Living in Harperland Part 1

Originally I thought I would start a separate blog about our pal Stephen Harper and that blog would start at the time of the next federal election. However, I simply cannot wait that long. Almost daily I come across something in the paper, radio, TV or internet about how our lives are being affected by this government.  So, if you are, by any chance, a Harper fan, then you'll want to skip my upcoming Living In Harperland items. Eventually I'd also like to start another series...about life in Ottawa. There's bound to be a lot of overlap in those two series.

It's hard to know where to begin. Let's start with the enemies of the government list which came out this summer, at the time of the swearing in of the new cabinet members....a heads up for them, of who to avoid‎. Now of course I have not seen the complete list but just for the record..Mr. Harper....if my name is not on that list, it was an omission. Sign me up. There are all kinds of articles about this list. Here's Andrew Coyne's.

You know when you listen to news reports they often will say something like, "Meanwhile Ottawa says"....or "while the provinces say ...Ottawa says...." For folks not living in Ottawa, you might get the superficial impression that the reference to Ottawa refers to the citizens of Ottawa. That is ...we might all be pals of the current government. It reminds me of driving to Saskatchewan when Trudeau was the PM. We were at a gas station in a small prairie town and the attendant (yes, back in the days when there was service at all gas stations) asked us where we were from. When we told him Ottawa, he got all riled up and told us exactly what we could do with Mr. Trudeau! Anyhow, just for the record, in the last federal election, in the 7 Ottawa area ridings there were 2 Liberals and 4 Conservatives elected. I live in Ottawa Centre which elected an NDP member. Ottawa Centre reflect my own personal brand. I've always been an ABC voter..Anyone But Conservative. Ottawa Centre goes back and forth between the Liberals and New Democrats.

Since summer has just ended and with it, the season for watching Mosaika..that's what I will start with. There have long been summer evening shows on Parliament Hill. They used to be called Sound and Light shows. I enjoyed them but they were nothing compared to the Mosaika show which started in 2010. It uses the Parliament buildings as a screen with amazing visual effects. It's about a half hour long and entertaining for folks of all ages.  We have seen it every year since it started and all of our out of town visitors have enjoyed it.

So last month we took friends to see it and I was really looking forward to seeing it again. While I enjoyed it,  I wasn't as enthusiastic this time. The next day I spoke to my niece about it and she asked, "Mary Ellen, is it true... what my friend told me? that Mosaika has been Harperized?"

That hit the nail on the head...it has indeed been Harperized. (There is almost nothing in Ottawa that has been left untouched by this man.) What struck me as I watched it was the increase in military history. Of course the war of 1812 was given prominent mention. Besides the increased time with reminders of military glory I couldn't help but notice the Prime Ministers who were recognized and not recognized. If you were a Conservative you had a lot better chance at airtime than your Liberal counterparts.  I'm not sure how to check out the script but from my sometimes faulty memory.... John Deifenbaker is prominenently quoted...."the right honourable John Diefenbaker" intro, then his voice giving a part of  a speech, while Lester Pearson, winner of the Nobel Peach Prize and our flag guy, is not. Also lacking almost any mention is a certain Pierre Trudeau.

 The increase in military content was discussed in another piece in The Citizen.

“This year we’re aligning ourselves more with some of the milestones and celebrations in Canadian history,” said NCC spokeswoman Denise LeBlanc, noting the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. “Those choices were made by the NCC, of course in consultation with our partners. We went to our board of directors in April and brought that proposal to them.”

The program content would have been reviewed by the office of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, the federal minister responsible for the NCC, the ministry of Canadian Heritage, and the Prime Minister’s Office, she said.

“It has a very high level of government awareness,” said LeBlanc. “It’s a very visible program on Parliament Hill on one of the most iconic buildings in the country, so it’s reviewed at a high level.” That has been the case all along, she says. 

Yup...Harperized for sure! Mosaika finished its run on September 7th but it will be back next year. If you're in Ottawa next summer you really should see it. In spite of the new political slant, it's still worth seeing!