That being said, there is some of the same fundamentalist spirit in Canada, but it is not nearly as rabid, nor is there enough of it to make it effective as a political lobby. There is a curious streak of religious patriotism in the States that Canadians generally find disturbing and foreign, even if their personal beliefs are very similar to their American neighbours.

The Bush administration has drawn much of the same sort of fire that other right-of-centre governments have in other jurisdictions. Margaret Thatcher in GB, for example. Her memoires are fascinating and elightening reading. And it is fascinating to read her discuss the vision and principles that led to the formation of many of her unpopular policies.

And I suppose that that is what dismays me about the current state of Canadian politics. What I admire about leaders (dare I say Statesmen) like Thatcher, Trudeau, and Regan is that they had a vision for their country; they forumlated policy and legislation to help bring about that vision, and they worked effectively given their political institutions to make that vision a reality.

The past several Liberal governments have had as their vision (it seems to me), a desire to remain in power at all costs. They are not formulating policy based on the best interests of the country, but of their government. That is not to say that they havn’t had any good ideas, but the fact that they trot out those good ideas on the eve of an election makes one cynical about the timing. I’m glad that they are working for immigration reform (to use an example from the last few weeks), but couldn’t they have worked as hard, and spent as much money on immigration reform last year? The message that this timing sends is that the Liberals care first about their own political skins, and second about Canadians.

Now, I am cynical enough to think that the Conservatives may well be no different, but idealistic enough to hope otherwise.

Second, Republican != religious right. It is true that the Republicans must pander to some degree to the religious right, but the leadership is hardly monolithically fundamentalist. Bush is a Methodist, for example, hardly an hotbed of wild-eyed radicalism.

Third, what exactly are the “Republicans and religious right” doing wrong down in the states? Give examples.

Finally, I would disagree that our country is in any way “great” any more. It was great in World War II, when it had the second-largest Navy in the world and the moral courage to stand up to tyranny.

Now we’re a Third World banana republic whose leaders’ families take kickbacks from Saddam Hussein. (Jean Chretien’s brother-in-law is a major shareholder in what was the French oil company TotalFinaElf, which was a major player in the oil-for-food clusterfuck.)

That our military is marginalized and starved, and still manages to do yeoman service in the interests of peace and combatting terrorism around the world, should make us ashamed.