Among the funniest comments coming from Ottawa these days was an e-mail reporting the streets around Parliament Hill are blocked with chicken feathers these days.
So many chickens are coming home to roost that their shedding feathers are causing a driving hazard. People are having difficulty walking and Ottawa Carlton municipal workers are putting in overtime trying to free up enough space for people to get around.
There are also reports of tar on back order at local Home Depot outlets and the price for rails is climbing on a shortened supply. Some people are apparently planning to take advantage of the feather supply.
The latest chicken to head home wore a wet suit and jet skied up the Rideau Canal.
Stockwell Day's people worked on a secret deal with Bloc in 2000 in case the election returned a minority parliament. Day denies knowing about the deal. Others might be seeing nuggets and dipping sauce since Day's defence emphasizes "signing" a deal with separatists.
That kind of feather-splitting should make anyone skeptical. Then when you find out Stock had a loose definition of "bad" back then - much like Loyola Hearn - you pretty much know Stock is running scared. Scared of losing the car and driver, the expense account and the trappings of power.
The lust for power runs deep among the Blue crowd. It will likely take hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their claw marks out of the desks, door jabs and banisters as they get dragged from their offices next Monday.
CBC dug into the files as part of the televised version of the Stockwell Day story. They found a 1996 article by some guy named Harper and his best pal Tom Flanagan wherein the newbie member of parliament and his future political staffer mused about cutting a deal with separatists as a way of ousting the Liberals.
If they get punted to the opposition curb next week in a confidence vote, we can only wonder what will happen when the cows come home. That bovine history, full of stuff like Cadman and all its implications of potential criminal activity, could well make getting covered in tar and feathers and run out of town on rail look like an afternoon strolling the Byward.
-srbp-