THEY ARE NOT ALWAYS WRONG
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES

I've said it many times and I'll say it again, Canadians' preferred hobby is the "Blame the Americans" game. Many times we might be spot on. When we tire of that game, we sometimes move on to the "We're better than them" game which I have a little more difficulty with.

But there's definitely one element of the U.S. political system that our politicians should borrow and that's the need to put aside partisanship and to work together for the sake of country.

I see this need especially this week, when our 40^th Parliament reconvenes in the middle of a "perfect economic storm" whose dire consequences have not been felt and not even assessed. All parties must understand that even if we can't escape the negative effects of the crisis, we can at least minimize them if the country's political leaders work together.

Yes, this mess was generated in the United States where president George W. Bush created a fake wealthy life for hundreds of thousands of Americans were able to buy houses but couldn't afford them.

We also know that George W., the 42^nd, had to resort to the "subprime" gimmick to cover up for the economic miseries his government had created mainly because of the money spent for the war in Iraq. When the subprime bobble exploded, the yellow stuff hit the fan and now we're all carrying some of the smell and stains. Yes, it's their fault.

But we benefited from it for almost a decade. Our economy was booming also because of their fake wealth and we went along with them on the joyride.

Now that reality poked the fake economic wealthy bubble, we are back to the "Blame the Americans" game ignoring the fact that we too, in Canada, were building big, expensive cars that nobody wanted to buy from us because other autoworkers around the world have been willing to build them for half of the salary. And, of course, Canadians were and are ready to buy.

However, that's fine, let's blame the Americans, and only the Americans. But the question now is not who to blame, but what can we do to fix it?

In this context I suggest to look at the Americans in order to find an answer because, very humbly, I believe they are better than us. They know when they have to put aside ideology and partisanship, to stop the blame-game and work together.

If we go back one month, at the time both countries were involved in a very delicate electoral campaign and analyze what happened, we might find useful hints on how to solve problems and work together.

In the middle of an inflamed and historic campaign, president Bush and the two candidates, Democrat and Republican, put aside their ideology and differences and together approved a package to save their financial institutions. It would have been easy, and also fair, for the Democrats to continue the campaign and blame the Republicans for the mess they were in. None of this: they approved the package and they went back to the campaign. No blame-game, voters knew that already. In fact, the Democrats won.

Now that Barack Obama defeated John McCain, the fight is over and they're ready to work together. I was very much impressed by McCain's classy speech the night he conceded to Obama. He was gracious; he took all the responsibility and promised immediately to work "with my president Obama."

What a contrast with the classless, rancorous and childish exit of federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion who blamed everybody.

While the Americans were working together to fix the problem (yes, a problem they have created), in Canada the political leaders were talking about bird poop, a stupid joke of a decent minister and, of course, the collapse of our culture and the culture of Quebec because of $45-million cuts, or reallocation.

I hope that with the new Parliament, a spirit of cooperation will prevail from all sides for the sake and the future of this country (my apologies to Gilles Duceppe).