Do-nothing Government

An interesting little story I will share with members of the House happened when I was first appointed to cabinet. I went back to Portage la Prairie, which I am proud to represent here, and one of my constituents, a friend of mine, said, what portfolio are you responsible for, Brian, in cabinet? I said, well, that is Government Services and he laughed. He said, you are the minister of an oxymoron, he said, an oxymoron. Well, I was pretty sure I knew, but I thought I had better ask him what an oxymoron was, and he said, it is terms that are mutually exclusive or contradictory, like jumbo shrimp, like plastic glass, like liberal thinking. They are kind of mutually exclusive terms.

The point of this story seems to be that government is stupid and pointless. And yet, this story was told on the record ... in the Legislature ... by the Leader of the Opposition ... who is now running to lead that government.

Oh, wait I mean, this is the opinion of , um, a "friend" who is totally *wink* not made up to let Pallister put words in his mouth. Like about how his political opponents are unthinkingly stupid. How respectful and parliamentary.

More to the point, Pallister loves this kind of folksy simplicity: he mocks "government services" and "liberal thinking" in one fell swoop—how hilarious!

Unfortunately, real governing requires more than snarky word-play, and political discussion should maybe be at least a bit more substantial than this kind of "haha your so stoopid" school-yard nonsense.

Is there more shit? Damn right there's more shit!

Subscribe to