Pamela Anderson and Stephen Harper’s Sex Appeal
Thanks to Warren Kinsella for his insightful advice on how to maximize hits, and drive traffic to your blog. Cynics rejoice.
Today’s question is what thing has been surprisingly absent from Slaw since its inception?. If you guessed Pamela Anderson and Stephen Harper’s Sex Appeal, well we haven’t exactly blogged much on either – but that’s not the answer I’m thinking of.
It’s the Law Commission of Canada which has been beavering away in Ottawa for 8 3/4 years, without making much impression on the law, lawyers or the Canadian legal community. You might have missed its last publication on work, issued on January 24, 2005. And the research agenda stretches out into the future.
But it seems sadly invisible. No newsletters. No huge research studies. No provocative ideas. A rather sad website. If this was the rationale for the Chrétien government’s resurrection of the old Law Reform Commission of Canada, one wonders how long one should wait for tangible impact. If not new answers, then perhaps brave questions. The contrast with Lord Scarman’s work at the other Law Commission is skilfully drawn in Justice Michael Kirby’s recent lecture. Different times, different questions.
Speaking of novel questions, George Jonas raised the issue of Stephen Harper’s sex appeal, only to be topped by the Prime Minister’s self-deprecating line in his first Question Period that I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of seducing anyone, even my wife.
Which of course brings us back to Pamela (or nice Grishkin, as the literary know her) and the anti-seal-hunt campaign, about which she had hoped to accost the Prime Minister at the Junos. Ms. Anderson did opine that she thought Mr. Harper was a good candidate for a make-over, about which a discreet silence seems appropriate.
However, one might well wonder whether Ms. Anderson might be in as good a position to influence the government’s legislative agenda as the Law Commission. In Mr. Harper’s Ottawa of the Five Priorities, what hope for action? When Justice Minister Vic Toews unveiled his vision for law reform at Western, earlier this month, there didn’t seem to be much beyond a crackdown on crime
Which brings us back to Slaw themes and how the rise of Search Engines is leading to blander headlines and the decline of wit among copy-editors and layout folk. But admit it, you wouldn’t have read this far if I had accurately captioned this post Law Commission continues to be invisible, would you?
Reading past the first couple of paragraphs, though, still relies on quality writing. You did a good job of wrapping the pill in candy.
Pneumatic as an adjective for women seems to have a mid-century pedigree. It appears in Brave New World as well. What airiness has to do with bustiness may be little, except in the imaginations of the male British elite. I imagine that, as repressed christians, most of them had limited experience on which to base their descriptions, or they were hypocrites as well. It is a suitable comeuppance that those chauvinists have propagated their views most successfully to the target markets of American beer and car companies.
Alternatively, one could attribute to them a little more substance, as it were, by looking into the Greek: the connection of air to spirit was quite strong then. But I think its too much to understand Huxley’s soma-addled female as a spiritualist. Or was he was anticipating California?
Nice post Simon. Perhaps we can return via the blog what the search engines have taken away? :-)
You’re on a definitely on a roll these days… another enjoyable read.