Essays in Idleness

The Ottawa police chief is an embarrassment, but he seems to validly represent the more tight-assed ratepayers, who have objected to the honking of the big trucks; and the ratepayers are an embarrassment, too. (I’ve tried to warn my readers against the perils of democracy.) The chief cop’s theatrical effort to impound some fraction of the Freedom Convoy’s fuel supply, to demolish their food kitchens, and hand out tickets for things like not having licences on their garbage-collecting carts, is now on display. The nominal mayor of Ottawa, who apparently serves under the police chief, is another thoroughgoing jackass.

I once worked out of Ottawa myself; it is our national capital, I was told. And it is where I acquired my notion of the profound corruption that is brought to that town by the Liberal Party — who dominate its bureaucracies whether they are in or out of power. The arrogance, of the gliberal hot-shots, as well as their extravagant waste and incompetence, has left marks on all the Ottawa institutions, and a good place to begin a clean-up would be by “cancelling” the civil service. (They could be taught to load trucks, instead.)

Too, we should defund the municipal police, or more precisely, replace them. A new police force might possibly be funded just by selling off the spiffy vehicles of the old force (after the cost of repainting them), and their dapper “Zomo” riot gear might fetch a pretty penny in the costume shops.

The truckers have been polishing the streets, removing even cigarette butts and gum wrappers. They have been guarding the Terry Fox statue on Parliament Hill, and could be asked to mind all the other defunct worthies, and prominent slaveholders. (There weren’t any up here, as slavery was outlawed in Upper Canada from the start of the Loyalist settlement, but we can pretend.) Sir John A. Macdonald, our hard-drinking and politically incorrigible founding prime minister, may need special protection, now that his effigy has been “disappeared” from his home town of Kingston, Ont.

Voluntary truckers have been shovelling the snow off our war monuments, including our tomb of the unknown soldier. (In their enthusiasm, they were accused of dancing.) And they have been feeding the hungry downmarket types of the inner city, with hot dogs and other good things.

Like all modern towns, Ottawa is mostly vile and ugly, but unlike the worst, it has several exceptional buildings and fairly attractive (if over-planned) public spaces. By inviting the truckers to do the work city employees weren’t doing, the entire spillover urban region might be turned around, or at least tarted up. We should appoint a delegation of truckers to take over the National Capital Commission, and make some better choices for the National Gallery of Art.

For we haven’t seen genuine public spirit here in (central) Canada for a long time. We mustn’t overlook such a wonderful opportunity.