The night before the election: what we can expect

Imagine a government that doesn't operate for the benefit of a handful of CEOs and international investors.

A government that cultivates the best in its citizens, that represents everything good and decent and caring about the nation it serves.

A government that recognizes that as humans, we are all fallible, but that as citizens, we have obligations both to one another and to something bigger than ourselves.

A government that values and preserves all the myriad threads that tie us together, that allow us to pool our efforts and act collectively for the greater good.

A government that safeguards our right to disagree with one another, and with the institutions of government itself.

A government that sees us as intelligent thoughtful adults, and speaks to us, with us, and for us accordingly.

A government that aspires to reflect the better angels of our nature.

In return, all that's asked of us is genuine engagement, thoughtful participation, and a commitment to something beyond ourselves: our neighbours, our communities, our society, our country. Both we and the institutions we build share and reflect certain values: democracy, stewardship, transparency, decency, accountability, citizenship, civic engagement, civil society, fundamental freedoms, civil discourse, and mutual support and respect. This is our character. This is who we are.

This isn't some idealistic fantasy. This is something we have a right to expect.

Tomorrow, let's go out and get it.

A question for @davidakin

Word is, you're supposed to be a respected journalist.

OK then. Hypothetical question for you.

A little rhetorical aikido for the slimebags at Sun Media

At least I think that's the appropriate analogy. As I understand it, it's one of the gentler martial arts, based on redirecting your opponent's attack and turning the energy back upon him, rather than meeting it head-on.

Just another sleaze job from the Toronto Police

The source of Sun Media's latest steaming pile is an unnamed, retired cop.

Poor guy. What with all the unprovoked assaults on handcuffed prisoners, threats of gang rape, and the laff riot his pals must have enjoyed when they ripped a guy's prosthetic leg off and ordered him to hop into the paddy wagon, he must have been feeling left out.

Stay classy, guys.

Related posts:

• What are we paying these people for?
• The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety
• Cops with cameras, or cops on camera? A modest proposal

Coyne posts the best tweet of the election

... and in the process, delivers an unanswerable indictment of the depths to which public discourse has been allowed to sink.

Related posts:

• Let's hear from a couple of Sun News Network fans
• @SueAnnLevy in her own words
• Elizabeth May excluded? What Coyne said
• More Sun readers speak ...
• Let's hear from another Sun reader ...

Election, final week: All right, all right. A small measure of hope

Leavened, as always, by a heapin' helpin' of caution.

The polls, to the extent that they can be relied upon, continue to show a surge in the support for the NDP, to the consternation of both the traditional parties. Bay Street, apparently, is shitting its drawers. And the gutter press is all but disappearing up its own ass in a desperate attempt to make a smear stick.

"Find new ways to protect Parliament?" WTF?

I'm sorry, dear Globe editorialists, your lips are moving and there are sounds coming out, but I can't understand what you're saying.

Stephen Harper's government has done more to damage Parliament and hamper its functions than any other government in Canadian history.

Misrepresenting and distorting the simple truth about parliamentary conventions.

Issuing instruction manuals for sabotaging the work of parliamentary committees.

Withholding information from Parliament and spinning the demand for it as partisan gaming.

Proroguing for spurious and contrived reasons.

Time and space simply don't permit me to go into the detail this requires, but with this editorial the Globe has demonstrated where its loyalties truly lie.

Related posts:

• Don't know who won the debates, but that's a short-term question
• Cue the whining about the left-wing media
• Are stories unflattering to Harper being pulled from corporate-media websites?