Power Shift

Rex Murphy plumbs an interesting subject in his column this weekend. Harking back to the National Energy Program, he postulates that if the eco-folk manage to derail the development of the Alberta oil sands, the resulting backlash could tear Canada apart.

He is, of course, absolutely correct.

Albertans will be justifiably outraged if central Canada's intelligensia manages to kibosh the province's last, best chance at securing a piece of economic, political and social power. This is, after all, Alberta's hour. Albertans have waited a long time for it, with many false starts on the way. At last, the political and social centre is subtly shifting west and, as a result, the country is finally balancing out. It could be seen as a sign of maturity and growth, a step toward the future and a welcome development for everyone but the long-entrenched elite.

It really is time for new blood. And it is well passed time for a counterweight to the sterile, derivitive thinking that dominates much of what comes out of the minds of central Canadian political commentators.

Rex misses the mark, however, by suggesting that this is a battle of provinces. It is not. Rather it is a fight, perhaps to the death, between working Canada -- the Canada of farms and mines and sawmills and factories -- and the old Family Compact, their children, their friends and the hangers-on.

The hangers-on are in the driver's seat now, but that won't last. Lament it as we might, the olde Empire is dead, and we must move on. If we don't, we are, of course, toast. Which we have been for most of the last century and a half anyway, so no harm done, eh?

Things that are hard to say

It is so hard to say this.

Because I may be wrong. I could be misinterpreting history. Maybe others are right, and I am wrong. And if I am wrong, I will be doing a great disservice to good people, for whom I nothing but good will.

However. That said.

Islam seems to me to have become a most evil religion. Dark, lustful, bloody and hateful. As if a crack has opened in the Earth and this ugly, dark thing has emerged. Obsessed with stonings, and hackings, and the cutting off of limbs; the control of women; bombings and killings and the slaughter of innocents.

There is no light here. No colour. No playfulness. No creativity. Nothing of the golden age. It has all been sucked into a darkness so profound that it can only be equated with the death itself.

Beheadings. On video. On YouTube. On Al Jerzera TV. Let's all watch, shall we? In the name of religion. Has there has been anything like this since the Kali cult or the Aztec abominations? Glowering clerics in black robes screaming jihad against the Other? Brutal boys blowing up subways and dreaming of dead children? Twisted faces shouting sharia now, don't you know we're going to get you when we get in power?

Would we be out of order to label this satanic? If not that, then what?

How did these people get so far from the wonderful Islam of its golden age?

I guess it can happen to any religion.