A political game

Just what in the hell are they thinking?

There is a time and place for every type of discussion. The House of Commons certainly isn’t worth the time or attention about whether Shane Doan is worthy enough to head Team Canada. All because of an alleged ethnic slur against francophones during a puckster altercation way back when.

What?

The guy is in the midst of a major international tourney, with all the pressures that means, and parliamentarians want to add this? Get real!

I belong to one of the most despised ethnic and gender groups in the country - WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Poor) - and I’m a straight male.

I can't even begin to count how many times someone has maligned my group - in fact, until recently, the attitude had almost become institutionalized in this country.

Apparently, in the minds of some, we're responsible for all that's wrong in this world - including ethnic slurs.

All I want to do is protect and preserve what's good in this country - and of course quietly celebrate Victoria Day, or any other statutory holiday I can get.

Calmer minds did eventually prevail in the house, in part because former NHL great Ken Dryden of the Liberals and all-round acceptable guy Peter Stoffer of the NDP made it clear it isn't politicians' place to interfere.

It was all exposed as a tacky and pathetic Bloc Quebecois attempt to get attention.

It has been worse.

This is merely an example of what has been done to our forces in Afghanistan over a myriad of things, from treatment of terrorist prisoners to collateral damage.

Liberals and NDPers have been on a lasting tirade on the prisoner issue.

It has been to the point General Staff Chief Gen. Rick Hillier had to remind Canadians it's pissing off the folks on the firing line.

Maybe we should actually bring the terrorist prisoners here and billet them with the MPs in question - making them fully accountable.

In the not-so-distant past, NDP MP Peggy Nash actually accused NATO forces of bombing civilians. NATO has admitted to dozens unfortunately being accidentally killed by that means last year.

Yes, dozens.

We're not talking Dresden here.

Nash failed to mention the civilians became casualties because terrorists were hiding close to or among them.

NDP leader Jack Layton was on at length about us downing tools and negotiating with the Taliban terrorists.

Well, that's not for us to do. It's up to, first, the Afghan government - which is also responsible for care of prisoners - to do, and for NATO to follow up on its orders.

The Nova Scotia NDP - like provincial parties in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario - has been taken over by the grownups, responsible people ready and able to govern - not just protest and play.

It's time the federal NDP was also run by the grownups. After all, with the Liberals potentially facing a drubbing for their past sins, it could be the NDP's time to shine.

Meanwhile, I've heard in Ottawa a political person learns “things are never as bad as they appear.”

Well, I beg to differ.

For some 400 families - and that's directly - in the Valley and a further 1,100 in Pictou County, things are, indeed, as bad as they appear.

The Maple Leaf poultry processing plant in Canard and the Trenton Works have closed down.

It's not that people don't eat chicken anymore or we no longer need rail cars.

In fact, outside of illness, injury or death, things couldn't be much worse for those workers.

Speaking, of that, let's remember our forces in the thankless mission in Afghanistan face those very possibilities every day. Let's hope that our politicians remember that as well and get back in their own game.