I can hear it now. The junior high Canadian History teacher in about 40 years.
Kids will be sitting there, taking in as little information as possible. Girls will be dutifully copying down notes from the blackboard, while secretly wondering if the boy across the room has noticed they exist. Boys will be mostly oblivious. Someone will burp anonymously, and everyone will giggle.
And through it all, the teacher will be explaining this sad chapter in Canadian history.
When grown men and women, elected to serve the nation, acted like children.
When they refused, either out of stubborness or sheer inability, to work together for the good of the country.
When lay-offs were rampant, the economy was teetering, the stock market was plunging - and the federal parties bickered back and forth, threatening to take one another down.
One party refused to cooperate with others, although their mandate to lead depended on it. One party didn't even pretend to like Canada. Another party had no leader, but was certain they could run the country without one. Heroes were conspicuously absent. Stability was sacrificed over and over again for political posturing. And a former PM who lovingly fostered a corrupt "culture of entitlement" during his too-long reign, was brought in to be the voice of reason.
A sad chapter indeed. Grrrr.
