Last post of 2016, so I’m expected to recap the whole year in 1000 words or less. Staying away from American politics will keep it under control:
Best Event for Canada, Worldwide:
Canada’s return to prominence in the world political and social arena. We have been lucky (or smart) to struggle out of our neo-conservative dictatorial (are you listening, Justin?) isolationist period before the rest of the developed countries dove into theirs. So we are in a position to take an even stronger lead on the international scene. Let’s make the best of it.
Best Event in Canada:
I won’t give the man’s name any undeserved ink, but back in the spring a nasty bully couldn’t be convicted of his sexual crimes because of the usual inequities of the law. However, he was completely disgraced and his career ended in tatters. Which is poetic justice, because he used his career as a tool to commit his crimes. Score one for the little people!
Runner Up:
Canada’s Performance in the Olympics. Score one for the little country! (Well, population-wise, anyway.)
Worst Event in Canada:
The Liberal Party’s campaign promise to reform the electoral system has gone down in flames and up in smoke (and mirrors?), and is ready to be tossed on the scrap heap of ideas that sounded good, but we can trash them now that we’ve won the election.
Worst Situation that Isn’t an Event:
The Liberal’s handling of the paid political access scandal. They have to scrap this abomination to democracy sooner or later, but they’re waiting until they’ve filled the party coffers, first. What could be sleazier?
Now that I think of it, it will be even slimier when they are finally forced to outlaw the practice, and then they claim the moral high ground for doing so.
Worst Event, Worldwide:
The Battle for Aleppo.
No, the Battle for Mosul.
No, the whole damn situation in the Middle East. There’s nothing special going on there this year that hasn’t been happening for the past 10 years. Many of the refugee women I talk to have lost family members to the war, some more than one child. Mostly to random terrorist attacks rather than outright war, but I doubt that matters much to a grieving mother.
And there’s a whole lot of the same stuff happening in Africa, but the media hasn’t got around to telling us about it.
Happiest Political Leader:
Vladimir Putin. He’s winning a war, he’s kept his buddy on his warm-water throne, and he’s got a new puppet to manipulate in his schemes of world domination. And I don’t mean Assad.
Second Happiest Political Leader:
Queen Elizabeth II. She has finally decided to semi-retire and let her son start taking on some of his future duties (at an age where most people are already retired). Gotta be the longest apprenticeship in history. Which might put Charles in the running for Third Happiest. Or not.
Saddest Political Leader:
Angela Merkel. She has done all the right things for all the right reasons, and the tide of history has temporarily turned against her. I hope she doesn’t stand for election next year, or 2017 will be even sadder. Germany needs to share its country with immigrants, but some of its people can’t face it.
Worst Continuing Problem:
Don’t think that the European refugee problem is over. There are still millions in refugee camps who don’t want to go home. Many can’t. Most of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees I have talked to, especially the Christian ones, cannot go back, and couldn’t regain their homes there if they did.
Happiest Person in Canadian Politics:
Rona Ambrose, because the Conservative Party is imploding, and if she thought of running for the leadership, now she can’t.
Second Happiest Person in Canadian Politics:
Tom Mulcair, because for the next few years he is going to get many chances to say, “I told you so,” which is what he does best.
Best Political News in Canada:
The Liberals using cooperative and collaborative legislative and other procedures to make progress on the assisted suicide law, interprovincial health agreements, and carbon taxing.
Worst Political News in Canada:
The Liberals using dictatorial and objectionable legislative and other procedures to stall progress on electoral reform and party fundraising reform.
Best of a Bad Job:
The Liberals’ handling of the pipeline issue. Potentially the most divisive and vote-losing issue they are faced with. But they stickhandled adroitly. They cancelled Northern Gateway (a no-brainer) and gave Enbridge the other pipeline refurbishment as a sop. They approved Kinder Morgan, while setting a moratorium on tanker traffic on the north coast, promising big bucks for marine safety in the Salish Sea and recently setting a moratorium on oil drilling over a wide swath of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. A large majority of Canadians will accept the compromises.
Sure, there are still people who want no pipelines at all, but the will isn’t there in the rest of Canada. Even in the rest of B. C. We still want to drive our gas guzzlers, and we’re willing to take the risk.
Most Important Milestone:
The end of the Columbian Revolution, the last war in the Western Hemisphere. Deaths from violence of all sorts continue to decline, worldwide. If we manage to get on track before global warming throws us back to subsistence living, we might just make it, as a species.
And in Canada?
Not much Canadian news this year, because we spent the whole time watching the horror shows elsewhere, on this continent and around the world. Which is pretty much how things tend to go for Canada, a small country punching above its weight in many aspects of world politics. May we continue to be a leader in all the good directions in the coming years.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and happiness for the whole world.