On foreseeable futures

In posting about the DND's "First Look" at where Canada is headed, Mike DeSouza focuses on a seemingly throwaway sentence mentioning the Green Party. But the more striking part of DeSouza's post looks to be this:

The life expectancy for men would be 80+, and 86+ for women by 2040, the report predicted. It also said the overall population would grow to 45 million, with about 25 per cent of the population over 65 years of age.

Their (sic) top priorities of Canadians, still according to the report, would be the environment, energy efficiency, conservation and social welfare, with national unity and identity representing “key areas of concern.”

Of course, I'm sure staffers at the Manning Centre are hard at work trying to claim that set of priorities as Conservative values. (Might I suggest pretending that, say, "social welfare" will only be an issue in the sense that people want to avoid it?)

But it's rather striking that the DND's vision of Canada's future values is radically different from the one the Harper Cons are so desperately trying to pitch. And Harper himself would be well served to try to move his own party's values toward where the rest of the country is headed if he wants to have any hope of actually building a lasting governing party.