The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The most amazing thing about Canada Ð while in turmoil over Quebec wanting to break up the best country in the world (United Nations stats) Ð is that it has been ruled for over the last half-century, basically, by lawyers from Quebec. We go back to the Right Honorable Louis Stephen St. Laurent, prime minister Ð picked by the goofy Mackenzie King Ð from Nov. 15, 1948 to June 21, 1957. A Montreal lawyer. Under a somewhat brief interregnum during the Pearson/Dief battles of minority governments, there appeared in 1968 yet another Montreal lawyer at 24 Sussex Drive, one Pierre Trudeau. He was succeeded by John Turner, who though born in England and raised in British Columbia, was first elected to the House of Commoners from a riding in Montreal, where he was practicing law Ð before moving to an Ottawa riding and eventually Vancouver. There then came along another Montreal lawyer, one Brian Mulroney, who won his place at Sussex Drive on one deadly line to Turner in their TV debate: "Sir, you had an option,"Ð in response to Trudeau's sloppy last-minute patronage appointments. Hello there, Alfonso Gagliano. Followed, of course after the Kim Campbell disaster, by yet another Quebec lawyer, one Jean Chretien. And now we've got young Martin, the sixth Quebec lawyer in the last 56 years who have run the country. It is why those of us who were born on the Flat Prairie, think it would be fairly interesting if the prim Stephen Harper actually became a non-Quebec lawyer to become Pee-Em. There have only been two others in our short history. There was Dief the Chief of course. And, before him, The Rt. Hon R.B. Bennett, Alberta's pride, Aug. 7, 1930 to Oct. 23. 1935. Who had the bad fortune to coincide with the Depression in the Dirty Thirties, where it didn't rain on the Prairies for three years (I happened to be there, six months old Ð so I noticed it.) And, what killed him as prime minister, the farmers who voted him into office in the first place, couldn't even afford to buy gas and had their donkeys pulling their Ford pick-up trucks and dubbed them 'Bennett-Buggies' Ð which the cartoonists loved. He fled, in despair, to England, got a title and died in his bathtub. We wish a better fate, for Mister Harper, who is a man rather hard to warm to, but the brainy Mister Martin has had the worst honeymoon start since Joe Clark, who could never understand that you shouldn't call a vote of confidence unless you have the votes. Conclusion: There will be no spring election. PM Martin may not be bright, but his pollsters are. See 'Hockey' P.# Con't from P.# X x x AND ANOTHER THING The strangest thing, in the strange hockey world, is that the only intellectual in the sport Ð Toronto Maple Leafs president Ken Dryden, a graduate lawyer and Hall of Fame goaltender Ð at a week's symposium says that his game is "at a crisis" because of the violence. Why then, if he believes this, does he not order coach Pat Quinn to get rid of the hired thugs like Tie Domi? X x x QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Hydro One certainly received value for money, reflecting my experience and expertise over the years." Ð Michael Gourley, a Tory insider who received $105,000 from Hydro One under an untendered contract for which the utility received only a one-page written record, Mr. Gourley being one of a small group of Ernie Eves operatives who shared $5.6 million untendered contracts at Hydro One to advise on privatization.
