Canada goes conservative

I happened to be in Canada last year during a round of debates between (now) to-be prime minister Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, and a third candidate whose name I've forgotten but who very much reminded me of an earnest realtor, or perhaps high-school hockey coach. It was fun to watch on TV, since I had little knowledge of any of the candidates.

Anyway, for me, watching Harper ooze his family values and smilingly conservative commonsense bullshit brought back images of the old sliminess of Falwell, Reagan, and Bush I & Bush II. It's an instinctive reaction for me—ack, this person is so fake, so contrived that surely anyone can see it?

Not that other politicians aren't fake and contrived, but still.

Cole waits for the judges before his pommel horse routine, Stanford Open