"History doesn't repeat itself," Mark Twain wrote, "but it rhymes." This week, in the House of Commons and in Quebec, politicians were replaying golden oldies. Susan Delacourt writes:
Here was interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose, for example, telling reporters on Monday why people in the West were getting fired up about Energy East.
“I’m hearing from Albertans, and from people in Saskatchewan, that this is just like the (National Energy Program),” Ambrose said at the Monday news conference. “That’s what they say. That this is just like back in the 80s when the last government … put strict measures in place that deflated the Alberta and Saskatchewan and British Columbia economy, that affected the resources sector.”
And Denis Cordere, the Mayor of Montreal and a former Liberal MP, was channelling separatist ghosts from the past:
Though Coderre is a federalist, on this issue he’s on-side with Quebec separatists, who have cast the Energy East pipeline as an unwanted intrusion by the rest of Canada into the province — kind of like the 1981 Constitution.
“Independence is also being able to say no to a pipeline,” a spokesman for Parti Québecois leader Pierre-Karl Péladeau said last year about Energy East. “Like all the other bad decisions taken by the government in Ottawa.”
The reason one studies history is to avoid the mistakes of the past, not to repeat them. But, when we exorcize ghosts we may well repeat those mistakes.
4 comments:
.. did Rawna Ambrose actually whine that nobody is standing up for Albertans ? I hope she was not too obvious while looking towards the empty seat near the closest exit. That would be the place where Calgary Heritage's constituents elected MP, is expected to fulfill his Parliamentary duty to represent their needs, dreams and wishes.. Whether other Albertans held some hope a former Prime Minister claiming he's a 'westerner' would also care enough about their varied concerns is open to conjecture. Bottom line though is Stephen Harper is not standing up for Albertans.. or Canadians. He is silent, missing in action and does not care to explain himself to anyone.. An exemplar? I think not! A glowing heart Canadian? Not! A worthy or Honorable Member of Parliament portraying any iota of courage, selflessness or interest in public service? No, sorry.. found wanting ..
It's interesting how quickly he has disappeared, salamander. You can't represent your constituents if you're not there.
Somehow the rank hypocrisy of Rona's plaint is being overlooked by the usual suspects, Owen. Where were the feds when Ontario was seeking support for building the infrastructure to develop the North's ring of fire? Oh, I forgot. Stephen Harper was behaving in his usual petty way because he was somehow offended by our province's political stripes.
"Rank hypocrisy." Exactly, Lorne. And there's not even a hint of embarrassment.
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