Homeless Man Speaks

PHILIP
“Can you believe what Al Gore said on the front page of the Toronto Star yesterday?   You know, Al Gore, the guy who was VP under Bill Clinton for eight years. He actually said that the Alberta tar sands are a threat to human existence. I’m telling you, even the the word ‘Armageddon’ was in the article, although I don’t actually know if Gore said that specific word. It’s pretty amazing, eh?”

TONY
“Sorry Phil, what’s your point, if you don’t mind me asking that?”

PHILIP
“My point is that this is the same Al Gore who was the number two guy in the most powerful country on Earth for eight years straight and who is the winner — if you ask me –  of the 2000 US Presidential elections and, to top it all off, is a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work on the environment and to top it all off all over again, he also has longstanding, and entirely warm ties to the current US administration. He’s has ‘tossed the gauntlet’ at Canada. I think he’s signalling that the US government will be playing hard-ball about the environmental consequences of the oil sands, and that’s going to  jeopardize billions of dollars and jobs in Alberta. You gotta realize that the folks who own and work in the sands are Harper’s biggest supporters. OK, so I don’t know exactly how this is going to play out but I think that this means Harper is toast. Finis.”

TONY
“So  … OK, you’re telling me that Gore just sort of slapped Harper upside the head in public by telling Harper’s big oil buddies in Alberta that their investments might end up losing them some money.”

PHILIP
“I don’t think I could say it better than that, actually.”

TONY
“OK, like the kids say: “‘Is this is a good thing?’”

PHILIP
“Holy smokes. You bet it’s a good thing.  I know I tell you this stuff all the time, even if it doesn’t get into the blog. It’s simple,man. I don’t think that Stephen Harper is good for Canada. I actually think he’s dangerous, maybe not him specifically but some of the people around him, that’s for sure. And that’s not a risk I want to take. I’ve got four kids and a mortgage … sorry, Tony, you heard all this stuff before. And now, he can’t even provide diplomatic cover for his oil buddies.

“Look, there’s a lot of people at the top of the Harper government who openly supported the Bush Administration, including even Harper himself for god’s sake. My basic point is that I’m telling you, if you give the Harper guys a majority in Parliament, all I can say is “watch out”, because it’s going to be a disaster. Environment, economy, you name it. Sure, I know that Ignatieff supported the Iraq War in the beginning. But c’mon.  At least Ignatieff had the huevos to own up to his mistake in public. And he didn’t support Bush’s other crazy policies the way Harper has. Heyman, everybody, including even smart guys like Ignatieff, they learn something when it’s the first time the situation has ever come up, like deciding to go to war in Iraq in 2003, for example. Let’s be honest. Quite a few Canadians supported the Iraq War in the beginning. Face it, when the guys who won World War Two [the Americans] ask us for military support, you at least have to give them the time of day, if you know what I mean.

Anyway,  at least Ignatieff took some time to think about how the actual Iraq War actually played out over actual time after it started, and he learned what the whole world also learned about the actual Bush Administration decision processes in regard to the Iraq War.”

Anyway, you know what I can’t figure out?  Somehow, I think people think that having the Liberals  in Ottawa for the next few years won’t make any difference.  Now maybe I’m missing something. If our PM and the US President are actually, true-blue, real-life friends — which you can see they are, you know, friends like you and me — then international negotiations about things like the oil sands will be better for Canada if Ignatieff’s the Prime Minister. After all, the top folks make make the final decisions, no?

You know, I bet that Ignatieff has the secret phone number for Obama’s Blackberry. And I bet Harper doesn’t.” [Note from Philip: I really have no idea if this is true.]

TONY
“And your point is …?”

PHILIP
“The point is, it’s weird. Ignatieff’s Liberals would do a better job protecting Alberta’s interests than Harper can possibly do. If that’s true, then Albertans should be voting en masse for Ignatieff. It’s weirdly simple, in a way.”

TONY
“So you think Ignatieff should be our next Prime Minister?”

PHILIP
“Duh.”