US Democracy: I Never Said It Is Perfect

Followers of earlier postings will know that I recently have been suffering from democracy envy. While our neighbours to the south have had a two year frenzy of participatory democracy, which will culminate in Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, Canadians have watched a gong show of democratic activity. We have snoozed through an election which few voted in and even fewer cared about, and which resulted in a "No Change You Can Believe In" transformation of Canada. This was soon followed by a Larry, Moe and Curly failed coalition effort. Then we saw the suspension of Parliament (we sophisticates in Canada call it a "prorogation" ), soon to be followed by the appointment of 18 people to a Senate which does little, costs a lot, and most agree ought to be abolished. A new interim leader of the Liberal party was selected, not by members of his party, but by its National Executive. It was, to be fair, an easy decision since he ran to be the leader of his party, unopposed. Then to welcome in the New Year, the Prime Minister capped it all off by appointing a new Supreme Court of Canada Justice, without a smidgin of Parliamentary oversight. So to recap - new government, new Liberal leader, 18 new Senators, and new Supreme Court of Canada justice. Wow! It sort of reminds me of the song about the 12 days of Christmas and all the things I received from my true love - "one new government, one new Liberal leader, 18 new Senators, a new Supreme Court of Canada justice, and a partridge in a pear tree".

But I want to be fair. While we in the north have been struggling to stay awake and keep up with the "breaking news" from Ottawa, our friends to the south have gone wacko. The election was great, but have you seen what has been going on there since November 4? We can start with Governor Blagojevich, who apparently put a Senate seat up for sale on e-bay, along with Sarah Palin's official airplane. Then Blag said he would "fight, fight, fight", sort of reminding me of the cheerleaders I saw in the Fiesta Bowl parade. The lucky winner of the Senate seat was former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, but his Senate hopes were frustrated by a recalcitrant Illinois Secretary of State who either forgot to or refused to sign the required paperwork, resulting in a goal line stand by the Senate Secretary who refused to let Burris into the Senate. And if you think all this is messy, all has not gone that well in Obama land either. First there was the Rick Warren fiasco, followed by Governor Richardson's withdrawal as Commerce Secretary, followed by Obama's choice of Leon Panetta as CIA director. The Rick Warren pick was just plain dumb, Obama presumably didn't know that Richardson had troubles brewing when he picked him for the Commerce Secretary post, and Obama just plain forgot that it would probably be a good idea to tell Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein about Panetta, before she read about it in the newspapers. (An honest mistake, we all forget to do things now and then). Meanwhile there is a major war going on in Gaza, and the trillions of bail outs and stimuli packages just get bigger.

As our friend Charlie Brown would say: "Good grief". And 2009 is barely 6 days old.