I’m perturbed, Pumpkins. Perfuddled. Per pickled. And a little pissed. Someone, somewhere, has reasoned that paying homage to the War of 1812 is worth 30 Million of our tax dollars.
By March, the Harperites will have erected fake lakes and Laura Secord chocolate gazebos in honour of a 200 year old war. (Can you erect a lake?)
Does anyone know when the War of 1812 took place? That’s right, 1812. Do you know who fought whom? We Canucks fought the Americans. Do you know who won? Nobody really knows. By all accounts, we burned down the White House and went home, so I suppose we did.
But don’t tell the Americans. They think they did. In fact, blowing our tubas about torching the White House may not be the most brilliant tourism initiative. They’re a little touchy about that sort of thing.
Now, if we’re going to spend a wallop marketing this shindig, maybe someone should come up with a catchier name. It’s not like we’ve had so many U.S. wars we’re going to get all mixed up unless we refer to the year.
Or how about we just save the 30 mil and call it The Only War We Ever Fought On Our Soil. Won’t fit on a bumper sticker, but at least the hockey and airplane museums won’t get their funding cut to pay for this over-blown military parade.
