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Lights out (David Warren)
David Warren Online ^ | May 21, 2005 | David Warren

Posted on 05/21/2005 10:18:08 AM PDT by fanfan

Lights out

At the end of a second week of disgrace in Parliament, I can find no upside. Paul Martin contrived to remain in power by purchasing Belinda Stronach (at the bargain price of one second-tier Cabinet seat). The Conservatives released a tape, recording the prime minister’s chief of staff negotiating the purchase of two other members; with no major outcry. The government, which had lost the confidence of the House last week, established the principle that “possession is ten-tenths of the law”, by clinging to power until it was able to buy what had previously eluded it, with the resources of the state.

The Canadian constitution was overthrown. Of all other pundits, in Canada’s overwhelmingly Liberal-friendly media, I think Andrew Coyne alone fully grasped this fact. He and several others complained that the Conservatives had put up a dismal defence, yielding the spectacle of Stephen Harper running around behind Paul Martin, promising to match the extravagant payoffs he was offering to each vested interest. I think Mr. Harper showed moments of real dignity, too; but the criticism still holds.

Such small-c conservative journalists as we have, except Mr Coyne, and John Robson, have indulged the happy-faced notion that the defection of Ms Stronach was “good riddance”. I agree with them, and believe Ms Stronach and the Liberal Party deserve each other. As Elmer MacKay, the father of Ms Stronach’s discarded “boyfriend”, said: “I would rather be betrayed than be a betrayer.”

But I do not agree that any good has come of this woman’s extraordinary act of treachery. The Conservatives are no closer now, to understanding that they cannot win by offering a more naïve, less crooked version of the Liberals’ feckless policies. For the corruption runs much deeper than what has been alleged before the Gomery Inquiry; even deeper than what we are likely to find, if the finances of Canada’s innumerable, large crown corporations are ever opened to an honest accounting.

Our country has been demoralized -- itself rendered corrupt, and reduced to a kind of bourgeois serfdom -- by the scale on which monies are appropriated and redistributed to political ends. And through the continuous transfer of legislative power to irresponsible courts, the possibility of democratic action has been progressively foreclosed. The time has now passed in which a change of government party could change the way public business is done. The last chance expired with Chuck Cadman’s vote on Thursday.

Not the least consequence of Paul Martin’s successful putsch has been to clear the remaining obstacle to the ramming through Parliament of C-38, the government’s bill for institutionalizing homosexual “marriage”. As I have argued on many former occasions, this one horrific piece of legislation, done under pressure from the courts, delivers the coup-de-grace to the traditional, natural family upon which civilization is built. It will summon vast new powers for the state, to intrude into the private lives of the people; to suppress dissent; and to persecute the religious faithful.

The reckless spending is only money that has been wasted, but could be earned again by the people from whom it was taken. It has enabled financial corruption, but even that could have been gradually cleaned up, and absorbed.

However, the final destruction of the central institution upon which family life utterly depends -- the raising of children by mother and father -- cuts so much deeper. First we created a nation in which the unborn could be freely murdered; now we will have one in which the survivors are effectively orphaned.

We have committed suicide, as a nation. Outwardly, and immediately, the consequences of what we have done will be seen in much different areas. We must deal with the renewed demand for separation in Quebec, and much deeper alienation in the West, where people begin to realize that they have been permanently disenfranchised. We will endure the continuing bleeding of economic opportunity, as both capital and our most talented citizens migrate to better prospects in the United States and beyond.

But as a people, we have proved incapable of connecting the dots between our national decline, and the bottomless corruption of our legal and political order.

I will leave it there. For what point can there be in a writer continuing to bemoan something that is simply lost? The dignity and decency of Canadian life had been leeching away, for so long, that we are now past writing any “lament for a nation”. The Canada of which I was once so proud now sleeps with the worms.


