Something Has Changed

A national journalist friend of mine had some fun with me in his blog lately by beginning with, “Glen Pearson, bless his heart…”  I suppose it was his way of inferring that, though I might mean well about this non-partisan stuff, I am somewhat naïve

Perhaps, but I am sensing something different in Parliament since we came back.  At a fundraiser tonight for the Ottawa Food Bank, one of the most partisan ministers in the government shook my hand, saying, “Glen, you’ve got to stop talking about parliamentarians working together for the sake of the country.  Folks here are agreeing and people like me could become a rare species."

The fact is that there has been a more respectful tone in most of our deliberations, regardless of party.  As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee I was struck this week by the willingness to form a consensus and just get on with the business of governing.  Sitting in on the Fisheries and Oceans Committee today, I noticed the same lack of rank partisanship that had characterized Parliament in months previous

America’s well known political observer, Joe Klein, said about Obama that he “promises a respite from the nonstop anger of the recent political wars, the beginning of an era of civility, if not comity.”  If it’s happening there, why can’t it be transpiring here, though not in as transformational a fashion?  As Obama himself said at his inauguration: “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply."

Klein challenged his own peers in the media to “set aside childish things,” hold off on the negativity, and face the reality that things could be changing.

Perhaps it's time for us to consider the possibility that we could be moving in a direction that might offer some civility here in Canadian politics.  As Klein himself concludes:

This could force everyone to argue more carefully, to think twice before casting aspersions, to remember that the goal has to be more than temporal electoral victories – but in this moment of peril, a better and stronger nation, a less ugly and dangerous world.”

May it be so right here in Canada.  And to my media friend, hold your bets, it's not over yet.