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  Great and not so great Canadians
by Michael Werbowski
Recently the lovely looking, media savvy and well endowed actress, Pamela Anderson came up above the 49 parallel to protest against the sick seal hunt in Canada. She calls it “barbaric”. Yes it is just that; a bestial and medieval and outdated practise. But then most Canadians don’t care about it which means they simply to approve it, just like the Japanese do, who support their “sacred, tradional” whale and dolphin slaughter. How patriotic this is indeed? How brave and daring it is to mass murder harmless animals in their habitat? No, not really it is all quite abject and repugnant.
But if you are a great Canadian (that is well known and successful in your field) like Pamela and are living abroad (most successful Canadians find fame elsewhere) the image of your “homeland” is important. The annual seal hunt is a national shame and embarrassment, as Ms. Anderson rightly asserts it is. Those who think otherwise belong back in the Stone Age and not in a post modern country where clubs should only be used for golf and not to bludgeon and bash the brains in of just born baby seals. On the foreign front, the EU has expressed its discontent with Ottawa on this pressing matter, by banning all imports from Canada of all seal products into the world’s largest trade bloc. Another ban (more stringent) is being contemplated. This time it will fall on all fish and marine products coming from Canada. This will hurt the hunters and fisherman even more.
Yet the seal hunting fans in Ottawa are implacable. None the less, the seal hunt with or without protests, assuredly, will soon become history and eventually die out as it becomes economically unviable due to the bans and boycotts overseas and too costly for Canada diplomatically as the 2010 Vancouver winter games approach. Too bad for the poor hunters in Eastern Canada, maybe its time for them, just like the coal miners over there did, to get in tune with the 21 century and get an eco job, like work on building wind generation projects or decontaminating landfills instead of “living off the land” or blood soaked ice flows in this case, by engaging in mass slaughter of mammals, each year, just like our earliest descendents the cave men did way back then. It’s time to move forward gentlemen!
Another almost as great Canadian as Pamela Anderson is Michael Ignatieff. The would be prime minister of Canada. The leader of the Liberal opposition is an intellectual of the highest order and a world class thinker and author. Yet his political savvy is lacking. He has made big gaffes recently by urging Canadians to go back to the voting booth and have an election to overthrow the Stephan Harper ministry government. But the erudite leader came across as awkward in his pleadings for another federal election last summer. He appeared to be bullying the electorate instead of enticing them to vote for; you guessed it, more “change”. But what kind of change does he mean? Perhaps the man who supported the U.S invasion of Iraq would change things, buy sending more Canadian troops to Afghanistan?
For now, Mr. Ignatieff worried about his faltering opinion ratings in the polls, has donned a red rose in his lapel. A not so subtle visual prop or association to a man who was one of the greatest Canadian politicians: the right honourable former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Mr. Igantieff maybe in his dreams wishes he had the charisma, charm, political astuteness, and elegance which many Canadians still associate “P.E.T” with, as he is referred to affectingly. In the meantime, I am sure; Michael will be wowing the electorate with his pithy one line soporific statements. Canadians can only wish him luck in his endeavours to assume greatness in the future. But don’t count on it too much to happen.
Another much less than great Canadian comes from the corrupt cesspool of municipal politics, which is one of Canada’s most cosmopolitan and European cities: Montreal. His name is Mayor Gerald Tremblay. This sorry chap, is embroiled in a plethora of scandals these days. The local media has revealed that the mayor and his team have very and too cozy relations with the underworld and that the mob has privileged access to major infrastructural contracts (water meters, road repair and construction etc) at city hall. Well, I suppose graft and influence peddling is not unique to Montreal. The problem is that with all this rot swirling in and around city hall people are getting mad. Moreover, all these allegations and accusations of corrupt dealings are coming out just as the locals are preparing to elect ( or most likely re-elect their mayor ( who with a little help from his friends wearing the finest Italian cut suits ) for a third straight term. Meanwhile as the municipal “slugfest” amid the mess and mud slinging match goes on between Mayor Tremblay and his opponents. Yet, the uncollected rubbish piles up on curbs downtown, and the growing homeless camp inside and outside the subway as the cold weather approaches. Which reminds me, maybe it’s time for some fashionable, wealthy ladies to get a nice seal, fur- skinned coat for the winter season? I wonder what Pamela would say to that.
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