fall down go boom

I once met* Paul Martin...

*if met means sat in the back of a big lecture hall and shook his hand after a speech

...It was when I was in university, maybe 1994 or 95. I don't remember much about what he said, but I'm thinking the word deficit figured prominently. I also remember noting how all the Young Liberals around him in the pulpit were wearing either red pantsuits or red ties. The new uniform.

I later had this dream where I was sitting on an ugly shag carpet next to Paul Martin who was sitting in a completely unfashionable chair watching a 70s type television set. He turned to me and said "Why don't they understand?". As people are wont to do with dreams, I always wondered if this meant anything about my life. Now that he's on the outs, confirmed by the only poll that really matters, I wonder again.

I think maybe it's about the seductive nature of politics. I think most people go into the biz expecting to change the world. It doesn't really work that way. I guess as in life you make the best decisions you can with what you have at the time. As in life it never seems to be enough.

And now Stephen Harper is PM. Ironically, I once wrote a story, I think it was called "A Privy Council" and while mapping out the story line I guessed he was Reform's best bet for PM (this was around the same time as the Martin event, mentioned above). Can't remember the year I guessed him at...it wasn't part of the story, just a vehicle to understand things in my mind before committing them to paper. I do think it was a good story too, but it could never fly now, in the post-9/11 era, since in it, the PM gets killed while in Parliament.

Anyway, I think I somehow thought that if Harper won, his party would have become a lot more centrist than they are, or they seem to be, or I have been led to believe.

Have to keep an open mind about these things. I've gotta find that story again...