Canadian Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer

(credit: Wikipedia)

I channel surf. I confess. (Oh, the shame of it!)

But this habit meant that I surfed from an international news channel to a Canadian news channel in the space of about two minutes this morning.

I caught a world news channel covering Secretary General of the UN Gutteres begging warring factions in several areas of the world to lay down their arms - for the time being - and cooperate to fight Covid 19 in their area.

A minute later I caught Canadian Conservative leader Andrew Scheer saying that the opposition's role in parliament now is to scrutinize and criticize all of the government's policies and moves - even in these difficult pandemic times.

Well, there it is. In a democracy, even when we disagree bitterly, we still agree to thrash out our differences with words, votes, and elections - not bullets, bombs, and bayonets. And we accept the decisions arrived at by this democratic process.

So I don't say this lightly, but ...today a conservative leader made some good sense. So, good on you for this much at least, Andrew Scheer.

He's still on record saying that global warming is a myth and the earth was created about 6000 years ago. Maybe, he is jumping on the science bandwagon because it is politically useful to do so right now. Right now, I don't care. That does not detract from the fact that he did make a statement that fully supports our democracy.

For today, I'll take it.

We are nothing like facing the flu pandemic of 1919, folks, or anything like an equivalent crisis. If you're feeling annoyed with all these measures, you'd better give your head a shake. In a month - or if not this time, then next time - we may very well meet up with a virus that kicks our asses over the horizon. Then, we will need to hang together - as a democratic nation, not a bunch of bullet-brained, warring factions - or we shall certainly hang separately.

I'm feeling that smug in our democracy - for today, anyway - that I think I'll just stay home and watch t.v.. (Oh, the shame of it!)

P.S. Here's a link to the Andrew Scheer interview:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1719437379728?fbclid=IwAR1cakKYRy0p--odn8cJux8V1FvkIRjAfEcoq2ZTiKwZBQ2Q5MjgU1HWU0k