Number 73- March 5, 2008

As we slip towards the spring end of the university terms, more than several thousand lucky young Canadians will set off into the best education they will ever get. These will be those who spend the summer drifting through the youth hostels found all across Europe .

            Therein they will find packs of Aussies (fleeing their geographical isolation), lots of Germans, some Scandinavians, lots of Brits, very few Yanks—and almost no one from France, Italy or Spain (why travel when you have everything at home?)

            Traditionally, any Canadian entering any hostel for a sleep was regarded with a respectful approach; here was a stranger whose nationality was a fine badge, with leaders well-known. Lester Pearson and his Nobel Peace Prize, Pierre Trudeau with his skirt-chasing, somersaults-off-the-diving-board reputation—the Canuck kids stood a little higher as they walked.

            Today? Never have Canada ’s leaders, both federal and provincial, been so invisible. At home, it may be added, as well as abroad. We have Prime Minister Stephen (Impossible to Like) Harper. And Opposition Leader Stephane Dion, whose Liberal caucus members behind his back call him “Mr. Bean”—the British TV wimp. Never within memory has the whole Ottawa scene been so miserable, as all the polls show,  voters indicating that no party deserves majority status.

             It goes further than the capital. Ontario , the largest and richest province, is led by someone called Dalton McGuinty. Toronto , the largest and richest city, is led by someone called David Miller. You could take both of them (and arguably joined by Dion), march them through the main streets of Vancouver , Montreal and Ottawa for an hour and no one would recognize them. 

            We once had politicians who were Canadian in scope. Everybody knew of Wacky Bennett out in British California, who ruled for 20 years without taking a drink. Next door, the cool Peter Lougheed sat on his empire of oil and became  a national figure. His successor, the unlettered Ralph Klein, knew every national journalist in the country because he took them all to his hotel pub.

           Beaming Tommy Douglas was known everywhere for making his Saskatchewan redoubt the only socialist oasis in all North America . Duff Roblin ran Manitoba . Bill Davis, running fat and smug Ontario , was on a par with Ottawa ’s leaders. (And The Tiny Perfect Mayor, David Crombie, charmed Toronto with flashbulbs following him wherever he went in the land.)

          Jean Lesage, who tried to keep Quebec together, and Rene Levesque, who tried to tear it apart, were towering national figures, on the front pages all the time. Even the lowly Maritimes contributed. Nova Scotia produced the sage and silent Robert Stanfield for the national stage, to the delight of the press cartoonists. Dick Hatfield, unmarried, undefeated for four terms and a fixture at every important Ottawa cocktail party, made little New Brunswick a player. Every Canadian knew Joey Smallwood, his hat and his oratory and through that his Newfoundland .

          Today? In the smothering world of 24/7 coverage? Ask any average intelligent Canadian to name the premiers and you get a blank stare.

          Out on the Pacific, the name Gordon Campbell may be known, but not the man. He never travels Canada . Could not be picked out of a police line-up. No one can spell the name of Alberta ’s premier, whose use of English turns it into a second language.

         The name of the new Saskatchewan premier is Brad Something. Or perhaps Brent. Manitoba ? Who knows? Who cares? Ontario ’s cipher has been mentioned. In Quebec , for the first time, the incumbent has disappeared, Jean Charest so nervous in his minority peril that he never travels, and is as unknown as Campbell nationally.

        Who has ever heard of the premiers of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island ? Only the Noisy Newf, Danny Williams, who had the wit to become a millionaire before becoming premier, lets us know The Rock is still there.

            But the invisibility factor flows from the capital. Thanks to the grim hand of Harper, the most puzzling PM since Mackenzie King, not a single Conservative cabinet minister in the front bench (hello there, C.D. Howe) has a national profile. By a poll of all MPs, Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff was voted the finest orator in the Commons. How often is he loosed on the public?

            Last week our anti-social leader of the land boycotted Ottawa’s gala Politics and the Pen banquet where 50 Canadian authors dined with 59 MPs and senators.This humourless, unlikeable Prime Minister has just confirmed that he will again (only PM to do so) refuse to attend the annual Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner, wherein the scribes and the pols can laugh at each other.

            One feels such empathy for these poor Canadian kids headed for Europe this spring.

   www.drfoth.com   drfoth@sympatico.ca

 Fotheringham – May 5, 2008