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In a matter of weeks someone or something will put the current session of Parliament out of its misery.

Many MPs will see the break as vacation. Some will contemplate remaining relevant while party leaders use the time to rethink a bigger picture and a larger strategy.

I am naive, I know, to imagine the government will resume in September committed to fixing the core of Canadian politics; Politics itself.

It's truly too bad Dean del Mastro did not understand, or worse, chose not to understand, the last place ranking given to car sales representatives and politicians on a survey measuring public trust, was not indiscriminate defamation aimed at either profession. It was merely a statistical point of fact serving as yet another wake-up call, not reason to keep snoozing.

That one or the other profession is mostly still only concerned about the comparative and pejorative label, instead of addressing the root cause of problem, is what's truly alarming.

I respectfully urge Mr. del Mastro to go back and listen [click here] and understand what Mr. Turner actually said, not what Mr. del Mastro chose to hear, spin, and misinterpret.

Mr. Turner does not slag car sales representatives any more, or less, than politicians in his or Mr. del Mastro's ridings, or anywhere else in Canada for that matter. In fact, it's not even Mr. Turner who equates the two professions at the very bottom of the trustworthiness pile. If Mr. del Mastro is not in agreement with the survey findings, he is encouraged to take the matter up with Ipsos-Reid or Workopolis, not with Mr. Turner for having the courage to reference the facts, even if they are not very flattering of a profession Mr. Turner is otherwise very proud.

Garth Turner does not place himself above others, as Mr. del Mastro suggests when he says "Garth is a shameless, self-promoter that feels like he has carte blanche to smear anyone that he sees fit...Garth is an elitist who feels he’s better than others. He feels he’s much smarter than he actually is.”

The point Mr. del Mastro appears to be missing, is Mr. Turner does not feel part of a crowd he sees as above the rest. Au contraire, Mr. Turner is in fact not afraid to report how very far below all others, sits the profession of politics and, by some ironic measure of coincidence, that of selling cars.

The important point of clarification Mr. Turner was making in the House of Commons when Mr. del Mastro decided to engage in a game of political interruptus, was not that Mr. del Mastro is himself a car salesman and personally untrustworthy. That's not what Mr. Turner, I, or anyone else that hasn't bought a car from Mr. del Mastro is saying. But if I was in the automobile business, I'd be a little more than just concerned that mine is a profession in the basement of trustworthiness with whom only politicians share the same space.

Perhaps the basement co-rankings does not trouble Mr. del Mastro. By contrast, I know that what Canadians think of politicians bothers Mr. Turner deeply. Peterborough and Halton voters can decide for themselves what kind of person they want representing them; a used car salesmen who doesn't see the connection, or a digital democrat for whom seeing his own profession in the bowels of public perception is disturbing and a motivator for aiming higher. 

When he is in Peterborough selling cars and not in Ottawa selling Mr. Harper, does Mr. del Mastro take equal offence to the comparison of car sales representatives to politicians? If so, at the del Mastro car dealership do they spend their time also chastising car buyers for making the implicit comparison? Or, does Mr. del Mastro focus on trying to set a higher code-of-conduct at his dealership that is morally and ethically superior to that of his competitors? Does this suddenly mean, that simply because he tries to be a different kind of car salesman with higher standards, that Mr. del Mastro is a car sales elitist who feels he's better than the others and smarter than he actually is?

Of course not, or at least hopefully not. Presumably, if Mr. del Mastro's car dealership operates in the trustworthy manner Canadians would like, perhaps there isn't a better suited political candidate to join, not combat, Mr. Turner in trying to turn around the impression Canadians have of politicians. Perhaps Mr. del Mastro would like to co-host one of Mr. Turner town hall meetings in Peterborough? It would occur to me Mr. del Mastro should be doubly incentivised, not singularly opposed.

Just about this time last year I professed that Mr. Harper had before him the opportunity to emerge the other side of the break with an environmental plan which, had it been the right plan, would have given Mr. Harper his much coveted Majority. He didn't listen then, I don't expect him to listen now.

But if I may again be presumptuous-enough to suggest, one of the core issues ailing Canadian politics and chiefly responsible for electoral stalemate in which we now live, is summarized herein. Mr. Dion is trying hard, albeit in a manner painful for most Canadians to assimilate, to occupy the new space. It's a space Elizabeth May already largely understands and occupies ... just not with a very large or concentrated [first-past-the-post] following.

It's a space which, if over the summer Mr. Harper genuinely learns a little humility and how to swallow a little humble pie, could see politicians - and maybe even car sales representatives - emerge from the basement of public opinion.  

Throughout last summer we had little indication to gauge what kind of environmentalist Mr. Harper would turn out to be until we were blessed with the Turner-ouster Harper-Ambrose Act. This summer will Mr. Harper make genuine and substantive changes, or will we simply be presented with a new trick for trying to sell a used car?

I'll be getting my clues from, among other sources, www.conservative.ca. So long as we keep seeing Conservative Party sanctioned images such as the [disrespectful] one posted below on May 16, 2007, we'll know where Mr. Harper, and possibly even Mr. del Mastro, are happy to have their reputations remain.

May 20, 2007  

*** Press Release click here ***  May 4, 2007 -  Canadians want vastly different seat distribution in House of Commons, poll shows

Core issue ignored; what ails Canadian politics