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SUNDAY SPECTATOR
January 29, 2006
Ottawa Spring
It is not yet spring, only an exceptionally mild winter (the Europeans seem to be paying for our sins), so when I use the expression “Ottawa Spring”, I do not refer to a meteorological phenomenon. Instead, my phrase is meant in analogy to the “Prague Spring” -- the tentative revolution after Alexander Dubcek came to power in then-Czechoslovakia, back in 1968. We may hope our little Canadian political event of this past week may blossom directly into the full “Velvet Revolution”; that the Big Red Machine won’t find a way to intercede. But anything can happen tomorrow; drink now, for tomorrow we will die.The new Harper government (I keep saying this to myself -- “Prime Minister Stephen Harper”) may of course prove only a warm cosy blip between Liberal glaciations. Perhaps everything will go wrong -- as can happen when a mildly rightwing party, with a small minority, is surrounded in Parliament by three leftwing wolves. The media vultures are already circling. But I was impressed with how Mr Harper survived the campaign. He got all the way to the wire without stooping to any of the Liberal bait, and he persisted in talking directly to the Canadian people, instead of to the gallery. This did show some disciplined tactical sense, and with help from old pros like Senator Hugh Segal, he may just be able to negotiate the tulips and minefields ahead. It helps that the rival parties are functionally bankrupt, and that they can’t want another election for some time. If we forget about such brief disasters as Joe Clark and Kim Campbell (and truly, I would like to forget), we have, for the first time in most Canadians’ memories, a prime minister who is not a power-crazed lawyer from Montreal. Who is, more broadly, not beholden to the “smelly little orthodoxies” (Orwell’s phrase) that have enchanted our ruling class through the decades since Lester Pearson. In particular, Quebec is being offered partnership instead of appeasement, for the first time since the Quiet Revolution. We have, in the person of the new prime minister, and in a party still untried, a receptiveness to new ways of thinking about Canada and the Canadian situation. This is exhilarating. But we have more than this. I again refer my readers to the Internet, where a most extraordinary new feature of public life has come, almost spontaneously, into being. I’ve been overwhelmed, this past week, by the volume of living political thought -- some of a high standard -- that is now accessible through a laptop. An entirely new generation of Canadians, most much younger than I, is thinking aloud about the realities we face, and about how to deal with them, with a broad outlook. They feel empowered by Harper’s win -- even many of the disgruntled Liberals -- and they not only feel, but are, involved. The several hundred websites inter-linked through the Red Ensign network, and Blogging Tories, are also the means by which the new government can remain intimately in touch with events “on the ground” -- by-passing the “heritage media”. As a political and research tool, they are already indispensable. We have fresh minds applying themselves to such practical problems as how to defeat the Liberals in the inner metro ridings; how to appeal to their captive ethnic groups; how to persuade their clients among the denizens of relatively depressed economic regions to buy into the hopeful new coalition. How, more simply, to challenge the big lies that have contaminated our public discourse, and overcome the crippling stench of “political correctness”. In almost every case, it is fresh air that is coming in to a very dank political parlour, and the spirit is generous and enterprising. Dare I say, this is participatory democracy. There is, moreover, a useful consensus not to hope for more than can be achieved; and even to be grateful for “small mercies”. At the least, we can expect a Harper government will not be inflicting more of the “hidden agenda” the Liberals have been advancing for decades. Same-sex “marriage” may be irreversible in the shorter run, but it will not now be compounded with legalized polygamy, euthanasia on demand, a further pile-up of radical high court appointments, more fiscal incest of the sort Judge Gomery exposed, more anti-American self-immolation, and organized demonization of domestic foes. Canada was desperately in need of a time-out from the Grits’ accelerating postmodern deconstruction of society. But suddenly, we have an opportunity to accomplish so much more. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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