PM's trip aimed at soothing West

Oh, now there is a laughable headline...followed by a laughable article in the Star that details how PM & the gang are going to tackle the issue of Western alienation by - wait for it - holding some meetings out west. Wow. That'll just about do it, won't it? Those pesky westerners will hardly be able to resist the charms of the Liberals if PM & the gang are so willing to grace them with their august presence, right?

Yep - thats the way to put and end to that growing sense of alienation and disengagement...why bother listening to the ideas coming out of the west, or getting to know how this sector of the Canadian populace thinks? Just cloister yourself in a hotel with the Liberal caucus, pose for a few photo ops at some nice spots, and emerge from the conference room every now and then to throw out an announcement or two - and remember, those Western folk like things big, so make sure every announcemnent has a nice big price tag attached to it - yeah, that'll impress them!

Goodale told CTV's Question Period on Sunday the caucus and cabinet sessions are "a real, tangible demonstration that we are in touch, and we do get it, and we want to be a close ally of Western Canada."

In fact, I would argue the opposite, that holding a couple of meetings in cities west of Ontario does not show that you are "in touch" or that you "get it" - it just shows how out of touch you really are - that you expect people to be so star struck by the fact that the PM & his cronies (er, or the Liberal Cabinet as they like to be called) have bothered to show their faces west of the Ontario Manitoba border, that all the demonizing of the West, all the redneck cracks, all the "intolerant bigot" comments will just be forgotten? You expect people to forget the fact that the West is pretty much ignored 90% of the time (except at election time, when they make a half hearted effort to win a seat or two)? I mean, really - an asteroid could hit Edmonton, and the Liberals might, just might, make a trip out to inspect the damage - but only so long as none of the fallout happened to fall on blessed Quebec - because heaven forfend if any Quebecer was inconvenienced by this disaster! Why, that might aid the separatists! All hands on deck!

And yeah, they may be playing nicey nicey now, but just wait till the election rolls around - then watch how long it will take for their understanding of "Western alienation" to go out the window...and then we'll all start to here the same old themes about the scary "conservatives" (you know, that vast westernrightwingintolerantbigotredneck party)...then we'll see just how much the Liberals "get it"...