Those weren't my shoes, honest!

Well, here we are folks, at the end of a most tumultuous year with plenty to remember and much we wish we could forget, at least in the world of politics.

Yes, 2008 will be remembered as the year during which our prime minister held an expensive election (one that he had promised he wouldn’t) because he faced what he claimed was a dysfunctional Parliament, only to ensure, upon re-election, that he poisoned the air sufficiently to ensure even greater depths of dysfunction.

It was the year our Reformist economist in 24 Sussex Drive was so sure his government had secured the Canadian economy from what was certain to be a severe downturn that he chose to sit on his duff as the dark clouds approached. Neo-conservatives, both here in Nova Scotia and in Ottawa, seem blind to the “ounce of prevention” insight of traditional Tory thought, always trying to prevent the worst force of a storm only after it has hit.

To conclude this display of never quite getting it, our Prime Minister closed out the year with public musings about a Canadian depression when what we needed most was some reason for confidence and hope if we are to get through this mess. I know I’ve been pretty hard on the playground’s bully this year, but we need and deserve better.

Also, 2008 was the year when an accommodation of the centre-left of the Liberal Party, the NDP and the Greens was given the chance of a trial run.

While we won’t know until Jan. 29 whether this car will even get out of the garage, it has undeniably suffered from bad planning and even worse delivery. Political realignment in Canada may have been stopped in its tracks again, pleasing some and disappointing others, on both the left and the right. And fine man that he undeniably is, Stéphane Dion in six months appears to have set both the environmental and the progressive democratic movement in Canada back 10 years.

Sad irony in the age of irony

Looking south, it is difficult to decide whether it is finally the end of Dubya that deserves attention at year’s end or the achievement of Barack Obama, attaining the highest office in the land only to find it one lifeline short of collapse, yet another sad irony in the age of irony.

It’s difficult to know whether we should mourn the fact that our futures in Canada have been placed in jeopardy by probably the dumbest and certainly the most pathetic administration in American history or be joyous that Bush’s time in office is finally over.

The picture of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at Bush will be our lasting image of him. This insult, apparently of high order in Arabic life, was thrown as Bush tried yet again to convince them and us that a noble victory in Iraq had been achieved. (As I write, there are accusations that the journalist was suffering in jail from broken ribs and a broken arm, yet another image of the Bush Doctrine).

A brighter future in 2009?

We are, it seems, likely in for another year of challenges in 2009: challenges to our dignity, our collective intelligence, and our ability to make decent lives for ourselves in one of the most abundant countries in the world.

Yet as family and friends gather, even at a distance, it is difficult not to find rays of hope and sources of enduring happiness. Sooner or later our political class is going to discover it really isn’t all about them, that we all have a lot to offer our communities and our nation; that young people are well on their way to recovering the best of what we have lost; that there are effective ways of governing those who abuse the common good and those who seem eager to sell for naught the prospects of our best futures together; that there remain among us those who can offer the sort of leadership that democracy deserves.

I told my editor I would have a cheerier column this week. As usual, I am dependent on his tolerant and good-natured patience with me, just as I am grateful to those who take the time to read this column, even when they don’t agree.