"Behead Harper," huh?

The arrest of 17 people in connection with a terrorist plot in Canada has now been reported to have stopped the beheading of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Forgive me for my conspiracy-laced reaction here, but come on. Just as I thought wow, Bush bombed his own country the minute I saw the first plane hit the World Trade Centre in New York, it took less than a blink of an eye for the political machinations to make themselves obvious. I'm nothing if not arumourmonger, so here goes.

Minority government leader Stephen Harper, clearly a sufferer of the political equivalent of small man syndrome, has been trying to act bigger than his britches from the moment he emerged upon the national scene. That he has become Prime Minister hasn't helped any; his squabbles with the national press corps and flaunting of his office (David Emerson, anyone? The Kyoto snub? Upping the military risk in the Middle East against the wishes of a majority of Canadians?) are little more than screams for a federal penile implant.

This plot to storm Parliament, so efficiently stopped by the Mounted, is much too convenient for Harper for my liking. This guy will now have the same carte blanche that Bush received after 9/11. My theory? Whether or not this terrorist threat was fabricated, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the decapitation factor is a ruse to help Harper create a Secret Service-style circle of protection for the Prime Minster of this country. Where Jean Cretien beat the bejesus out of anyone who got near him, and his wife hit burglers with candlesticks and paperweights, Harper wants a fancy-dancy, gun-totin' posse like his homo-hating brother in the White House.

Good or bad? Well, no one will begrudge a head of state a little security. But the fact that Harper is more American than Canadian is a mite spooky. The power structure hereabouts is on a smaller scale, of course, but take a look at what Bush has done: plummeting American dollar, skyrocketing military spending, exorbitant debt, and more high-profile terrorist activity aimed westward than at any time in the past 30 years.

Stephen Harper has benefitted from the end of the Liberal empire -- stronger Canuck dollar, for now anyway -- but watch as we end up with similar results, probably sooner than later. Our army's peacekeeping role has been upgraded to active fighting and offensive manoeuvres -- result: terrorist attention north of 49. He's spurning
Kyoto; how can that lead anywhere good? He wants to revisit the gay marriage issue, and therein lose Canada's reputation as a world-leader in human rights & open-minded, educated thought.

Quick, someone convince me Harper, head attached and powers heightened, is a happy ending to this story.