Poor Canada! We have a Prime Minister, a died in the wool conservative who hasn't a progressive bone in his body, but can change colours like a chameleon in a minute to retain his hold on power, and then we have a leader of the opposition, respected for his erudition, his published works and his academic career, who supported the Iraq war and whose book The Lesser Evil spoke of pre-emptive war, assassination and torture. We must traffic in evil to fight evil, he says. Sorry, Iggy, go bury your head, we've had too much of that shit. I've mentioned before that I'm not too fond of academic types as a result of having worked with a few. This is not to say that they're all mutton heads, but I'm wary of them.

So, which is the lesser evil, Harper or Ignatieff? One is as devious as the other, and just as much a chameleon. Iggy has no chance of defeating the government without the help of the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. Both of these parties know that an election would squeeze them out, so Ignatieff, despite being right-of-center, is pushing for an employment insurance policy (nine weeks of work would qualify for benefits) which, if brought to a confidence vote, these two left-wing parties would be forced to support. The parry and thrust should be interesting. I'm not too sure that the nine weeks to qualify is a good idea, but it certainly is opportunistic.

So again, which is the lesser evil? Perhaps Ignatieff, because he has a Liberal Party behind him which he could never dominate the way Harper has done with his crowd. And Liberals are far too pragmatic to support crap. Nonetheless, I can't look forward to an Ignatieff administration with any great degree of comfort. Oh, whatever happened to the old Progressive Conservative Party?; it had its nut-cakes, but also a few decent people.