I avoided buying a morning paper yesterday to spare myself yet another dose of militaristic mush, and what do I find front and centre in this morning's Globe and Mail? Governor-general Michaëlle Jean looking like the head of the Girl Guides. Obviously my timing was wrong, I should have avoided this morning's paper.What is this military binge were on all about?
For the first ninety years or so of our history we were proud defenders of the British Empire. That's why we fought in the First World War. Not for freedom but for the right of the British to lord it over Africans and Asians. We fought in the Boer War, for God's sake.
After WWII we changed tack, switched to the more moral and sensible course of peace-keeping. We even won a Nobel Prize for it. Now we are told that's over and done with and we are warriors again, fighting for the right of the Anglosphere to dominate world affairs, this time for the new version of Anglo power, the American Empire.
So now we must watch our Governor-General strut about in military uniform just like the royals love to do. Has the office gone to her pretty head? Does she think she's a royal now? Quite a switch for a lady who once flirted with separatists. Personally, I preferred the old Michaëlle.
I think that she's trying to make it clear to Mr. Harper that she is the representative of the commander in chief, and not Mr. Harper, who barged in front of her on another occasion to receive a salute which was not rightfully his to receive, in other words, a power grab on the part of Mr. Harper. I am glad the our Governor General is taking her role seriously.
ReplyDeleteActually, that is part of her job as titular Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/national/article/62838--governor-general-presents-new-sacrifice-medals-for-wounds-deaths
You should be more worried about the chickenhawk who is trying to muscle in on her job:
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=2954
As noted by Kady: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2009/11/pop-civics-quiz-whats-wrong-with-this-pmo-press-release.html