It's Prime Minister Harper's 56 birthday today, but even that is decidedly odd. It started with a report that blank birthday cards were being sent out to the Party faithful to sign and return to him.
I noticed the same thing last year when wife Laureen posted on Twitter a photo of Harper going though last year's haul of birthday cards. See anything odd? All the cards are the same. I've received duplicate cards once in a while for my birthday, but 200 exactly the same? What are the odds?
If that wasn't enough, to ensure Dear Leader has a happy birthday the Conservatives sent out this email today under Laureen's signature to go to a website and send little Stevie birthday greetings:
But keep it quiet - apparently it's a surprise. The website you are directed to is festive, but one of my more technical friends tells me when you send greetings you are asked to link it to your Facebook account so the app knows who your friends are. Nice. Who needs #C-51?
Several other megalomaniacs in history were photographed accepting the birthday greetings of an adoring population, but I never thought I'd see it in Canada. Quite aside from the cult of personality aspect, the contrived nature of it strikes me as kind of sad, like the kid who invites the class to his birthday party and no one shows up.
It seems Harper's birthday truly is a "party of one."
