"Creative" Civil Disobedience

If the first week of our new Conservative majority Parliament has taught us anything, it is that we might be entering a new era of creative civil disobedience. More and more people are willing to make asses of themselves for a chance to get on television, and as the CBC audience becomes desensitized to these extreme measures the more extreme the stunts will have to be to produce that coveted 15 minutes of fame. By virtue of the law of diminishing marginal returns, activists need to turn up the volume with each new protest to have the same effect of the one previous. What tool will the "civil disobedience" crowd use in the next 4 years? Flash mobs seem to be all the rage these days. Expect more of those.

Frankly now that we have a majority government, these little PR stunts don't bother me like they would have a few months ago when we were treading lightly in minority waters. Now I find them more amusing than anything. Watching interviews with "Stop Harper Girl", I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. She really believes she is some kind of new age Princess Leia who is leading a rebellion against the evil Emperor Harper. She is really upset that Canadians elected a Tory majority, and in that sense I find her anxiety entertaining. It gave us something more interesting to talk about than a standard boring throne speech, so in a strange way I suppose we pundits owe her a thank you.

Expect more stunts in the coming years, with ever increasing degrees of ridiculousness.