Politicians wish to be amongst us,  the mere lumpen proletariat.

They flip burgers and nuzzle babies to make us think they are one of us.

The idea is that this will win them votes. Sweet huh?

Of course it’s just cliche and most of us can smell this cynical politicking a mile away.

The politician can’t wait to get out of the barbeque circuit and back into the hallways of power. (Canadians, think Stephen Harper or Peter MacKay)

But such is the banality of modern American/Canadian politics. Sometimes it’s sort of fun for us voters and citizens to torment them with banality on steriods.

But what I really dislike is when they call us “folks”

Excuse me? “Folks?”

I’m not a folk.  And I’m certainly not a folk to some weaselly politician trying to sound folksy so he can harvest votes for himself.

These people aren’t my friends, they are my servants. And they should respect that by not calling me folk.

Folks diminishes the relation between politician and voter and it erodes the important rights of the voter, a citizen and a consumer.

Those words all come with rights and expectations.

You don’t have to respect someone you call “folk”.

Politicians do themseves no favours this this typist when they call her folk.

They brought in two former premiers – old, grey-haired,  stodgy men – as co-chairs of this “celebration.” Typical of Nova Scotia politicians, these men have all the charisma of an aging vicar in a backwoods parish.

The old guys lectured on CBC radio and in the newspaper, oblivious to the fact that young people don’t listen to CBC radio or read the newspaper.

When invited to a discussion on social media and politics during the election campaign, not one candidate or politician or Democracy 250 official showed up.

During the D250 “celebration” the old guys went on junkets to look up important documents in London England.

There were also made-in-China T-shirts – in “celebration” of democracy. Jackets and sweatshirts too! The delicious irony of that went over their heads.

There was a “youth” concert viewed by cool youth as patronizing. They tried to imbue the concert with “cool” by calling it the D-2-Fiddy concert which made the whole thing look even more ridiculous.

They also held a masquerade ball in which no youth attended because it wasn’t really for the youth.

The website was designed in an 18-century scroll. Way to engage the youth, guys!

At the end of the “celebration” the junketeers and beneficiaries of the Democracy 250 largesse congratulated themselves on job well done.

And the voter turnout in the recent election was 58%, one of the lowest ever.

Give us our money back Democracy 250.

The symbolism was delicious, hilarious and quite poetic.

Let’s hope that rat was right next Tuesday when we have the election and the Tory ship finally sinks.

You’ve heard about the by-law that says don’t feed the ducks.

Well, I think there should be a similiar by-law that says don’t feed the politicians.

Feeding the ducks just encourages them.  Ditto politicians.

Feeding the ducks makes them dependent on you. Ditto the politicians.

Feeding the ducks puts the ducks at increased risk of malnutrition, choking and disease. Ditto the politicians.

So the next time your in a water park or on the street, don’t feed the politicians, or the ducks.

They may not like it, but they will thank you someday.

As the world rides an economic storm and tries to plot its future, our political class  keeps its eye on the rearview mirror and its fingers stuck in its ears.  They just sing “la-la-la” and all that complicated stuff happening “out there”  goes away.

Poof! And you’re back in good ole Nova Scotia where the landscape is pretty, the culture is quaint, and the people have some of the highest cancer, MS and obesity rates in the world.

But that’s the stuff they don’t like to mention here. Too complicated.

Make no mistake, there’s plenty of good ideas here and lots of smart people trying to get us out of our 19th-century thinking, but these voices aren’t well represented in our politics. They may as well beat their heads against a brick wall.

So we end up with the dumb rump running the show. We also end up with reputation for being slow and backwards. Too bad for us.

Light the campfire and pass the banjo, people,  it’s election time in Nova Scotia.

It’s my duty, and being a rule-follower to fault, I will perform my duty in a timely and law-abiding manner.

And I will pay up in a timely and law-abiding manner, too.

Because, let’s face it, all those unelected Canadian Senators deserve my money, don’t they?

I mean, how can they possibly be expected to swan around being self-important and beyond public accountability if they don’t have a decent salary and expense account?

So my treat guys.

Go head, Canadian Senator. Why don’t you just order another Filet Mignon?  And while you’re at it,  slosh it down with a nice glass Cabernet Sauvignon.

In fact, order a whole bottle and treat your friends. Because they deserve our tax money, too? And afterwards they’ll thank you. You, Canadian Senator! That’s because you’re doing such an important job.

Just think what a terrible mess our fair country would be if we didn’t have these all you sycophantic, do-nothing, unelected political parasites buzzing around.

This one’s for you, Canadian Senators.

Ah, tax time.

Obama’s coming to town today. For six hours. But that’s an important six hours.

Our old-school NeoCon prime minister Stephen Harper is in an awkward place. Canada’s late-blooming NeoCon movement was just in its ascendency when the world moved on. No more W to justify Harper’s dirty-oil conservative politics.

But more importantly, Harper has to battle the protectionism rising in the US Rust Belt and the Democratic Party. He also has to quell similar shoot-yourself-in-the-foot tendencies emerging in the Canadian trade union movement here.

And then there’s Canada’s dirty oil problem.

Protectionism will hurt this country, and hurt it bad. We don’t have the numbers here. American is our market. If we lose access, our economy will suffer.

Add that to a recession, an aging population and Canada’s can’t-be-bothered attitude towards innovation, and you have a big problem.

We’re still very much in the thrall of Obama. He’s the inspirational leader that we don’t have in Canada. Not yet, anyway.

So this little drop-in by Obama will be interesting.

Now we finally have a glimpse of the hateful, spiteful, hidden agenda so many of us feared.

After cleverly hiding his NeoCon ideology from centrist Canadians, Stephen Harper finally blew the lid of the thing this week. And it’s ugly.

He plunged the ideological dagger the backs of those he despises: small-l liberal opposition parties and those small-l liberals who denied Harper his coveted majority.

Canada’s Nastiest Little Man wants to kill off his opposition by starving them of voter subsidies. This measure will mean bankruptcy for the opposition Liberals. Other non-Conservative parties will suffer life-threatening injuries. Only one party will not suffer by this measure: Harper’s Conservatives.

What’s worse is that there was no economic stimulous package announced in his supposed “economic update.” There was no promise to help Canada’s faltering manufacturing sector, no plan to invest in innovation or infrastructure, no commitment to use deficit financing to get the economy going again.

No, just pure political spite and hatred. In the middle of an economic crisis.

Nice work, Mr. Harper.

But as sad and scary as this seems, at least he’s finally unveiled – whether deliberately or not – the much-feared Harper hidden agenda.

Now the question is, will Canadians be able to swallow it.

In Canada red is the colour of the more progressive Liberal party. Blue is the colour of the more conservative Conservative party.

In the US those colours are opposite with red representing the conservative Republicans and blue the progressive Democrats.

I could see that McCain’s name was in red. His tie was red. And his State of Arizona was also red. Likewise Obama was blue. But it seemed counter-intuitive to me.

Apparently, the red-blue semiotics run deep in my psychology, and it really turned into a mind-bender to make my brain translate the colours.

The primitive back of my brain kept seeing red as Democrat. It saw Texas as a Democrat state. Sarah Palin was red.

I always understood that red was universal for left wing. In Britain, red is the colour of the Labour party. In on the extreme left wing, communists are referred to as Reds or pinkos, often by Republicans who also wear read.

Can you see my confusion?

Can anyone explain why Republicans are Reds?

Is there a cognitive neuroscientist in the house?

For so many different reasons.

Congratulations everyone.

This is a very good moment.