Since many of my friends are currently expatriating in far-flung places such as New York, New Zealand, Vietnam and Oxford (who knew my old roomie Tom was smrt enufft to get a full skolership to that skool?) they might not be aware of the current political saga going on here at home.
You may recall that six weeks ago we had an election, in which Stephen Harper's Conservatives won a minority. Stephane Dion's Liberals did so poorly that his Party demanded his resignation which he sort of gave but sort of didn't.
In the meantime, the new government was looking for ways to cut costs, and knew that political parties received $1.95 of tax dollars for every vote they won in the election. Axing this perk would be a great way to save money! This would cost the Conservatives about ten million dollars, and the other parties anywhere from just under 2 mill to almost 8 million for the Liberals. So all the other parties started howling and then things started getting crazy. Now the Liberals, NDP and the treasonous Bloc Quebecois have agreed to form a coalition to topple the Conservatives and form the new government. If the Governor General will allow it.
So anyways all the MPs are busy with those shenanigans and our country is watching with baited breath. I find it quite interesting but I try to be non-partisan inasmuch as that's possible. Basically I think they're all bums, but having the separatist BQ in power, even shared power, can not be good for Canada.
Of course, this might make more sense with a Star Wars metaphor:
Now you might think Stephane Dion corresponds to Darth Sidious, the mastermind behind the formation of the Galactic Empire. But to me he is more the dangerously inept comedic relief, so he gets to be Jarjar Binks. Although Jack Layton bears a physical resemblance to Count Dooku, really it is Gilles Duceppe who best corresponds to the Separatist Leader. I guess that means Layton is Palpatine. But who does Stephen Harper correspond to? He is often referred to as a cardigan-wearing automaton, so I guess that would be C3PO.
