Coyne Returns (?)
Who knows if his vacation is over, but it is good to have Mr. Coyne back in the blogosphere. I hadn't read his latest reaction to Ms. Jean before posting below, though my thoughts continue tend toward the passively indifferent on this. But as always, Canada's best journalist makes several valid and compelling points:
How far our expectations have sunk. Because she's not currently working to bring about the destruction of the country, that makes her an appropriate choice for Governor General? She drinks toasts with the founder of the FLQ, her husband
hangs around with Pierre Laporte's murderers, she's supposed to represent the
Queen as a citizen of the French Republic, and she's known outside Quebec, if at
all, as the presenter of hysterically anti-American documentaries on Newsworld.She has no record of service to the country, no outstanding accomplishments to her name, no specialized knowledge of law, politics or the constitution.
That's a pretty valid criticism not many people have come out and uttered. Yet it is hard to get up in arms if you don't agree with his subsequent statement:
This isn't a sales clerk we're hiring. This is supposed to be the position of supreme honour and prestige in the country, one with important symbolic and substantive roles. It should be filled by titans, revered national icons, whose love of country is reflected in the love their country has for them.
Well, maybe ideally, but we have long since passed this point. Today we simply have more important political fights. And when Prince Charles' mug starts gracing our coins, we just might get to that broader debate. Stay tuned.
More critically, now that Coyne has returned, will Tim R.A. Cooper also emerge from his prolonged hiatus? Or at least respond to my emails?
posted by J. A. MacDuff @ 4:16 PM
5 Comments:
"But as always, Canada's best journalist makes several valid and compelling points."
Oh, cool! Then why didn't you provide something from him/her (whoever he/she is) instead of blather from Harper's media sock puppet?
Every so often, MacDuff, you seem almost like a conservative...
Coyne as Harper's "media sock puppet" - that's frankly hilarious. I would be extremely interested to hear arguments opposing the "blather" excerpted here, instead of name-calling. Or other nominees, for that matter. Coyne is consistently interesting and iconoclastic. The only other commentator in the business that even comes close is Chantal Hebert.
And funny how I seem like a conservative in posts that dismiss the position of Governor-General out of hand... On a completely different note, judging by recent comments on his blog, I worry that the Tiger is suffering from a rare and unique disease instead, "anti-Canadianism". But more on that to come...
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Re seeming conservative and bashing the GG -- I ought to have said "Conservative". Because it's the classical liberal position -- which is slightly more at home in the CPC (tho' I've been much less confident about that, lately) -- and which is at heart (contrary to the official platform) very ambiguous in its thoughts about the constitutional monarchy in Canada.
About being somewhat anti-Canadian lately, I plead guilty to the charge, m'Lord. I speak as I find.
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