Comic of the Week

Perhaps to a fault, there is an extraordinary amount of emotional investment in the result of the Nov. 4 American presidential election. A previously wounded liberal America has been resurrected by the unpopularity of a Republican president and a failing economy.

Recently, the Canada Arts Council voted to provide $95,000 to artist Cesare Saez, so that he could launch a 300-metre inflatable banana into geosynchronous orbit over the state of Texas. Now, as reported in the Globe and Mail, despite the fact that Saez never actually constructed his inflatable fruit and now says the project will not go ahead, he is under no obligation to return the money.

In the upcoming months and years, Canadians will hear much from Harper on his strengthened minority government's "mandate." We will be informed that we have apparently given sanction to his platform in its entirety. But it will be a lie. And it will remain so until we change the way we vote.