Has the prime minister's status anxiety inspired him to remake the Order of Canada into an anti-elitist honour?
The wrong people are getting the Order of Canada, apparently, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has snuck $13.4 million into the federal budget to prod for nominations of the “under-represented.”
As the Ottawa Citizen’s wry Glen McGregor has suggested, it appears Harper is upset that the Ordered of Canada are thin on the ground in the West, positively clog up Atlantic Canada … and, yes, there are too many arts types, not just in the Order of Canada presumably, but generally.
The money will be spent over five years (though how can an online form cost so much?) It’s like a new gold rush, but Harper is panning for status.
Well, good luck to him, good luck in what Stephen Colbert used to devote a whole segment to: Who’s Not Honouring Me Now? “I never look for external validation, and for that kind of confidence, I should get an award,” Colbert said tearfully.
From MacArthur Genius grants to Teen Choice Awards, the man was shunned. Colbert made constant fun of our accents and ludicrously free health care, covered our Olympics with relentless sneering, and warped our anthem. Poor man, I thought, we should Order-of-Canada him out of spite.
No comments:
Post a Comment