You know, it is an odd political season here in Canada. We have an old government but a new Prime Minister. We just had a new Speech from the Throne (which was likened to a statement of purpose for a business, but that's another Blog topic) and much of the rhetoric in it seems nice and special, but so much of it also seems the same old thing again.

Maybe Speeches from the Throne are supposed to be like a wedding? 'Something old, something new, something bold, something blue...' (did I get that right?) Well if the quote is right, and I think that it is, well, there is certainly much old, some new, bold might be an overstatement but something blue....well when it comes to the political realm, something blue would be Tory, which is NOT supposed to be Liberal (here in Canada). But then tonight I read on the CBC News page (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/02/herron_040202) about yet ANOTHER Tory (er - Conservative) who is seriously considering crossing the floor to join the Liberal party. This turncoat, Mr. John Herron (nameless and faceless until now and forthwith for sure) seems to be selling his soul and certainly his seat to the Liberals for the song of a 'strong commitment to post secondary education' Maybe he should have added apple pie?

I just wonder why the microphones didn't pick up on his 'pick me.....PLEASE' line...

Some things are so pathetic and scary all at the same moment. We have a Conservative party that is too blue for its own ELECTED members, and we have a Liberal party that is blue enough to attract Conservatives like flies to...well you know. The ironic thing is that there has yet to be a single defection from the Liberal party to any other party. Sure, many MANY of the 'old Guard' have declared that they will not run in the upcoming election, which echoes of Brian Mulroney's old guard jumping ship as it began to take on water. The main difference here is the fact that while Mulroney was reviled across the land by 1993, and nobody NOBODY could have saved that ship, we have no similar sinking happening to an equally-old Liberal administration that has just been re-captained and very potently re-floated to the utterances of Bono himself.

Everybody knows that the next election will be a Liberal cake-walk. It is a fait-accompli, similarly as the 'leadership race' was pre-scripted, yet the Tories keep jumping. Maybe it is an old habit, but they haven't learned that the other half of this old habit is the lack of re-election when a jump occurs.

So, a toast to Canada's Blue Liberals, the conservative party that Tories prefer 2-1.