For 22 years he ruled Parliament Hill, now he’ll stare you down from the $50 bill
It’s always been hard to know what exactly he stood for
Our steward through the Great Depression and the 2nd World War
No one’s done more to steer this country’s fate
He built the foundations of our welfare state
He was partisan, Presbyterian and he never took a wife
He believed in communication with the afterlife
He said there’s only one way to govern this crazy Dominion
Never get too far out in front of the public’s opinion
But he was no fool and I suspect he figured voters tend to re-elect
Those politicians who will promise more
and provide them things they think they don’t pay for
Is it the Canadian way just to muddle through and split the difference of opposing views?
In a land built on bargains and realities realized
Built by men of principle whose first principle was compromise
But he set us clearly in the trolley tracks
Where it’s tough to turn, it seems we can’t turn back
If we’ve not come too far, we’re surely getting close
They say the poison is always in the dose
His followers seem guided by just one big idea
First declare a crisis then sell the voters a panacea
But with bureaucratic mission creep
Vested interests get dug in so deep
And legislatures with each new statute
Seek to regulate or redistribute
Behold the march of the mandarins; is there anything they don’t now figure in?
Madly off in all directions, relentlessly they interfere
When and why did this siege begin? It’s by stealth they seem to always win
Ah… the hubris of the social engineer
So late one night when those cool winds blow, take that drive up the Gatineau
You can wander through his ruins; you can stand where he once sat
To take advice from his dead mother and his dogs named Pat
And should there appear an apparition of your venerable host
Would you ask for me a question of this Right Honourable Ghost?
Did he ever see, did he ever fear, did he ever even figure
On a world in which year after year his Leviathan grows bigger?
For every bump in the road of our country’s evolution
We now look to government to provide the solution
Until tax and spend becomes the means and end
It’s bureaucrats upon whom we depend, from the cradle to the grave
‘Til like the Mariposa Belle we are saved, we are saved!
For 22 years he led this democracy
Would you ask him please, how he views his legacy?
By James Frazer 
