Do we have enough excitement for one year?

There is no clear answer on whether we should indulge in a federal general election this year.

Things are already quite exciting so far this year with the Beijing Olympics and the upcoming municipal elections here in Nova Scotia.

There will more at a later date on how The Hants Journal will cover the latter.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Stephane Dion are doing the guy thing and threatening to pull the plug on the current federal Parliament. Gone is the pretence each doesn’t really want to force the issue.

Effective government is the excuse each uses when threatening the other.

At the same time, NDP leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe are claiming to want an election, though indications are their parties could well be wiped out in what is looking to be an old-fashioned Liberal-Tory fray. Machismo is far from dead in Canada – at least in federal politics.

Mind you, we have seen effective government and bold steps on a number of issues – the environment, foreign affairs, defense and justice to name a few – despite political posturing and animosity over the past two-and-a-half years.

Stuff has been done. And though some don’t warm up to him, many see the prime minister as one who gets things done – like it or not.

But many of the issues facing us aren’t entirely the realm of the federal government -- or government at all.

Is it up to the government to save sectors for which questions of salvation have no single or simple solutions? For example, how does government save farms, and do farmers actually want their agricultural lands preserved in the manner that governments have attempted?

And how does a government encourage people to move back to the countryside? Except on the part of a certain category of folks able to buy large housing lots than one could ever get in a city, there is no such move in this country -- or any other for that matter.

How does a federal government effectively regulate their environmental behavior once they get to the countryside? Better regulations, better enforcement, more encouragement for a green economy? All the while having to support an economy to feed folks and keep them warm in what is mostly a hostile climate.

And in the new economy – which looks to be a lot leaner than may of us have been used to in recent decades – what can a government do to foster or preserve manufacturing capabilities? It is, after all, a world-wide situation, often aggravated by trade patterns.

Here in Kings-Hants, things are often politically confusing because our popular Liberal MP Scott Brison is not only a former Conservative, but he remains quite conservative.

We will have to ponder the question of whether his party or his attitudes or both will prevail. It could well be a win-win situation; or lose-lose.

The national political scene could change rapidly. Look at Canada’s fortunes in the current Olympics.

This week’s editorial cartoon has been superceded by the weekend winning streak by some Canadian athletes at the Olympics. We kept it as an illustration of how to look at things if they had continued to go wrong.

Athletes, like politicians, are but one trip or gaff from a tip-over or oblivion – or success, depending upon whose faut pas it is.