elegantwaste's Diaryland Diary

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much with the boring canadianism.

Warning: Canadian Politics. Nobody cares! Look, I'll be amusing and witty next week, all right?

The turkey himself:

I've never liked Jean Chretien. I've protested him a handful of times outside his hotels and outside of meetings and etc, back in my days of youthful political zeal - days that were more influenced by my friends and desire to fit in than actual political zeal.

I used to be patriotic. Now I realize that I was born where I was born and I live where I live, and that happens to be Canada, which is a strange, unassuming, middle earth kind of place.

Chretien's a smart guy who tries to be a funny guy. He makes jokes about his mistakes. He hasn't done giant harm to my country, but he hasn't made great leaps forward either. Hardly.

He sits in the middle between true left and true right. His party is elected because the Federal Liberals aren't Quebec separatistists, they're not right wing near-fascists, and they're not lefty commies (as I've heard people describe the Bloq, the Alliance, and the NDP).

Chretien was faced with a decision recently. Two months ago I would have been certain that, if Bush went to war, Chretien would blindly follow, because Canadians are meek and all, deep down, wish they were Americans, right? No, but that stereotype of Canadians as polite and unassuming and *nice*, and not wanting to offend? On the individual basis, not usually true. As a country? Hell yeah.

Chretien, however, said that if the US went forward without support of the UN, Canada would not be involved. And we're not.

For Canada, that's a pretty big step, alienating the US. That's a pretty gutsy move. That's something I can respect the old geezer for.

So, M. Chretien, when you get re-elected (that is, if you run again), I might even be persuaded to stick my vote your way. Because for once, my country isn't getting involved in something that has nothing to do with us.

Like my grandmother used to say: polite little girls mind their own business. So should countries.

And that's it. Tomorrow? I'll talk about pop music or toenail polish.

12:01 p.m. - 2003-03-21

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