During the many years I spent working, living and
carousing with hard-headed competent seaman and airmen comrades, both afloat,
in the air and ashore, in the Persian Gulf, India and high Arctic waters, my
colleagues had one well-tested criterion for judging the true and ultimate worthiness
of any individual.
Would we be fully confident, we asked
ourselves, if we were embarking on a voyage destined to explore and sail right
over the very edge of the world, if that person was to be our captain or other
shipmate.
My companions, veterans of years spent surviving
both wartime and natural perils of the sea, all swore by this standard attribute
for verifying personal and professional acceptance.
So there you have it everybody. For the next
decade or more, using this ultimate assessment, there’s no need to go footling
about considering the obscure details, lack of qualification, obvious unsuitability,
faked charisma, and all the rest of the falsely required regalia of a future
prime minister that has been demonstrated by so many recent candidates who have
never actually done anything really practical in their lives, and who offer
nothing but platitudes to further their selfish aspirations to perform as
politicians supported by their usually equally ignorant support staff.
Luckily for the next several years there is
the chance that Canadians could dispense with such fruitless evaluation of the newest
crop of hopeless non-leaders, who no doubt are already planning how to mislead
the Canadian populace.
How does this fine opportunity to avoid such
pointlessness present itself? Because
the most obvious choice for Prime Minister, that has ever presented itself
during Canada’s 144 years of existence, is right before our very eyes. I refer to:
Chris Alexander, Canada’s 43-year-old
previous Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and now Parliamentary Secretary to
the Minister of National Defence (to my mind the ministerial post he himself should
already be holding in order to prepare him to be the future successor to Canada’s
present, and quite satisfactory Prime Minister, Stephen Harper).
Despite having never met Chris Alexander I draw
my unasked for, and quite presumptuous, impressions of him solely from the
several times I have watched him in serious discussion on various television programs.
His direct, pertinent and often short
sentences in reply to other speakers are delivered with firm confidence and
seemingly genuine belief backed by solid knowledge and experience. He delivers his words incisively and with
the similar utter confidence, as does a Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer, small
arms instructor, demonstrating the correct use of grenades during a World War
Two Whale Island live-ammunition assault course.
In all Chris Alexander appears to be the most
intelligent politician seen for decades, anywhere. Let’s hope he actually does have aspirations to become
Canada’s future leader. I reckon he
might become the Steve Jobs of parliament or Ernest Shackleton of politics. Certainly not a Layton, Trudeau, Joe
Clark, Dion or even Iggy.
Would I be confident to sail over the edge of
the world with him? You betcha I
would!
PS:
Look, I hope I haven’t embarrassed Chris Alexander with my
thoughts. No, of course not. Just myself I suppose. Anyway Mr. Alexander probably has no
desire to sail right off the edge of the world.
Which is quite sensible. And after all, I’m much too old for
that sort of thing now. And
probably my wife wouldn’t let me go even if I wanted to.
But I do hope our pleasant PM Harper and
whoever else follows him make things turn out a little better.
That’s it. No more political rants. Promise.
Nor will I be running myself. Promise.
