Cultureguru’s Weblog

I’m late to this topic, but I did want to say that I am surprised, and pleased, that Canadians defied the experts and actually noticed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament, even though he did this during the Christmas holidays. And having noticed, that they didn’t like it. His poll numbers have fallen. Anti-prorogation Facebook groups continue to grow. Protests are planned for next weekend.

I also appreciate the journalists who pointed out that apart from the much-publicized goal of evading questions on Afghanistan, and adding Conservatives to the Senate, they are also delaying no less than three commissions probing areas that could prove embarrassing to them, such as campaign spending. It also killed all the bills in currently in progress. While I don’t much care whether that they killed their own fairly dubious crime bills, I do feel kind of bad for those diligent MPs whose private member bills also go back to square one now.

I say this even though I’m aware that it may not make that much difference in the long run. Canadians aren’t warming that much to Ignatieff either, so the next election is still the Conservatives to lose. Heck, they could even get a majority—who knows. Our democratic system has a lot of flaws. But it’s nice that not everyone has completely given up on it, regardless. I think Rick Salutin said it best:

Lorne Gunter says in the National Post that most Canadians today couldn’t tell you if Parliament is in session, and he’s probably right. But most Canadians don’t watch the CBC, either, yet they often want it there, just to prove the country and its culture exist. The same for Parliament: It proves democracy exists. I think most people sense it’s a pile of political pretense that is only minimally democratic, and that elections are what they give us instead of a real democracy in which we’d have a genuine say.

But why shut it down? At least it’s a token acknowledgment of what we deserve. And even as a pile, it is the achievement of centuries of popular political contestation, from the Magna Carta through the Chartists, the Canadian rebellions of 1837-38, the women’s suffrage movement etc. These are historic, if half-assed, victories that ought to be built on, not trampled on.

Canada went to war twice for “democracy.” Today, Canadians come back from Afghanistan dead to protect our democratic values and way of life. Do the Harperites think nobody gives a damn when you defecate all over those values, even if it’s a symbolic defecation over symbolic values and a largely symbolic way of life? Democracy isn’t just practical, it’s aspirational. It’s about trying to exert some control over your life, individually and collectively. Otherwise, what’s the point of a life? People draw a line, maybe more so when it’s about symbols, because once those are gone, there’s nothing left to take pride in and hold out hope for. So don’t treat our Parliament as a piece in your private chess game of power, eh? Show respect.

Must admit, when I first looked at Waterloo’s public square — built after much wailing and gnashing of teeth over lost parking spaces — that it wasn’t what I was expecting. It was just a big slab of concrete.

See what I mean?

So of course it became overrun by skateboarders, which has caused many complaints. But, as many have pointed out, what else are you going to do on that thing? It pretty much does look like a big old skateboard park.

A recent Record editorial pointed out what I hadn’t quite realized, and am somewhat relieved about, which is that this is just the first phase of this thing. There is supposed to be more stuff, like trees, and “bistro-style” tables, and a skating rink. Actually, I found a picture:

(And more pictures at http://urbanitydesign.wordpress.com/category/waterloo/).

In the meantime, though, I don’t know that it makes so much sense to ban skateboarding completely, especially when that’s going to cost $50,000 to $100,000 year in security. Wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on finishing the thing, so it’s no longer just a skateboard slab?

And in the meantime, I kind of like this suggestion:

However it came to be, let us accept and indeed glory in our new skateboard park. We can have skateboard festivals and competitions. We can host conferences on skateboarding. We could become a world leader in skateboarding culture.

Perhaps we can be called the “Most Intelligent City on Wheels”.

So some months ago, a blue-chip corporate advisory panel recommend the following tax policies to the Ontario government:

• Reducing corporate taxes
• Imposing a carbon tax
• Harmonizing the PST and GST

At the time, all were dismissed by Dwight Duncan, Liberal Finance Minister. And I thought of posting on it at the time, that it was sort of unfortunate they were ignoring that advice.

Now that the situation has changed, I guess I owe some kudos. Especially as I see all the commentary and poll numbers about the sales tax harmonization as a “tax grab”. This isn’t going to be popular.

Now it isn’t, from what I can tell, actually a tax increase for the government overall, as it’s being combined with lower corporate and personal taxes.

But the government is not going to get any credit for that. People will notice paying the PST on things they didn’t have to before, and they won’t notice that their pay cheque (if they still get one) is now a little bigger (unless it isn’t for other reasons).

So, it was kind of a brave move.

Don’t want to overstate that—they do have the comfort of fairly weak opposition parties at the moment, and they were able to defuse criticism by keeping the PST off hot-button items like books, tampons, and diapers. And of course, all those cheques most will be getting that first year.

Still. Going from 0 to 2 out 3 ain’t bad. (Got that song in your head now?)