The election is history (some say historic, but let's not go there yet) and the President-elect is busily assembling his cabinet. I've been meaning to comment on all the old-timers that have appeared in what was supposed to be an All About Change administration, but that's all been written, commented, and blogged to death. But in today's news there are a couple items that make me realize what a remarkable process we have for changing governments.
And there's not doubt we're changing governments. All talk of moderation aside, and despite the few Bush loyalists burrowing into the career ranks at their agencies, there's going to be a serious change of direction in most of the regulatory establishement. Fine. The unions, enviros, and other self-proclaimed progressives have been shut out for a while, so it's time for them to have a go at running things. That's how we do it.
Unlike, say,
Thailand, where the country's constitutional court has disbanded three coalition parties and declared that the prime minister is banned from politics for five years. Think that's too far afield to be relevant? How about something closer to home, like
Canada? There the three minority parties in Parliament have ganged up on the ruling Conservative Party and Prime Minister Howard, declaring that they'll force a no-confidence vote and organize a ruling coalition. No matter that none of the coalition partners got much support in the last election, or that the presumptive prime minister, Stéphane Dion, is described as the Globe and Mail as a "defeated party leader" who "has never earned the right to govern." This, by the way, is quoted from an
editorial calling for Primer Minister Harper to step down.
Maybe I'm making too big a deal of this. After all, the articles in the US papers about the Thailand situation focus on whether protesters will allow the airport to reopen, and let tourists come and go. And it's hard to find anything about the Canada situation. But I thought it was worth a mention nevertheless, as a constrast to the calm and civilized transfer of power that's been the way we've done things since 1789.
