Pro Rogue #2 and Cottage Life

Never mind the current Parliamentary vacation, even when Parliament IS in session I haven’t heard much about it working overtime. On the other hand, every now and then the U.S. Congress backs itself into a corner where they have to work all night to hammer out an agreement or to approve the federal budget, and if they don't, the President says something like “hell no, those boys aren’t going on summer break til they get ’er done.” (Does that sound like an odd mix of Lyndon Johnson and Sarah Palin?) Now that’s not something you’d hear a Canadian Prime Minister say. No sir, the Parliamentarians summer break would never be messed with. Ever.


That's because time at the cottage is sacred in Canada (second only to early evening ice time). Canadians even give their Prime Minister a cottage, a lovely setting on Harrington Lake not far from where I live. It’s a sort of “national cottage” that the nation loans to whomever happens to be Prime Minister. Whereas a new U.S. President is introduced to the button that controls the nuclear arsenal, a new Prime Minster of Canada is introduced to the national cottage, the national canoe and, of course, the national paddle (wouldn’t want the Prime Minister “up shit’s creek without a paddle” as they say, an expression I’m assuming has to be Canadian in origin). I’m also quite sure the Prime Minister is introduced to the National Donut, a French Cruller originally ordered by Laurier in 1898 and now preserved in a secret room at the National Archives(“and this, Mr. Prime Minister, is the French Cruller, lightly glazed and still bearing the teeth marks of Sir Wilfred”). Ah, but I digress.

I don’t know if the huge emphasis given to cottage life means that the States has more of a work ethic than Canada. The U.S. Congress might spend more time in session but the real question is do they get more work done, because we all know that time spent and work accomplished don’t necessarily correlate. Just ask any union member (ouch! okay, okay, I admit it’s a cheap shot). So how many bills went through the U.S Congress last year? In its 159 legislative days the U.S. 111th Congress passed 125 public laws; in the 130 legislative days of Canada’s 40th Parliament, 2nd session (Jan 26-Dec 30, 2009), they passed 31 of 64 bills. That comes to .81 bills passed per day in the U.S. Congress compared to .23 bills passed per day in the Canadian Parliament. So there you have it. Case closed. Canada can’t compete, and why should we bother. So let’s just get a keg and head up to the cottage. I say let's pro-rogue the country; we could all use a break.