Rick Mercer has a recent blog post up that talks about how secretive Stephen Harper is, how he’s spent the entire time in office trying to keep things from the press. Rick goes on to say this:
| You could take a hundred bucks, you could stand on any street corner in Canada, offer people five bucks if they can name three cabinet ministers off the top of their head — double their money if they can name the minister of health. At the end of the day you’d still have enough money for dinner and a movie. |
Funny, but also, oh so true. When I read that sentence I was rather shocked to find that it was totally, completely true for me. The only cabinet minister I could name was Gordon O’Connor, and that’s because he’s the MP for our own riding. I had to go look the rest of them up, and of the dozens of cabinet ministers, I’ve only even heard of three of them — Tony Clement, the health minister; Stockwell Day, the public safety minister (didn’t even know he was still in politics); and Peter MacKay, whose name I recognise only because he used to date Belinda Stronach.
As part of my Trivia Night training, I’m reading the major news stories of the day every day now on the Ottawa Citizen site and on CBC.ca. Rick’s point, however, is that just reading the news is not going to expose us to the members of the cabinet or the workings of our own government, because Stephen Harper is so secretive about everything. Cabinet members are rarely seen on TV or at news conferences making statements about anything. It’s interesting that, since things seem to be going well around here, I’ve hardly even noticed that I have no idea what the people in power are doing these days, what their positions are on things. Hm.
I’ve decided I need to start watching Rick Mercer’s show, if I want to get the lowdown on Canada these days. Consider it part of the training, mayonnaise!
TurtleHead 