All is quiet on the western front and snow is forecast

Maple Ridge is quiet this night before Stephen Harper delivers his budget. No doubt the NDP, Liberals and Partie Quebecois are rubbing their hands in anticipation of.............what? Ignatief is the first to say that he will not comment until after he has fully absorbed the implications of the Harper budget. So long as it does not lead to a February referendum then I think the country will happy.

For his part the leader of the Liberals is a welcome replacement. He may even have the presence to put the scandals of the Liberal party behind us and, who knows, become the next first minister. While not voicing his feelings on the subject I am certain that he'd like to put some distance between himself and the leaders of the NDP and Quebec Party; it will take some finesse, but if nothing else one can say that Ignatief has indeed more finesse than any recent political leaders in Canada.

A man of patent intellectual capacity and a dry wit to match he seems far more in the mould of Barack Obama than Harper and it is easy to visualize the two them taking this somewhat lost continent forward to a more reasoned and reasonable state of being.

Disagreement is likely to be cordial; agreement is likely to be warm and lasting. After all who would you trust; Harper and Bush or Ignatief and Obama? 

We are expecting 5 to 10 cm of snow in Maple Ridge over the next couple of days. There will lots of snow - as in 'job' - on Parliament Hill tomorrow. The next thing you know and it will spring, followed by one hopes a glorious summer of hope and, who knows, perhaps a little glory.

In the meantime, the west waits, in quietude.