Politics in Canada

[kiki_eng]

There's federal election talk happening right now in Canada. Iggy's on tour and stakes are being sharpened in party offices across the country*, so it seems like a good time to do a post about Canadian politics.

I am going to lead with the most hilarious. There's a film coming out called Mulroney: The Opera. Yes, really. (More detail) Brian Mulroney was the Prime Minister of Canada 1984-1993. He is famous for economic reforms, failed constitutional reforms and accepting cash payment in discreet brown paper bags. The film looks terribly** Canadian.

Stephen Harper (PM) performed what was at least a five song set at the Conservative Christmas party as keyboardist and lead singer. There is video available online here. [I find this hilarious because I imagine the resulting small talk between Harper and his inferiors. (The Prime Minister holds a tremendous amount of power and caucus is acknowledged to be a place of ass-kissing.)]

*For lawn signs, and probably not actually, I suspect they come in stake form, but I like the imagery, okay? I know that a fair amount of metal gets used these days instead of wood, too, but I am sure that there are still wee piles of stakes in corners - your local constituency office: for all your vampire-staking needs. I actually suspect that they would be somewhat unwieldy, but they would be a good start, okay?
**word choice deliberate

There's an old song called Hockey Night in Canada by The Brothers-In-Law* that has a few lines about the inflated importance of hockey in Canada - "we're the only country governed by the National Hockey League" and "if war broke out on Saturday we'd keep it off the screen". It's on the five dollar bill. It's an official thing. I mention all this because sometimes I'm thrown by how linked Canadian politics and hockey are, watching an Olympic game and seeing crowd footage of Stephen Harper sitting next to Wayne Gretzky or watching George Stroumboulopoulos use his final question to the Leader of the Official Opposition to ask about the NHL**. Last year Georges Laraque, a former NHLer, was named a Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada. sinesofinsanity had a post at that time about that and other incidents of hockey and political overlap past and present. There's also a recent article about that intersection; it's an interesting topic.

*1960s Canadian political satire
**this was last night, actually - here

Parliamentary reform is also an interesting topic. There's been discussion (and indeed referenda) for some time about changing from the first-past-the-post electoral method. Elizabeth May* did an interview with Jian Ghomeshi on Q a couple of years ago talking about a need for reform in Canadian government, about partisan politics, about electoral reform and about civility (or a lack thereof) in parliament. The Agenda with Steve Paikin had an episode in June called The Loss of Civility in Parliament/Michael Chong: Rethinking Question Period** that has some interesting discussion and clips. Michael Chong introduced a motion*** to reform Question Period, the committee for which is apparently set to report early this April.

I'm reading Great Questions of Canada right now. It's interesting so far, and actually what sparked this post - Michael Chong gets thanked along with a number of others in the acknowledgements and there was this sense of "Aha! You! Again!" and then Iggy writes the second point of view for the first question and his politician is showing.

*Leader of the Green Party of Canada
**The episode is viewable online there.
***some details here and here

Unrelatedly, I went and saw Frankenstein at the cinema. I kept catching myself grinning at it.