TOPICS: Canada; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 05/21/2005 10:18:09 AM PDT by fanfan
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To: GMMAC; Pikamax; Former Proud Canadian; Great Dane; Alberta's Child; headsonpikes; coteblanche; ...
PING

Please let me know if you want on or off the Canada/Adscam ping list

2 posted on 05/21/2005 10:19:14 AM PDT by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: fanfan

Sounds much like the shenanigans with our politicians in Washington, DC.


3 posted on 05/21/2005 10:35:05 AM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
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To: fanfan

Corruption? In Canuckastan? Naaaah!Take a few cheap pills and it'll be all better. Has mad cow crossed over to people? This isn't going to keep them from fixing their burned out submarine fleet is it?


4 posted on 05/21/2005 10:38:21 AM PDT by cherokee1 (skip the names---just kick the buttz)
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To: fanfan

David Warren was a light in the darkness for many many years - he ran a conservative literary magazine called the Idler in the early to mid-90s - without any government funds I might add.


5 posted on 05/21/2005 10:51:42 AM PDT by ikka
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To: fanfan
Is not the United States traveling down the same path, of increasing corruption funded by increasing power and money?
6 posted on 05/21/2005 10:54:38 AM PDT by ThePythonicCow (To err is human; to moo is bovine.)
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To: Mitchell; Shermy; ARridgerunner

Must read ping.


7 posted on 05/21/2005 10:59:23 AM PDT by Allan
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To: Mitchell; Shermy; ARridgerunner
See also the following article by Mark Steyn
which for some reason
didn't receive much attention
even by Steyn fans.
8 posted on 05/21/2005 11:04:11 AM PDT by Allan
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To: fanfan

In the end, the Canadians would have returned the Liberals to power anyway. The sheeple don't learn. They just follow, and do what they are told.


9 posted on 05/21/2005 11:05:46 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: fanfan
Did anyone ever doubt that Belinda was for sale?

Guess that second tier cabinet appointment was all slick willie could secure for her.

10 posted on 05/21/2005 12:32:05 PM PDT by OldFriend (MAJOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH.....INSPIRATIONAL)
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To: fanfan

Could happen here... we better be vigilant.

This fight for the judiciary is key!!


11 posted on 05/21/2005 1:03:54 PM PDT by aquila48
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To: fanfan
HI..I'll stay on your list but how do I get off Bananada....it's making me extremely bilious
12 posted on 05/21/2005 2:10:50 PM PDT by bc boy (Mr.Dithers promotes Barbie)
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To: fanfan
Here is an idea; Queen Elizabeth sends troops from England to restore order to Canada.

Of course who will send troops to restore order in England?

13 posted on 05/21/2005 2:28:12 PM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: fanfan

This is so sad. I'm sorry that you're going through this. The last thing anyone needs is a corrupt, parasitic government on their backs.


14 posted on 05/21/2005 3:06:05 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Deport them all; let Fox sort them out.)
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To: Jimmy Valentine
Here is an idea; Queen Elizabeth sends troops from England to restore order to Canada.

Of course who will send troops to restore order in England?

We may need the Marines, the Army, the Coast Guard, and the Air Force.

Thank GOD you folks are there!

15 posted on 05/21/2005 3:06:42 PM PDT by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: bc boy
HI..I'll stay on your list but how do I get off Bananada....it's making me extremely bilious

LOL. Didn't the Liberals tell you? Bananas are good for you.

16 posted on 05/21/2005 3:09:09 PM PDT by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

It's hard to 'keep up the good fight' all the time, but then, whats the other option? ;-)


17 posted on 05/21/2005 3:11:06 PM PDT by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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To: fanfan
We can always use more good people down here.

Come join us.

18 posted on 05/22/2005 5:04:01 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: Jimmy Valentine
Thanks.

So far it's just a plan being formulated in the back of mind in case we lose all hope up here.

You see, I have my own brown envelope, and it's being filled with US visa requirements, the application, and business ideas for my chosen city.

19 posted on 05/22/2005 5:34:05 AM PDT by fanfan (" The liberal party is not corrupt " Prime Minister Paul Martin)
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