The Citizen, 2006-07-06, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2006. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Philip the loose-lipped
/
don't know how the 2010 Olympics in
Vancouver are going to pan out, but the
organizers have already made one savvy
move on the road to success.
They're not inviting Prince Philip.
_ This is a clever tactic because Prince Philip
has a tendency to verbally torpedo just any
project he's associated with.
In any case, Philip's already booked,
Olympics-wise. He's scheduled to take part in
the opening and closing ceremonies for the
2012 Olympics in London.
Good luck, London. Asked by newspaper
reporters to describe his participation in The
Games Philip harrumphed that he fully intends
to do "as little as possible."
"I am truly fed up with the opening and
closing ceremonies. They are a pain in the
neck: Absolute bloody nuisances. I haven't
been to one that wasn't absolutely, appallingly
awful."
Tell us how you really feel, Phil.
Great Britain has already given us Richard
The Lion-Hearted. Edward the Confessor and
Ethelred the Unready. Make way for Philip the
Loose-Lipped.
This is the diplomat who, addressing British
students in Beijing, warned them "if you' stay
here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed."
Philip is the smooth talker who asked a
driving instructor in Scotland how he managed
to "keep the natives off the booze long
enough" to pass their driving test.
Canada has not escaped the back side of
Philip's tongue. On being served yet another
fish dinner during a Royal Visit to Nova Scotia
in 1977, Philip moaned, "If I have to eat any
more salmon I shall swim up a river and
spawn."
On a Royal Visit to Calgary, he was
presented with the requisite white 10-gallon
0 ntario's political parties are dropping
hints of what they will say trying to
win an election in 2007 — and some
of it will be dirty.
Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty has
indicated he will ask voters to look at "the big
picture" rather than aspects of it such as his
broken promises.
McGuinty will concede he broke a
commitment not to raise taxes so he could
increase revenue after the defeated Progressive
Conservative government left him a huge
deficit, but will not ask voters to forgive him.
- Instead he will urge them to recognize he is
using revenue ,pouring in from an economic
upturn to rebuild long neglected infrastructure,
including roads, bridges and public transit, and
improve health and education, rather than cut
taxes.
The premier will say the Conservatives,
under John Tory, would have used extra
revenue to cut taxes, as they did under former
premier Mike Harris. But he believes the
public will respect him for "doing the right
thing and not the easy and popular thing,"
which sounds like the start of a campaign
slogan.
The Liberals will say Tory would return to
the Harris style of cutting taxes, which
weakened services. They believe voters will
not want to go back to this and will mention
Harris so often voters will think he is back as
party leader. .
McGuinty also will ratchet up his claim the
federal government-collects a lot of money in
Ontario and returns little, so it has large
surpluses, while the province struggles to
finance needed programs, which he has been
calling the fiscal imbalance.
McGuinty will try to cast himself as
Stetson. At which he bawled, "Oh God, not
another one!" He later elaborated "Once given
the key to the city you don't go on getting keys
to the city."
Philip is not only blunt, he has an
undernourished attention span. In Vancouver
in 1971 he was expected to officially bless a
newly constructed annex to Vancouver City
Hall.
Philip chafed visibly as politician after
politician stood up and droned on about the
architectural splendour, the cultural
significance, the signal honour, blah, blah and
blah.
Finally, when it was his turn to officially
pronounce-the building up and running, Philip
strode to the microphone and said: "I declare
this thing open, whatever it is."
He later confessed that he had forgotten the
name. "It was raining, and I wanted to get on
with it: especially as the total audience was
about 15 passing shoppers under umbrellas."
Apparently, Vancouverites agree with
Philip's underwhelmed reaction. To this day
the annex is known as the East Thing.
Prince Philip is a curmudgeon's
curmudgeon. He can get away with it because
he's 85 years old. But the truth is, he's always
been crude as royal standards go — and
decidedly arrogant.
But you know' what? I like it. The man is
honest. A blue-blooded lager lout. Archie
standing up for provincial taxpayers against a
greedy federal government, which he can do
with little restraint, because for a- change the
Conservatives and not his .own party are in
power in Ottawa.
Tory will not want to be seen quarreling with
his federal party and has said' often that
McGuinty blames the federal Conservatives
for every problem. Tory would say he'd help
Ontario more by working with them.
McGuinty has responded the Ontario
Conservative leader should stand up for his
province.
This has the makings of a row in which
McGuinty could accuse Tory of being a puppet
of his federal party, which is the sort of charge
that has hurt provincial parties in the past.
Tory's main theme at this time is to accuse
McGuinty of providing "indecisive
leadership" and he can cite examples
including the Liberals promising to close coal-
fired power stations by 2007 to reduce
pollution and having to postpone this because
they failed to ensure there would be alternative
power to replace them.
Tory will also say McGuinty has been slow
tackling problems including gang shootings in
Toronto and a dispute over Native land
provoking violence in Caledonia. Not even the
premier's best friends will be able to claim he
• •
Bunker in ermine.
Wouldn't you prefer to hear Philip's not-so-
bon mots over the banal utterances of just
about any politician of any stripe these days?
