OMG! Another instance of plagiarism! Photo: Jeff Knapp, 2004
I find myself shaking my head more often than not these days, not just because of the many senseless things the Conservatives manage to do [like deciding to change the wording of the national anthem in an apparent display of political correctness on steroids], but because of the things the opposition actually decide to complain about.
If they’re not calling for a public investigation into whether Helena Guergis made airport workers cry by turning into she-hulk and threatening to squeeze the goo from their puny human heads, it’ll be some other completely ridiculous and irrelevant story that may as well have been pulled from the pages of Ibn Fadlan’s diary.
Take, for instance, the recent controversy over whether or not Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney removed sections from the Canadian Citizenship Guide that pertains to “gay rights” and “same-sex marriage”. Please give me a moment to state the obvious: So what?
Does it matter if he did or if he didn’t? And what does it accomplish, finding out the editorial preferences of the Minister? Will it prove to anyone who doesn’t already have a partisan bias, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Jason Kenney is a homophobe?
It doesn’t change the laws protecting homosexuals in Canada under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, nor does it deny homosexuals complete equality under the law, and blindness in adjudicating matters unrelated to their sexuality. It doesn’t change the fact that homosexual marriage is completely and wholly a legitimately recognized union between two people of the same sex, equal in both law and recognized by the same government that employs Mr.Kenney. And it doesn’t, as the outrage would seem to imply, have any affect, whatsoever, on whether immigrants who are homosexual should choose to come here or not.
Then there’s today’s latest Brouhaha about the title of the Throne Speech, called “A Stronger Canada; A Stronger Economy; Now and for the Future.” The Liberals say that this was lifted from former Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s 2004 election platform: “A Stronger Economy. A Stronger Australia.”
A “stronger economy” is the contentious plagiarism? Isn’t that like accusing someone of plagiarizing a cliché? Do we really expect our politicians to deal with titles more original than “stronger”, “better”, and “brighter”? I mean, these are the basic adjectives for politics and political writing. It isn’t as though John Howard ran an election platform called “A Supercalifragilistic Economy. An Expialidocious Australia”, and then Stephen Harper came along and used the same obscure words today.
No, he used the word stronger. If you could think of a more generic, basic, common motto for a post-recession government, you’d be hard pressed to find it. And here’s a news flash: Barack Obama’s “hope” and “change” wasn’t very original either. Being hopeful, wanting change, and being stronger are all extremely banal descriptions of human ambition.
The continued profligate spending, out-of-control programs, bloated bureaucracy, soaring debt, are all concerns that the Liberals could raise, and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid in defence for the Conservatives. But the above manufactured controversies really belong in some low-ratings reality TV show. On CBS. At 2:30 in the morning. Sponsored by Ashley Madison.
