Perhaps in the 21st century Canada needs a leader who is a sociopath.

"Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status, ..." Stephen Harper, 2000.

"I don’t think my fundamental beliefs have changed in a decade.” CBC interview, 2006.

What is the point of being a nation of kind, peace-loving, decent people when the lesson of the last few weeks is: not only can the tribe of the greedy lead most of the northern hemisphere's countries to the brink of economic ruin, but the government of those countries will not punish them for their rapaciousness and will ensure that they continue to receive their salaries and/or generous severance packages by providing them with hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers' bail out money?

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn .., a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned....

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed. ...

None of the banks the Guardian contacted wished to comment on the record about their pay plans. But behind the scenes, one source said: "For a normal person the salaries are very high and the bonuses seem even higher. But in this world you get a top bonus for top performance, a medium bonus for mediocre performance and a much smaller bonus if you don't do so well." Many critics of investment banks have questioned why firms continue to siphon off billions of dollars of bank earnings into bonus pools rather than using the funds to shore up the capital position of the crisis-stricken institutions.

So. Consider the following traits: authoritarian, self seeking, manipulative, extremely dishonest and a very good liar, lacking in remorse, guilt or empathy, never wrong - always blames others, callous, has a violent temper, vindictive, has a need to control others to carry out his plans, rarely in conflict with the law, but seeks out situations where his tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired.

Yes. Such an individual, if elected to power, will know how to swim well with other sharks and will surely ensure the survival of Canada. Well, perhaps not all of Canada. Perhaps only those Canadians who are card-carrying members of the CPC.

Merci to The Mound of Sound for the link to the Guardian news item.