Blaming Harper For Canada's Mediocrity Is For Poo-Poo Heads

Seems we Canadians are once again up to our shocked tricks - Shocked! - with a CBC article detailing spots where Canada is lagging - like income inequality (whatever that means anymore) and poverty.

I've grown a tad tired of these lists. Been reading them since the 1980s and apart from the flawed Human Index chart, Canada has never led or been a standout in most categories. It's the same old song.

The country, as I've said in the past, wallows (by choice, it's a democracy you know) in splendid mediocrity.

Meh.

At least we're not American!

Actually, seeing what's going down in the States these days and their slaughtering of civil liberties at every god damn turn (license for picking your nose, to strip, banning sodas etc. the country has lost its fricken mind) from places like California, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, I'd say, Canada is doing ok on that front.

Which isn't saying much because we became a "social-democracy" long ago - though not as bad as Europe - yet. Quebec is, but not the rest of the country - yet.

In any event, blaming Harper is wrongheaded. For those of us old enough to remember, Canada has never really led in any of the categories mentioned in the article. Poverty has always been a major problem here. The welfare state made some dent in it but it persists. Montreal in particular is a leader among the major centers.

I remember back in school (yes, a while ago), our record on poverty and the environment was never exceptional. There was a rather large gap between our rhetoric and actions - which actually became a characteristic feature of the Liberals in the 1990s. Talk a good game but do little.

Even Foreign Policy magazine considered our peacekeeping commitments in the 1990s and 2000s (in a survey which I talked about a few years back) to be supbar.Under the Chretien liberals all three (poverty, environment and peacekeeping) of those were a soar spot. 

Crime? The survey looks at burglaries but doesn't mention rape and assault which is among the highest among the G7.

Education and health? The former has tended to be ok and hardly a five-star academic model but the latter persistently under performs those in the OECD. At this point you have to be a blind nationalist to not acknowledge the major problems facing public health.

Nice place to live but we're not a standard to match.

We have to do better.

We won't do better until we unleash our entrepreneurial instincts to innovate and quit living vicariously through politicians and the state.

But go ahead. Be childish and blame Harper like the boobs down south who do nothing but blame Bush all the time.

Whatever makes you feel better.