Revolutionary Moderation

Everybody loves the Ezra watch!



It's Monday, and that means noted writer of fictions Ezra Levant takes a little time away from his bizarre vanity project to share his wisdom in the Sun chain of newspapers. Today's a good'un.



He begins with speculation that The Prime Minister will be appointing Joe Clark to the Senate - a thumb in Alberta's eye, it seems, because of our Senate elections in 1998. I remember those elections. I remember not voting, because it was pretty obviously just an Ottawa-bashing tactic for Ralph Klein to shore up his support among the Reformers in his party - a thumb in the eye if ever I've seen one. Anyway, wouldn't that term be expired by now? That was six years ago.

In that 1998 Senate election, held pursuant to Alberta law and certified by Alberta's chief electoral officer, Bert Brown and Ted Morton were elected Alberta's two choices.

I suppose we might have voted, "pursuant to Alberta law and certified by Alberta's CRO," that Alberta's favourite colour is orange, too, but who gives a crap? It doesn't change the jurisdiction of the Alberta government, which doesn't extend to the Senate.

Some might think that attacking his own Conservative Party is an unseemly last chapter in Clark's political career.

"His own"???? I don't know if Ezra keeps up with the news, but this is an all-new party - one that Joe Clark opposed from the start, one that he has never belonged to. But why let details get in the way of a tirade?

And as for Alberta's dream of Senate reform? Well, it was never Clark's dream. In fact, according to Bert Brown, during the Charlottetown Accord negotiations of 1992, the 10 premiers had agreed to a Triple-E Senate -- but it was Clark, then the Constitutional Minister, who scuttled that deal.

And the fiction writer emerges - Ezra runs short on facts to make his case, so he starts making some up. An elected and more equal Senate was part of the text of Charlottetown, which weas in turn rejected by voters from coast to coast., including the west. Joe Clark tried harder than perhaps any person in the country to have Charlottetown pass the referendum, but it was people like Ezra Levant that called it "The Mulroney Deal" and torpedoed it as hard as possible. I know people from all over the political spectrum who didn't care for the Charlottetown Accord, who worked against it, so I don't blame Ezra for that in particular. But claiming Joe Clark scuttled Senate reform when it was the failure of Charlottetown that stopped constitutional change --- that's like blaming John Kerry for Iraq. "He told the White House there were WMD, and we had to believe him - he's a veteran!"



(I find myself always having to resist using the word "bizarre", over and over throughout any entry related to Ezra.)



Back to the Alberta Report Western Standard with you, Ezra.



As an aside, it looks like Canoe is committing to longer-term links - we'll see how long this week's link lives, but you don't need to rush to Ezra's column for a change.