Dear Prime Minister:
I am writing you and offering my sincere public and personal apology to you as a person. In a recent letter to The National Post, I made the mistake of roundly (and, I thought, soundly) criticizing you as a leader; and the dramatic changes in federal policy introduced by the federal Conservatives over the past ten years.
The rebuttal was swift and brutal. Despite the fact I have never belonged to a political party in my life, I have been branded as a socialist.
In today’s Google universe, I could be forced to carry the crushing burden of this distasteful label for the rest of my life.
Thus, I wrote to apologize to you and your family, in hopes that your supporters would better understand me, instead of resorting to profanity or accusing me of cheating on my taxes on national television.
(We don’t know each other personally and I doubt you remember sending me a letter in 1987, during the birth period of the Reform Party. I was a cub reporter at The Russell Banner back then, a little newspaper in Russell, Manitoba. We put you guys on the front page one week and, enthralled by my new-found power as a published reporter, I even wrote a couple of vociferous columns encouraging folks to explore Reform’s perspective.
You wrote me to thank me for the coverage, I think. I’m just about fifty now but my memory serves me well enough).
Anyway Mr. Prime Minister, I wanted you to know — and I especially wanted your supporters to know — that I mean you no personal harm. You see, I have been essentially homeless and powerless since I was thirteen years old; so no-one has ever invited me to one of your events.
I don’t blame you for my lifelong inability to raise myself out of the shackles of the poverty and pain I experienced as a child. That is definitely not your fault. I was just trying to point out we used to live in a country where even powerful people actually cared about issues like homelessness and powerlessness.
If I had known that it was wrong to wish for things like achieving international peace without necessarily resorting to war, or wanting to insure that the dozens of single parent families lined up at the Food Bank in my city are treated with kindness and compassion; if I had known these desires, publicly spoken, would brand me a socialist I would have retracted my letter.
Sorry Mr. Harper. I was simply expressing my opinion. Now that people who will vote for you know I don’t have enough money to matter anymore, they can forget all about me.
Max Rundle Wilkie
Kelowna
Max Rundle Wilkie, a homeless musician by trade, lists newspaper reporter and columnist, ski salesman and goatherd amongst his various skills.
