What it does sound like, at least to me, is eerily similar to another confrontation that took place a couple of summers ago in southern Ontario. In that incident, authorities dressed in police blue faced off against alleged landowners dressed in camouflage green and gray, their faces hidden behind bandannas.

But the similarities don‘t just end there.

In Muskoka, landowners closed down snowmobile trails to make a point- in Caledonia they blocked a major highway.
In Caledonia, the perpetrators were perceived by the general public as quite radical and their methods tantamount to extortion. In Muskoka? Yeah, the same.

And in both cases, the intended outcome of such tactics was basically to influence political decisions, this particular time being about land use rights.

Now, some might argue that this is like comparing apples to oranges but I would suggest it’s more like comparing Macintoshs to Crabs - they may appear different on the outside but inside they‘re both still apples. Snowmobile trails may not be quite as important as highways but the intent for closing them is the same. What is more like apples to oranges is the degree of extremism interest groups appear willing to go to now as opposed to a time not that far back.

Ten or fifteen years ago, the Ministry of Transportation determined that traffic flow out Highway 60 to Algonquin Park was going to increase enough in the not too distant future to justify planning for a new four lane highway. Their preferred route started north of Huntsville by Arrowhead Park and went east through the bush to the intersection of Hwys 60 and 35.

Unfortunately for this proposal, it garnered the attention of a previously unorganized small group of cottagers who proceeded to get organized and subsequently spearhead a campaign to defeat the idea. They were successful, resulting in the four laneing of Hwy 60 as we now know it.

I thought of this the other day while reading yet another article about the impending closing of Hwy 60 for the G8 Summit. How much different it would be, I pondered, if the main artery from Hwy 11 to the nation’s capital wasn’t bottlenecked between Dwight and Huntsville. Tons of salt wouldn’t be draining directly into Peninsula and Fairy Lakes every winter. Hundreds of people wouldn’t be inconvenienced by road closures for Summits and marathons and triathlons. Truckers wouldn’t be fearful of sliding on ice through the lights by Robinsons as they approached Hwy 11. So many pluses never realized, all because a minority influenced a political decision intended to benefit the majority.

At least this group didn’t get their way by holding the rest of us hostage, though. Nowadays, inconveniencing the public appears to be the preferred way to achieve one’s aims. Whether it be by letting garbage pile up on tennis courts or subway riders walk to work or university students miss a year of their expensive education, holding the public hostage is apparently the new modus operandi for conflict resolution between politicians and ordinary citizens. Now John Q. Public is not only nothing more than a faceless number at work, he is also just a voiceless pawn in the game plan of any number of self-interest groups.

The ironic thing about this new everyone-is-fair-game method for minorities to influence politicians is that the politicians, ever quick to spot an opportunity and take advantage of it, have moved swiftly to adopt it and turn it back on us. Mr. Harper’s recent proroguing of Parliament is the perfect example.

Allegedly unhappy with the way the new session was about to unfold and uncomfortable about some of the questions he was going to have to face, Mr. Harper dictatorially stated that he wouldn’t play by the traditional rules of discussion and discourse. Instead he chose to hold the majority of Parliamentary MPs and the Canadians who voted for them hostage to the morally questionable whims of his minority government by locking us all out of the House of Commons.

I wonder what kind of clothes make this man. Maybe something new borrowed from the Emperor?

Steve Lehman lives in the house that his great-grandfather built and enjoys a narrow perspective on life uncluttered by the experiences of travel.