…there was a delay in the delivery of my blog post.
I don’t have much to say about the speeches, other than this whole rumpus continues to remind me of May 2005. I kept expecting Harper to end his speech talking about how his father brought him to Parliament Hill as a child.
There was really nothing new in the speeches – they were basically 5 minute summaries of the talking points, attacks, and spin we’ve all spent every waking hour of the past week following intensely. In that respect, this may have been a good way to summarize the conflict for Canadians. One of the results of this whole ordeal will hopefully be a heightened understanding of our political system by the general population. I know I intend to slip the word “prorogue” into everyday conversation as much as possible over the next week or two!
Beyond that, I don’t have much to say. I had a drinking game where I took a shot every time Harper said “separatist”, so I was pretty tanked by the time the other leaders came on (if only I’d watched his speech in French, I’d have stayed perfectly sober!). I was hoping against hope that Harper would speak in a conciliatory tone, apologize, and offer a plan. I think that would have played well but, knowing this man, that was too much to expect.
As for Dion – good content but the webcam was a disaster. Maybe this is part of a grand fund raising plan and I’ll get a letter from Doug Ferguson tomorrow saying “donate now! help us buy a camcorder!“, but failing that, it was a mess-up that took away from an otherwise very well argued case.
So, tomorrow, Harper visits the Governor General. Presumably this trip is about more than looking over her vacation pictures.