Napalm In The Morning

My Blackberry crashed on my first day in Rome last week and I was woefully disconnected.  Arriving back in Ottawa last evening, the town was rife with election rumor.I’m not politically savvy at all, but I know that Michael Ignatieff will say “no” to an election, if the PM will just answer some clear questions.  Most of the reasons are obvious.  The public doesn’t want one.  Liberals aren’t yet ready.  With the isotope crisis and a struggling economy, we should keep trying to make government work.But I have learned from spending time with Mr. Ignatieff over the last two years that he grows frustrated with this “politics for the sake of politics” stuff.  The last time we spoke he ruminated on the emptiness of just having an election for an election’s sake.  But he also understood that many in the Liberal caucus are sincerely fearful of the effects of the bungled management of the isotope crisis or the inevitable foolishness of spending endless amounts of cash for the sake of looking like you’re doing something.  Death and taxes – these are things that will likely result from cancer patients denied treatment or the taxes Mr. Harper will eventually need to raise if he hopes to crawl out of repeated deficits.  His upcoming environmental plan will have to raise carbon taxes – he knows it, the media knows, and so do Canadians - but nobody wants to deal with that issue seriously right now.But the swords are out; people are gaming for the Big One.  It all reminds me of Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, standing astride his young soldiers as the helicopters fly into battle overhead.  Everyone is scared to death, but not this guy.  As a terrified and confused Martin Sheen looks up through the smoke at Duvall, he listens in astonishment as the General sniffs in the air and utters: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”  It was a moment filled with so much irony and stupidity that it became iconic in Hollywood.There are people surrounding all the party leaders right now who are just like this, loving the smell of the fight and wanting to go just for the sake of the battle.  They whisper in their leader’s ear that now is the time to strike, lest they lose the opportunity.  Opportunity for what?  To work together on Chalk River?  To combine our efforts for the sake of the almost half-million who lost their jobs since the recession started?  To work out a solid piece of policy that will see us properly lead the way at the upcoming Copenhagen meetings on the environment?Because of such influence, the characters in Apocalypse Now all went crazy in a war they ultimately lost for lack of clear and moral direction.  Michael Ignatieff knows that and distrusts this kind of rationale.  Canadians right now are smelling the lake at the cottage, the anger of lost EI benefits, or the fear of untreated cancer symptoms.  Politics in Canada at present hardly needs the “turks” standing amidst this chaos and overlooking the mayhem they are creating.  Napalm, schmapalm.  We need good governance and patience, not toy soldiers devoid of reality.  Michael Ignatieff will not go to war on such misguided advice, unless Stephen Harper fails to give an account this week.  For inspiration, Ignatieff looks to Lester Pearson, not Marlon Brando.  Count on it.