Canada's Political Insularity And Dean's Advice: Kill Bill

I love when I hear Quebecers - citizens and pundits alike - assert America is a "closed" and insular society. Talk about calling the kettle black. Sometimes I wonder if I live in a world purposely created by Franz Kafka.

America is, to my mind, the exact opposite. America (along with Canada of course) willingly absorbs people and ideas like no other nation on the planet.

Quebec is still in full "protect thy culture and language" mode. By this virtue, insularity comes as a by product with this choice.

Interestingly, America elected its first black President earlier this year and the city of Houston - the fourth largest city in America. Quick trivia: which city did it replace as the 4th largest metropolis? - is poised to elect an openly gay Mayoral candidate in Annise Parker. It's significant, I think, because it's in the state of Texas.

Canada, by contrast, has never elected a black or any ethnicity for that Prime Minister - not even a whiff. It had a woman in Kim Campbell as PM but does that really count? I'm still waiting for a rising star in the women's ranks.To be fair, in the MP ranks we seem to be doing ok but is it enough in relation to our cultural make up?

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Howard Deal, a physician, is calling on liberals to kill the Senate bill for health care reform. He claims there are more negatives in it than good.

At this point, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, if it passes, for the Democrats. They've calculated, I suppose, the morality component trumps everything. The more skeptical or cynical believe it simply sells out and makes the Democrats shills for the insurance companies.

In their calculations, they've determined health care reform comes before the economy.

That's called political suicide. Thinking "let's get health care out of the way and then move to the economy" is one big mistake.

For people jobs and the economy, in North America as a whole, will always come FIRST.

And rightfully so.