BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)

Subject: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:03 AM

I am proposing a new Canadian political party.

Whatever your preferred issues, values or ideological leanings, to decidedly win a Canadian federal election and become Prime Minister, one prerequisite is essential... a Big Goofy Head.

Rampant in the tapestry that is Canada's political history, from our first PM (Sir John A. MacDonald) on down to our latest head of government (Stephen Harper), has dwelt that golden thread of physical attributes that has secured the hearts and minds of the Canadian voter: The Big Goofy Head.

Yes, the Big Goofy Head... Think of our most beloved (and behated) PMs with their individual facio-cranio-mandibulo idiosyncracies. Think Chretien. Think Mulroney. Think Clark. Think Trudeau. Think Diefenbaker!

True, we didn't carve likenesses of our beloved BGHs into a mountain like our friends to the south. No, but we did need their likenesses on our currency. And, more importantly, in their esteemed visages, we required a certain instantly recognizable je ne sais quoi that we could point to proudly (or dubiously) in a crowd of international diplomats and that our political cartoonists could really get a leather-mittened grip on, eh?

The Big Goofy Head.

Gotta love `em. Gotta vote for `em.

Perhaps it is time in Canada for a party that forgets all these other fleeting issues like economic health, employment, health care, scandal, the environment, etc. and concentrates on what we REALLY want.

The Big Goofy Head Party.
Find and support your local candidate now.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:04 AM

Negotiations are ongoing for Brent Butt to assume leadership.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:05 AM

Our first PM, Sir John A. MacDonald. Really set the standard for the Big Goofy Head.

Eat your heart out, Geo. Washington!

Famous both for his legendary procrastination (his nickname was "Old Tomorrow") and his binge drinking, he once vommed in the House of Commons during a debate. He blamed it on the sound of his opponent's voice.

Oh, where is your like today, John A.?

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:08 AM

Our 13th PM really had to have something special going on, Goofy-wise, to combat the juju associated with that infamous unlucky number.

Point: The Right Hon. John George Diefenbaker. "Dief the Chief"

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:10 AM

Our 20th PM, Jean Chrétien. How I miss him.

Is there a more loveable Big Goofy Head out there? I think not.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:11 AM

Our 9th Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King, in office for several years both before and throughout WW2.

We've only relatively recently come to learn a little bit about just how much goofy was locked up in that Big Goofy Head.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:18 AM

Our 15th Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ushered in the era of the Sexy Big Goofy Head.

Love him? Hate him? Whatever... you couldn't deny him.

And Canadians didn't. Again and again. in `68. And `72. And `74. And again, in `80 (after a coffee break).

The women couldn't get enough of PET's Big Goofy Head.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:25 AM

Our 18th PM, Martin Brian Mulroney.

The solid edifice that was that Big Goofy Head persuaded Canadians to deliver him two back-to-back majority governments.

We woke up groggy and rueful years later in a tub of ice and missing some organs, like we'd been drunk or rufied.

The power of the Big Goofy Head is not to be denied.

Look at this fine figure of a BGH serving as a northern bulwark behind the next possible addition to the US's Mount Rushmore. Makes you proud to be Canadian.

"When Irish eyes are smiling..."

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:28 AM

There was one of our lesser known Big Goofy Heads of government, our 6th Prime Minister, Sir Charles Tupper.

(Hey, how come the Queen doesn't "Sir" our PMs anymore?)

Sir Chuck holds the dubious distinction of being the Canadian PM with the shortest term of office: just 69 days. That's right, much shorter than Joe Clark, even shorter than Kim Campbell or John Turner.

Can't deny that HE had a Big Goofy Head. I suspect it was even more of an asset back in those heady old post-Confederation days.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:30 AM

Our 22nd and present PM, Stephen Harper.

Big Goofy Head?
He's got it! Yeah, baby, he's got it!

There's a certain disarming goofyness in that BGH, it's almost likeable. Like George W. Bush.

Beware...

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:33 AM

Sir Wilfred Laurier, our 7th PM, the Great Compromiser.

Only slightly Goofy looking, he was a long-timer: 45 years in the House, a 15 year unbroken term of office as PM, 4 consecutive election victories (majority governments, too), and over 31 years as leader of the Liberal Party.

Gotta take your hat off to that one. He made his Goofyness go a long way.

He's on our commonest and smallest denomination of paper currency, the $5 bill... the "Wilfy".

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:35 AM

Our 16th, the Right Hon. Joe "Who" Clark.

A Tory from Alberta, he was actually our youngest PM, at 39. He didn't last long in office, but he did break a 16 year Liberal streak, ousting Trudeau for nearly a year (before PET came back from a declared retirement to win the PMship back).

Famous for his weak chin, his party quickly replaced him as leader for the next election with the atomic chin of Brian Mulroney.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:38 AM

Kim Campbell, our 19th PM, the first and only woman to hold the office and a bit of a sacrificial lamb.

When B. Mulroney finally went his way, he left her in charge of the poor old Progressive Conservative party, claiming he handed her the keys to yet another Tory majority government.

And what colour is the sky in your world, Brian?

The party practically became a political non-entity after his tenure as leader, so few seats did it win in the next election.

Kimmy has the cutest Big Goofy Head of them all, looking quite a bit like Tweety Bird.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:44 AM

Sure, this head is Goofy, but I guess it just wasn't Big enough for Canadian voters.

...the few who bothered to turn out.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:44 AM

Sorry, but you are gonna have licensing problems from Disney... :-P

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 12:47 AM

Disney won't be a problem. We worked out a trade. They got our Mounties.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 07:31 AM

All those Goofy Heads may be socialists (whether ya can admit it or not).... but they're our socialists. In fact one of them was probably a licensed plumber ... well it maybe debatable if he/she was really licensed.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 07:42 AM

I think this guy sitting on the couch would have made a great PM .. but nobody could quite 'get' what he was all about.

Eugene Whelan

Eugene Whelan, minister of agriculture under Pierre Elliot Trudeau

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 07:15 PM

But we have to "get" what they are about, biLL. Voters aren't big on subtlety.

Look at that picture of Dief again. We know what he was about: clipping the wings of the Canadian aero-industry, pissing and moaning about our "new" flag, and scaring the pee out of the kiddies.

Compare him with Joe Clark. Must be something in prairie water that robs calcium from the chin bones and chubbies up the jowls.

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 07:39 PM

good point Cluin ... your correct .. politics is definitely shades of black and white. It makes it easier for the voters to 'vote'.


good one on that prairie water thing Cluin ROTFL !!

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Big Goofy Head Party (Canadian Politics)
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 07:53 PM

That's IF you can get them out to vote at all, biLL.