Is it over yet?

I not quite sure what I am asking about here but it has something to do with winter. There is the nasty cold day that awaits me - minus 22c with a windchill of -29. Okay, I definitely want that one to end but I know it will. March is almost here and in a few weeks the ice will begin to melt in the rivers, the snow will disappear from the streets and nearby mountaintops. Trees will burst into leaf and birds into song.

Spring has never been so anticipated, so loned for, in large measure because of the gloom of the economic winter that seems to only deepen with every news report, every announcement of layoffs, and deficits and failures. I have been through two other recessions. In fact I started a new career as a computer programmer in the mid-1980s when we had the last recession. But this one really feels different. There is a sense of a chill, a dissipation of both hope and the possibility of change. I cannot help but wonder if this is how the passengers on the Titanic felt as they waltzed about on the deck while the slipped beneath that bitter arctic sea.

The ironic thins is, life is actually pretty good for me right now. I am well on the way towards my PhD. I teach and I have other opportunities that I did not have before yet I cannot help but ask, ''What is it all for?'' As a young man I felt that I belonged to a coutnry that was on the path to excellence. I was proud to be a Canadian, a citizen of a nation that represented so much of what is good in the world. Lester Pearson, our Prime Minister, was a Nobel Pease Prize winner. He was followed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who made us feel even better about ourselves. His legacy was tarnished by some of his actions, but we still were closer to realizing our own place in the world. Since then we have been in a serious decline, turning government over to managers and abandoning the ideals of leadership and vision for efficiency and coporatism.

Now here we are, deep in the gloom of the latest and perhaps worst economic times of the past 50 years and we need a sense of purpose, a possibility of hope. Who will offer that? Harper, the man cannot even smile without the help of a prosthesis. Flaherty? You are kidding right?

So you understand my sense of gloom. Maybe, there is nothing we can do. Maybe, it is up to the Americans to rescue us all. But they will not help us in the meantime. What we really need is a sense of determination and purpose. What we need is someone to convince us that these times of adversity can also be a time of opportunity and renewal and yes - hope.