blogging it real

Canada's minority government is in serious danger of being brought down, less than a year after it was elected, by a coalition of the main opposition parties, the Conservatives (who smell power for the first time since Mulroney), and the Bloc Quebecois (who smell complete electoral domination in Quebec for the first time ever). While the politicians work themselves into a fervor, and many in the population express what I suspect is something between irritation and indifference, the Canadian Monarchist League focusses the nation's attention on the big issue: the government may fall during a visit by Betty & Phil Windsor. Yawn! Who cares? If the government falls, the Prime Minister will go to the Governor General and ask her to dissolve Parliament and call a fresh election. Which she will.

But no, the monarchists insist, this is potentially a calamatous state of affairs:

If the federal government collapses during the May 17-25 royal tour of Alberta and Saskatchewan forcing a snap election, Prime Minister Paul Martin and Opposition Leader Stephen Harper should agree to "de-federalize" the visit, according to League chairman John Aimers.
MPs should be removed from the formal schedule, Mr. Martin should limit his comments at the Government of Canada black tie dinner in Edmonton on May 24 and allow Mr. Harper to be equally visible to the royal couple, he added.

"It is uncharted territory: a government falling in the middle of a major homecoming," Mr. Aimers said. "But it need not be disruptive."

Get a life, fool, Betty Windsor's home is in England. She is not a Canadian. She maintains a home in neither Saskatchewan nor Alberta. That's why she's paying a visit. If the federal Government collapses during this visit, it will have no effect on her, other than perhaps further diverting the public gaze from an event unlikely to capture much attention in the first place.