-life Conservative because that is somehow extreme. It is even more frustrating that descent on the issue is unacceptable to Mr. Spector on the Shotgun. If we can't have intelligent debate on the subject there, where can we?
This slanting of the so-con versus fisc-con debate brings Animal Farm to mind:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
And just in case you forget how the book ends:
There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.
But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
This may be an exaggeration of the situation in Canada but that is how satire works. My concern, as with Mark Steyn as I posted before, if the CPC ditches the so-cons and moves sharply to the centre will any of us be able to tell the Conservatives and Liberals apart?
I guess to move this forward, can we answer the question I posed previously? What hills are we prepared to die on?
