FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| VIEWPOINT Dear Mr. Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy There has been enough posturing, rhetoric and stupidity in Canadian politics this year to make me wonder why I even bother voting, but it doesn't hold a candle to the kind of year you've had in Italy. You guys never cease to amaze me. Your government and politics are always on the verge of complete chaos, but the rest of the country just goes about its business as if nothing is happening. Now, as an astute businessman, I know that politicians always overrate their ability to either fix or mess up the economy. One group will say they are making things better and the other group responds that any changes will make things worse. I say there will always be some business to take care of because people will always need food to eat and clothes to wear. You guys in Italy have a pretty good grasp on this concept and I want you to come over here to explain to Canadian politicians how unimportant they really are. Canadian politicians are always fussing over some crisis or other, whether it's those Québecois separatists, the Senate or alienated Westerners. I don't blame them. How else are they going to justify their salaries and expense accounts? As for myself, it's nice to have a little something exciting to discuss with the boys who hang around the showroom. In the end, most of us are only interested in how to get food on the table. We don't need to be told that the economy and our jobs are going to teeter on the brink until all the political ills of the country are sorted out. I mean, something like that is going to weigh on a person's mind, make them unhappy and distract them from getting the job done. You don't have to look any further than the bunch of economic Henny Pennys wandering the halls of government to realize what happened to the productivity of the Canadian worker. I follow the news. The boys down in the showroom say if I spent as much time selling farm implements as I do reading the paper, I'd be a tycoon by now. Anyway, I see what's going on in Italy and I want to know how we Canadians can foster a little of that laissez-faire government attitude your citizens have. You boys have had 53 governments since WW II. Last fall, you had to resign for five days because the Communist party - not even one of the God-knows-how-many parties in your coalition government - didn't like your budget. Just to get back into power, you had to reduce the work week from 40 hours to 35 and spend billions of dollars on employment development programs. You have the Mafia, the Masons and the Red Brigade using whatever means necessary to get their own way. Despite all this, the Italian economy keeps on growing and is now hotter than tarmac in July. Over on this side of the ocean, the Quebec separatists burp and the entire economy might drop into a deep freeze. The Aboriginals try to reclaim what is theirs and the stock market might get woozy. Poor people demand a little respect and the Canadian dollar is supposed to take a swan dive. Well, at least that's what you get if you listen to those self-appointed guardians of the economy in Ottawa. I've told our politicians this a hundred times. They don't want to listen, so I was hoping you might talk a little sense into them. Give it some thought anyway. Yours in stable government, |