our leader *sigh*

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Hmmm a bit of a blunder if you ask me ...

just what the childern need little canadian flags to wave around.

Note, however, it was the lead vehicle, driven by, and filled with, Sudanese soldiers, that had the accident. And I believe the extent of her injuries was biting her tongue.

Hitting poor African children will sure do damage to a perfectly good photo-op.

He also offered a brief lesson on Canadian history, saying that centuries of war between the English and French are a distant memory for people who have joined together and "built a great country."

now although martin may beleve that its a distant memory there are still quite a few who dont in qc *sigh*

I believe we could be a "great country" but that our government's preoccupation with mediocrity is a major hinderence.

You got that right and its been that way for an awful long time.

This is one of the very few worth while things that Martin has done. It's too bad about the little girl, but Martin wasn't driving and it was an accident.

You aren't going to find me defending him very much, so you'd best mark this down, but Martin is actually doing something (not enough, but something) positive here.

Martin wasn't driving, and I dont' think he was even in the vehicle in question. It was part of the motorcade.

As far as the drive to mediocrity in this country, I'm in agreement there. As far as I can see, there hasn't been a leader since Trudeau who had any vision for the country, and there isn't anyone on the horizon with one. Unless you count Mr Harper's vision of us as part of the US.

We need a leader with vision and the ability to inspire. Chretien simply wanted to be PM because he always wanted to be. Martin wanted to be PM because his father wasn't. Turner was a bizarre interlude. Joe Clark, and extremely intelligent man, was not a politician. Mulroney, while full of charm, surrounded himself with too many sleazy people. Kim Campbell, (who could forget our first female PM?) was simply a scapegoat hung out to dry by the PC party.

How do we get a leader with vision though? Trudeau came at the end of an age when vision was a common thing...when people were becoming politicians because of their belief in Canada.

That kind of vision was already gone from the US scene...it dies there when Bobby Kenedy got shot.

I haven't seen any real vision from any of the western/northern leaders for a very long time. When there is vision it seems relegated to third parties who can try to influence but cannot institute real change.

maybe thats why the minority gouvernment we have now is good eh rev?

Maybe, but it is unlikely to last for long and the next time we'll likely go back to having a majority.

tru enough

One problem with having a vision is that it is easy for people to disagree with you; I think that's why we seem to have mediocrity in all our leaders. That way, it's easier to go along with vague generalities. For example, last year there was some movement to convince Bernard Lord to run for the leader of the Conservative party. Now there's a man with no vision.

You're right. Here is the central question: how do we get some leaders with vision? How can we encourage some strong leaders to step up to the plate?

So true tenpenny, and a good question. When you look at history there were some great politicians, especially in america. Now it has more to do with the money chest than anything else.

I think that's a big part of the problem. This whole idea of running a country as a business has really screwed things up. A country isn't a business, it's a big family. We have mortgage payments to make (the debt), credit card bills to take care of (budget spending), repairs to make to the house (infrastructure costs), and then all the groceries and clothing and other necessities to buy.

The leaders we've had since Mulroney here and Reagan in the US are a bunch of people who are making sure some people have steak even while others go hungry.

Call me pessimistic, but I think you will find few governments throughout the world which really put the interests of people first ...

You're not wrong, Ricky. What bothers me is the way the people just accept it. The whole attitude of, "All politicians are the same and we're going to get screwed no matter what," favours weak leadership who are their only to further their personal agendas.

OK, but we should also realize that eventually, we live in a globalised world, where politicians might feel "forced" to make unpopular decisions (which isn't a justification though). But are there real alternatives? People thought Communism was one - but that alternative even proved to be worse (in my opinion).