The Man Who Will Be Forgotten...

Paul Martin is clearly in denial...

'The Liberal party leader expressed his pride in the "great deal" his minority government accomplished since it received its mandate in the 2004 election and he highlighted the signing of a $5-billion agreement to address aboriginal health, education and poverty, a 10-year, $41-billion health-care deal with provincial governments and funding agreements to build a national child-care program.'(link)

This is a sad thing to say, but Paul Martin will probably forgotten if anything. His time as Prime Minister will likely be overshadowed by Jean Chretien - who's only accomplishments were in his last few months where he frantically searched for a legacy. In the end Jean Chretien will be mostly remembered for holding on to power for so long, and for the sponsorship scandal. Paul Martin will be more remembered for balancing the budget more than anything else.

And what of Paul Martin's highlighted accomplisments? First off, that $41 billion was mostly recycled spending commitments as far as I heard. And that Child Care program will never come to fruition with the Conservatives in power. Also his money for aboriginals I'm willing to bet will never be remembered because I doubt it will solve the problems on reserves or make any difference at all in the lives of aboriginals.

'...historians will look back in several decades and marvel that a sparsely populated nation had so well positioned itself in the world at a time of massive change.'

In an age where the rise of global terrorism sparked massive change people may very well look at Canada with surprise. That anyone could ignore that threat that changed so much will seem flabbergasting to say the least. Neither Paul Martin or Jean Chretien wanted to deal with that threat in an real way - And they wouldn't have needed to go into Iraq to do that. What's worse, the cronic underfunding of our military has decreased the respect Canada has abroad. We have Dane's claiming that Canadian territory is their own. We've left the defense of Canada's skies up to the Americans...

If anything history will remember these years as one of the near dismantling of Canada as a sovereign nation, and the drastic reduction of respect for Canada as a nation abroad. Historians may very well look back at the last decade as a time of an "apathetic" Canada that sat by while the world turned .