Cows and such. . .

Hello blogreaders,

Tuesday was a good day indeed. I definitely hope we're in for at least four years of more rational, balanced behaviour from our southern neighbour. It's about time.

Besides it's nice to see a real leader get the chance to lead. You listen to Obama talk and you can't help but listen and feel that things aren't quite as bad or maybe they are but now we have someone to lead us out of the abyss. It's a rare thing these days.

The world has been in need of a few good leaders for a while now. Just look at the G8. Until Obama showed up, there wasn't a true leader amongst them. Lots of politicians, but politicians tend to just muck about without someone to guide them.

Russia? Putin's KGB roots betray him. He controls instead of leads. It may sound like splitting hairs but it's not.

Canada? We really haven't had a natural leader since Trudeau. Anyone who has to advertise what a normal family man he is is not a leader. For that matter, an idealist academic with charisma issues is not a leader either. For the record, I'm not saying there weren't faults to Trudeau. There were many, but leadership wasn't one of them.

As for Great Britain, Blair and his successor Brown don't strike me as leaders either. Blair was too quick to defer to the Americans after 9/11 and I don't think they've really recovered. For a once great nation, England just seems to muddle about now. But, then again, my views have been tainted somewhat by years of listening to Billy Bragg, so maybe I'm wrong (but I doubt it).

Germany, France, Italy, Japan? I can tell you who runs their countries (actually, I had to look up the leader of Japan), but that's about all I can tell you.

I think that's part of the reason why we seem to be drifting about these days. I look back on the 20th century as a great age for leaders. Not all of them were good and the good ones all had faults, but at least they provided direction. Nowadays we keep talking about what should be done but no one has the strength or courage to take the helm and steer us there.

Perhaps now we have someone like that. Perhaps. It could all still go wrong but I think this is the first good chance we've had in years. And that makes me guardedly optimistic.

I was actually going to write a post about going to the Royal Winter Fair tomorrow with my sister. It's a tradition we have. What better way to spend a fall day then to wander amongst farm exhibits and livestock shows? Alas, I've taken up far too much of your time with my political musings.

Hope all is well,

Remi