It's hard to believe that Stephen Harper is dusting off the attack ads he first brought out a few years ago in preparation for an election. For all the talk that none of the parties want one right now, it's hard not to wonder why it feels like we're smack in the middle of one. 

With Stephen Harper doing the media rounds under the auspices of reaching five years in office (My god, why does it feel like soooo much longer than that!) and a new, but not fresh, round of ads of the 'Smear” variety; And Michael Ignatieff back on the bus in a minor reprise of his Summer tour, it feels very much like I'll be clamouring for a job with Elections Canada in the near future. 

But, my job prospects notwithstanding, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the “Ground Hog Day” of an election. The outcome is going to be the same, and the ads telling me that Michael Ignatieff is an anti-Canadian American mole are growing tedious, tiresome and trite.

I mean, seriously, in one of the ads, some guy with the dulcet tones of the Grim Reaper, sombrely warns us that Ignatieff would consider adding back the two percent to the GST that Harper removed, even though most economists, who rarely agree on anything except, maybe, cardigans – agree that it's more beneficial to individuals to reduce income taxes. But why do something that's good for the people if it doesn't appeal to the Conservative's base? How's that for self-interest?

And the ads just keep on hammering away at Ignatieffs time living ouside Canada, and most seriously, in the US. I don't know if Harper knows this, but you know, the Americans can hear you when you accuse Ignatieff of having cooties for living there. I don't know, Maybe you should cool it. After all, they are our best customers, and you do wanna keep selling the oilsands, don't you? I mean, those tailing ponds ain't going to fill themselves...

It just seems to me that, if after two-plus years in office since the last election, your lead hand is that Ignatieff lived in the US once, and not any actual accomplishments – I mean, I can't blame you, I can't think of any either - then maybe all you're doing is helping the electorate come to their senses. You might find this hard to believe, but a coalition government would not be the apocalypse. I happen to know this because Gilles Duceppe can't ride a horse.

I just wonder how many more rounds of this we'll take before we finally move on to another movie. Cause personally, I'm finally getting bored of this Groundhog Day.
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It's no surprise that American government officials could be a humourless lot, but it never occurred to me that their humourlessness would lead them to believe that the plot lines of Little Mosque on the Prairie are actually insidious forays into anti-American propaganda.

This just may be one of the most damning pieces of information in the Wikileaks documents for this simple reason: The Americans are on to us. In fact, seen through the proper lens, it's clear that there has never been a Canadian television program that wasn't a veiled criticism of Americans in general and their foreign policy in particular. The Little Mosque on the Prairie objection comes from it's portrayal of an immigration officer in an unflattering light when the main characters try to get visas. He's like a cross between John Cleese's Basil Faulty and Mr. Bean. Read between the lines, and you'll see that Canadians feel that American wheat tariffs are protectionist and aggressive. It's all right there. You just have to look.

Hopefully, American investigators won't start reviewing our whole programming history as I can't imagine our diplomatic relations, let alone our conjugal ones (although I won't say who's visiting who), surviving that kind of scrutiny. Because it's not just our family programming that shoots pointed barbs – I mean the entirety of The Beachcombers is a scathing indictment of the electoral college system and Molly's Reach was just a reference to the “reach around” necessary to get the Americans' attention.

And Mr. Dressup? Basically a prescient criticism of the American Military's 'Don't ask, Don't tell' policy. Finnigan, who only spoke by whispering in Casey's ear, symbolized all the silent voices waiting to be heard...

The Friendly Giant, when rearranging the furniture at the beginning of the show, was a metaphor for American's coming into your house and doing whatever they damn will please.

Now that Wikileaks has given us the 'heads up' on how close American's are to unravelling the entire CBC propaganda machine, it's time for 'Operation Riefenstahl' to begin. Let's get started burning all the evidence before the damage between our two countries becomes irreparable. 

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