What everyone's talking about

It’s not like a politician has never played a musical instrument in public before. What pleases me more than Stephen Harper showing a little bit of …I dunno…soul? (If I were being particularly uncharitable, I’d say the soul was completely scripted and that if you’re a faithful Dr. Who fan, you’ll know that even very, very evil creatures can pretend to be something other than what they are. But I’m not being that uncharitable.) What pleases me more than Stephen Harper doing this is that he’s not particularly good, and he knows it. What pleases me is that he’s set a precedent, and now ALL the other politicians are going to have to go off and do something (Batman Jack is busking on Dundas in support of a charity, Michael Ignatieff, who is, if possible, stodgier than Harper at times, will be doing a reading) artistic. The fact that they *can* ought not surprise you. They are, after all, public speakers. Even if someone writes their lines for them, they are actors; they must know how best to deliver those lines.

So this is getting media attention for the arts. That’s always good. It’s giving news announcers something to talk with their sports announcers with other than the Riders’ suckage in BC. That’s nice, too.

But I’m thinking of this: I wonder what his kids think. It must be tough to have a Dad who’s the Prime Minister of Canada. Particularly the Prime Minister of Canada whom nobody really likes much. Look what happened to the Mulroney kids – that’s something I wouldn’t wish on people I don’t much like. Entertainment Canada? Is this something you really want to be proud of? Particularly since your father was all about the stupid Free Trade selling out to the Yanks thing anyway, maybe it’s fitting that you be resigned to a fake tan worse than death. Anyway, it must be tough to have a Dad nobody’s a huge fan of except the folks who kind of sound like douches on talk radio shows. And I just think that this stunt might make the kids a little happy, because all of a sudden, everybody kind of likes Stephen Harper because he’s done what Canadian politicians are supposed to do.

He’s allowed himself to look like a bit of a goof.

I think, if you really look at it, that’s part of our Canadian identity: we’re willing, as a country, as a people, and as a nation, to look like a bit of a goof. Really, I think that’s okay. Speaking as a *complete* goof.