Letters to the editor this morning

Appropriate reaction to the silly rural Canadian piece in the Globe yesterday:

REG WHITAKER
March 3, 2009
Victoria -- Patricia Robertson has great fun sneering at Michael Ignatieff's efforts to woo Western prairie voters (Ignatieff Comes A-Courtin' - March 2). Give it up, she advises the federal Liberal Leader; we prairie folk already belong to Stephen Harper. "He's one of us." Mr. Harper is writing a book on hockey, while Mr. Ignatieff pens "brainy non-fiction tomes" and vacations in France. What more do we need to know?

In her inverted populist snobbery, Ms. Robertson inadvertently highlights a worrying contemporary deformation of democracy. In the recent U.S. election, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, despite her manifest lack of qualifications for the second-highest office in the land, was supported by some voters who kept telling reporters that she was "just like us." Luckily, they were a minority.

Ms. Robertson offers not a single rational argument based on policy for choosing Mr. Harper over Mr. Ignatieff. Mr. Ignatieff and his Liberals may or may not be a better choice, but populist stupidity offers no guide to conscientious voters.

Well said.