Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.

Mark Twain

I came across this quote the other day tattooed upon a young man’s leg at Operation Trackshoes at UVIC, and it struck me as rather pertinent to politics generally and particularly those in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate.

Let’s face it, the constant squabbling, backstabbing and partisan jabs that take place are indeed laughable.   The concept that debate, questions period and most members statements should be taken seriously are indeed laughable.  Debate in the House isn’t debating any more it is reading prepared statements in a restricted time frame and does not represent the opinions, desires or requests of the people of Canada which no longer matter, indeed they have not mattered for aeons.

These petty statements about the previous or current governments, their failings, shortcomings, or absurdity is laughable.  When a member of the previous government complains about something done numerous times by their government now being done against them it is not constructive but laughably petty.   Is this what we pay them for?   When the current government complains that the previous government didn’t do something that is also petty and indeed laughable. Again is that what we pay for and demand?  Do we demand anything from those who we pay so well to represent us?  Is democracy really alive and well in Canada? Again that concept of laughter shows what a mockery the Canadian Parliament has become, and we have lost that ability to laugh long and loud at their pathetic proceedings.  If we can rediscover that ability to laugh at and mock these overpaid caucus puppets just maybe they will feel as stupid as they appear and make some effort to change and actually represent us, but do not hold your breath, laugh instead!.

A perfect example of this is the so-called oral questions, or question period, held daily in the House of Commons.  This has become an exercise in open personal slandering under the guise of asking a question and then naturally being given a completely “non-answer” response.  If this sort of behaviour had occurred in the schools I attended as a youth I would have been disciplined immediately.  However, these “children” get away with it every day.  We have been conditioned to accept this as serious not as a joke and so we forget to laugh out loud at this behaviour by these adults.

Instead of taking them seriously we must start to laugh at them.   How long will they continue to act this way if they understand they are being treated as jokes?

Currently, we have a problem with the President of the USA and we take what he tweets or says seriously. Like any bully or a bad-tempered ignorant man he cannot stand to be laughed at, and yet no one does.  Witness the recent meeting of the G7 prior to which Trump complained that Russia should have been included when he is front and center in creating sanctions against that country and could he really want to face Putin across the table?  I doubt it. Yep, that is truly laughable to think about.  His blustering, lack of courage to say face to face what he thinks, to be stated later in some stupid tweet is indeed the sign of a bully.  Why are we simply not laughing in his face?  What can he do that he is not doing already?  He alone is causing chaos all around the world, not face to face but by caustic tweets and sanctions.  Those are the actions of a real man?  

The way our government reacts is submissive.

NAFTA should be scrapped, we should refuse to export our lumber products there and put tariffs on everything from chewing gum to Boeing aircraft made in the USA.  The way to deal with a bully is not to surrender to his bluffing, but to respond in like manner. Turning the other cheek leads to a second bruised cheek.

 I hear the cry that we cannot survive by doing this and that our economy will collapse.  What nonsense.  Our economy has been recently created to revolve around oil, and now we have put ourselves in a position where we are dependent on the USA buying our oil – especially our bitumen -, refining it and sending it back to us as a finished product at a huge profit to them.  Yes, we have backed ourselves into a hole through FTA and NAFTA but that hole is our own doing as we continue to keep NAFTA on the basis that we need it to survive. 

Really? 

How well did we do prior to FTA?  How well did we do before we gave control of our resources and economy to foreign entities? How well did we do before we succumbed to the siren call of globalization?  How well did we do before we hamstrung our farmers or sold off our shares in CWB, CP or CN or Petro Canada?  We have the ability to trade with the world but we have tied ourselves to the scraps that the USA passes our way. 

That is economically sound?  Laughable indeed!

 We need to be able to laugh at ourselves too and understand that we are soo much more than we currently have become.  I learned early on that if I was not able to laugh at myself and my foibles then I could not expect others to laugh when I made fun of them.

 Laughter is very powerful and as Mark Twain said it conquers all.   We should remember to try it more often, and more importantly, teach our children to laugh too.

 When you stagger out of bed tomorrow look in the mirror and smile, and you will get an instant response from your image and I guarantee it will make you feel better and might even have you laughing out loud with your image if you let it.

It is OK to wake up laughing so why not laugh all day long at those who deserve it, including yourself?

Jeremy