There's a book out by Joe Klein called
Politics Lost: How Democracy Was
Trivialized By People Who Think You're
Stupid. Klein's theme is that political
pronouncements have been 'dumbed down' to
the point where anything a politician says is so
bland as to be meaningless.
He's right. Think George Bush and his
"Amurrica• is about Freedom' mantra. Do you .
remember any word or phrase uttered by Paul
Martin when he was PM? Every time he
opened his mouth he sounded like a duck
caught in a leg-hold trap.
Stephen Harper is no better. He sounds like
Mister Dressup, talking in a simple, rhythmic
cadence, like a dad reciting a fairy tale to a
sleepy child.
Which come to think of it...
Nope, give me splenetic, old, politically
incorrect, shoot-from-the-lip, Phil — who, to be
fair, can be witty and self-deprecating. Once in
Australia, hey/as introduced to a 'Mr. and Dr.
Robinson'.
"My wife is a Doctor of Philosophy,"
explained Mr. Robinson. "She is much more
important than I."
"Ah, yes," replied Prince Philip. "We have
that problem in our family too."
But Philip doesn't always have the final
word. On a visit to the city of Brasilia, he
asked a Brazilian admiral about the colourful
strip of medals on his chest.
"Did you earn those on Brasilia's artificial
lake?" he sneered.
"Yes sir," replied the admiral with a
disarming smile. "Not by marriage."
grabbed these issues and made them his own.
Tory says he would cancel McGuinty's $2.5
billion tax hike, but not how he would find
alternative money to maintain programs or
which he would cut.
The Conservative leader says vaguely he is
considering tax help to parents who send their
children to private religious schools and this
would be a partial revival of a Harris policy
that would be fought tooth-and-nail.
Tory is still unusually short of policies in
some key areas and like McGuinty risks being
labeled indecisive.
The Liberals also have been exhuming
Tory's past and recalled recently in the
legislature he chaired a federal election
campaign and ran TV commercials
emphasizing then Liberal leader Jean
Chretien's partial facial paralysis with the
comment he would be an embarrassing prime
minister, probably the most distasteful election
ads ever.
The Liberals also have found that, Tory,
while running a cable TV company. cut
hundreds of jobs and explained this happens at
times in business.
If these are mentioned in the current phony
war, think how they will be shouted froni the
housetops in the heat of an election.
Final Thought
Words are one of our chief means of
adjusting to all the situations of life. The
better control we have of our words, the
more successful our adjustment will be.
- Bergan Evans
Summer fun
Thoughts of summer traditionally
conjure such picturesque beauty as
blue waters lapping onto a sandy
beach.
Or someone lazying under a shady tree, the
gentle breezes swaying their hammock.
Or a hatted woman enjoying a quiet read on
a garden bench, amidst riotous colour and
cavorting insects.
But there's another part of summer. Crowds
of people gathered on a front lawn. Others
stroll languidly down the street. Music plays
and acquaintances re-acquaint.
There's a party about to happen and the
feeling is in the air.
As the temperatures warm, it's time for
theatre again. While Blyth Festival celebrated
its 2006 opening on Friday night, a season
which will mark its 100th Canadian premiere,
audiences have already had the opportunity to
enjoy productions at Stratford and Huron
Country Playhouse, as well as others a little
further afield. On a warm summer evening,
the faces may change but the picture remains
the same outside each theatre throughout the
summer. And the atmosphere is always
festive.
Work has given me the opportunity to enjoy
a lot of theatre over the years. .And though I
admire what takes place on stage I have come
to equally enjoy other aspects of my nights at
the Festival.
This past Friday for example, my son and
his wife accompanied us to the Blyth opening
which made going to the theatre an even
greater treat. We had a nice , dinner before
seeing the homage to one of Jason's idols
Stompin' Tom on the Festival stage.
Actually, I always anticipate an opening
night at Blyth, because it means a date with
my husband. Since becoming empty nesters
summer nights at home are spent boringly,
albeit pleasingly so. Having raised four
children, but now seemingly even busier
living our own lives, having the time after
supper to sit a bit, enjoy a book and the quiet
isn't difficult to get used to.
Yet, one has to be careful of the proverbial
rut, so it's nice that at least four times in the
summer we must leave our deck and our quiet
musings, dress up a tad and go to a Blyth
Festival opening.
Mark decided a long time ago, however,
after giving it a valiant effort, that I better find
another date for Stratford. He doesn't hear the
music in a Shakespearean ode, and he's never
been fond of a song and dance. So, after a
number of friends filled his shoes for a time,
the role of being my theatre steady has gone
to one good friend for six seasons now.
And what's particularly fun about this is
that we are kindred spirits when it comes to
how to spend an enjoyable night away from
home. Besides theatre, we both love dining
out and wining out. Finding new places to eat
before the theatre has become a bit of an
event.
And in Stratford that will keep us going for
awhile.
So it's not just the entertainment on stage,
the drama and comedy that has made theatre
such a great part of my summer. Sure, as
Shakespeare pointed out, the play is definitely
"the thing", but it's also nice to experience
something that doesn't just take you out of the
routine, but which provides the perfect excuse
to expand on the enjoyment factor.
Political parties drop election hints