... some old friends being dug up ...

Most people probably cannot wait to see what the new government of Mr Stephen Harper will look like. I know I'm excited.

Some would argue that the greatest excitement is generated by the prospect of new thoughts and ideas emanating from the minds of all the new ministers from the prairies. They bring to the job a complete knowledge of just what it is that has made the prairies a huge success over the years.

Yet I think still more excitement can be attributed to the prospect of seeing some old friends being dug up, or reanimated, and drained of embalming fluid, to advise the prime minister on statesmanship.

Sometimes it's not a bad idea to look to the past for your inspiration because that's where a lot of awfully clever and original ideas have ended up. Some of them are gems. It could be a little like discovering an unknown Beethoven manuscript in a guest room of someone's rundown chateau in Switzerland, or a first edition of Tess of the d'Urbervilles among all the Reader's Digest Condensed Books at a thrift shop.

That, combined with a delirious vision of the future, as promulgated in Mr Harper's remarks—

"I know a lot of you are going to be with us now in the next few months and years as we start rebuilding this great country of ours," he said.

—that, I say ....

"Rebuild"? What has to be rebuilt? Was there a war or great disaster here that people forgot to tell me about?