"If We Know Not The Nature of Things"

Would you have thought of it? I surely wouldn't have. I've lived an entire 60 years and never seen anything like it. I knew John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson, met Pierre Trudeau twice, had coffee with Brian Mulroney, dialogued with Joe Clark, talked politics with John Chretien, Africa with Paul Martin and families with Stephen Harper. And not once in any of that time had I ever considered that any one of these individuals would ever consider changing the "Government of Canada" to their name. Not once.What's become of this place? We've got a minister working on government letterhead in a naked attempt to lull the ethnic vote into some kind of false security. We have Conservative campaign officials playing a shell game that flouts Elections Canada rules and then has taxpayers coughing up almost a million dollars for the fun of just doing it. We have Conservative logos on stimulus signs and now we have the Government of Canada moniker getting changed to the "Harper Government." Not in my lifetime did I ever think I would see that. They've now done to the people's government what they did to the people's House when they prorogued it - twice. I repeat, I've known a number of PMs in my day. Some had big egos and some pondered their legacy incessantly. But none of those strong personalities would ever have considered placing their names above the country they were serving. Our soldiers didn't die in honour fighting for the Robert Borden government, and my Dad didn't get wounded twice in Italy for Mackenzie King.  The Montreal Canadiens didn't pursue and take the cup for Pierre Trudeau and Marc Garneau hardly cruised through space for Jean Chretien. And I would bet you that many of the Conservative MPs in Ottawa today never believed they would downgrade their ideals to work for the "Harper Government." Joe Clark, former Progressive Conservative PM, is one of the humblest people I know and this would kill him. I am not here to serve Michael Ignatieff and the other MPs aren't in the House to serve their respective leaders. We are servants of the people of Canada and we do that, sometimes not very well, through Parliament and government - both of which belong to Canadian citizens.This morning I spoke to a former Canadian ambassador who bemoaned this recent decision to rebrand all things Canadian in Stephen Harper's name. He is convinced that replacing "Canada" with the "Harper Government" will send all the wrong signals to those nations that already rejected us for the Security Council seat and now witness this country's international prestige in decline.Of course former governments would occasionally place the PM's name next to the Canadian government, but nothing has ever occurred like this. In Canada, the ethical and political "Holy of Holies" is Parliament itself, and at its centre is the Speaker of the House of Commons - the people's ultimate arbiter. More times than I care to recall, the present occupant of 24 Sussex Drive has attempted to elbow Peter Milliken out of his representative chair and place himself upon it. He is close to contempt of Parliament on a number of counts and actually shut the place down when the people's representatives fought back. Mocking the opposition parties, he reminds them that "government isn't for losers," the entire time dissing the choice of Canadians who have voted in more opposition than government members.Look, I know these are tough days for some of the opposition parties and there's a collective grin on Conservative faces at recent polling. But nothing - nothing - can compete with the arrogance of actually rebranding a title away from the people of Canada and towards one solitary man. If there was ever a time for open democracy it is now. If there was ever an occasion for the people of Canada to take back their House, this is the season.I think of the wise counsel offered by Benjamin Franklin to his colleagues as they considered the implications of their actions: "What signifies knowing the names, if you know not the nature of things?" Well, Canada has many things and many points of view dwell within its borders. But it also does have a nature and it has always maintained that the people of Canada are its ultimate strength and reason for existence. This has gone on long enough - there is now an image of a man where the flag of Canada should be. This isn't a debate about whose visage should go on a $5 bill; it's about who actually are the true possessors of this country. You know who you are and it's time for you to put the flag back in its rightful place.