Essays in Idleness

It is getting more and more difficult for me to dislike Donald Trump, for he seems intent upon destroying everything I want destroyed, including, most particularly, the Government of Canada. I hesitate over the man’s Republicanism, however, because I remain a dyed-in-the-wool Monarchist. But it doesn’t have to be the British monarchy; and I understand that our American cousins still “have a problem with” George IIIrd, and his being “mad,” and everything. I, rather, enjoyed his eccentricities, although King Alfred was more to my tastes, and his location in history — eleven-plus centuries into the past — is more comforting.

I am an economics hobbyist, and one of the greatest appeals of Trump is his businesslike approach to taxes. He wants to put an end to them, as soon as possible, and would extinguish the Income and Corporate Taxes sooner. Perhaps it is true, that America could get by with a few juicy tariffs, and now that aircraft carriers are proving unnecessary (the world can be controlled with drones), considerable savings come into view. Indeed, the only bills Trump really needs to pay are the instalments on the 36 trillion of U.S. national debt, and he has invented a crypto coin to take care of that.

But I promised to discuss politics in my title for today’s post, and as the reader will know, modern politics means, exclusively, elections.

In the last moments before our sovereignty is surrendered to the United States, I am looking for a “net zero” race up here. (Jordan Peterson has patented this phrase.) That means, net zero seats in the Canadian House of Commons for the N.D.P., and net zero for the Liberals. I think about five for the Bloc Québécois, and maybe one for the Greenies in British Columbia. That will leave 332 seats for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, or only 331 should the Liberals retain the one seat in Ottawa they have never, ever lost, no matter what the species of their candidate.

Note, I was the only “journalist” who correctly predicted that Kim Campbell’s party would be reduced (from a large majority) to precisely TWO seats in the 1993 general election. And yet I don’t charge for my prognostications.