For the Love of Neil Patrick Harris

I love you, Neil Patrick Harris.

Not only for your effortless charm, charming good humor, and the last two hours I spent watching “Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog,” which I enjoyed very much. (It’s a short film...I watched it twice. Ahem.) And how every moment of my life gets about three shiny-gold-stars better when my brain cries out “Neil Patrick Harris! He’s amazing!” which happens, periodically. That’s all good, but, there’s something else, too.

You see...you’re gay. I know, you probably knew that already. And while I clearly have a giant crush on you, more importantly, my brother also has a giant crush on you. Which is spectacularly amazing, because...you’re gay. Which means my brother has a crush on a gay guy. Which means my brother is himself a little bit gay, or at least forced to accept that gay guys are cool, because he thinks you’re cool, and possibly because he’s a little bit gay inside, too.

So, for your heroic efforts to end homophobia inside one desperately confused young Ontarian man, I thank you.

...And now, on to the angry, ranty part of my blog, which is really getting quite redundant...

Reasons to Renounce Democratic Socialism and take up Dr. Horrible-Style Anarchy:

Our country is a monarchy. Every law and declaration that comes to pass is signed by the Governor General, who is Canada’s representative of the Queen of England (Elizabeth II), who is still officially in charge. Again, not even our queen - England’s queen. She only visits once every decade or so, and yet...oh, Canada. In fact, our country only has a parliament, at all, because the Queen of England (Victoria, this time) willed that it be so in 1867, when she decided that it would be nice if Canada gained some self esteem by running their own affairs for a while.

Our Prime Minister (who, let’s not forget, has no real power if his actions go against the will of the Queen of England) is Stephen Harper. ‘Nuff said.

The majority of Canadians who voted did not vote for Stephen Harper, but our system is not representative, so only the big parties get a chance of going to Ottawa at all, and...Stephen Harper. That’s apparently the very best our country can do.

While a small group of Canadians voted Conservative, and a larger group voted for a myriad of other more liberal parties, an even larger group of Canadians did not bother to vote at all. Our country’s citizens are among the worlds most complaining and complacent - we’re well informed about the issues that shape the world, and yet we have absolutely no will to lift a finger for change.

Feelings of laziness, disenfranchisement, and understandable bewilderment at our current political system prevail, leading to a population which is theoretically dissatisfied with the status quo, but comfortable enough not to bother to do anything about it. Or so it seems. Maybe if we took away hockey, Canadians would have a bit of gusto left over for social change.

Until then....sigh.