Rat Cunning, etc -- You Don't Have to Agree, to Enjoy David Warren's Writing

David Warren: A Meal Feb. 21, 2004

Mr. Chrétien had rat cunning, and Canadians respect that. A rat with cunning gets pretty much whatever he wants up here. In Mr. Martin we detect a rat that we can eat.

[. . . . One ] of the three contenders [for leadership of the Conservtive Party of Canada] is Belinda Stronach, the inheritor of a taxpayer-promoted auto-parts fortune -- a Bill Clinton golfing buddy who is Canada's answer not to Margaret Thatcher, but more to Paula Jones. [Hardly! NJC]

*** Stephen Harper is an intelligent backroom strategist with no stage presence. [Quality does not need to be amplified by something as superficial and ephemeral as stage presence, David. You should know better. NJC] Tony Clement is a failed provincial politician. [Failed provincial politician is almost a recommendation of good character since, failed politician in Canada simply means that the Liberals spread the dung of accusation and innuendo on all the candidates--good and bad--and their party, along with filthy lucre, of course. All emphasis is mine. NJC ] ***

One of them may well become our next prime minister.

On the other hand, we wouldn't have nearly-perpetual Liberal government were Canadians not an obedient people, across ethnic lines -- or, as Jonathan Swift once said of the Irish, "A servile race in folly nursed, / Who truckle most when treated worst." (We seldom complain except when they threaten to reduce our taxes.)

But we have the other side of the Irish in us, too, and we like to make a meal of the occasional politician (ask Brian Mulroney). And, having made a meal of this Mr. Martin, I expect we will emerge more Anglophonic in our attitude to the world.

I do like the way David Warren phrases things. Link to enjoy the whole article. NJC