With sincere apologies to Lewis Carroll
“You are old, Premier Dalton,” the young man said,
“But your province has survived despite you;
And yet you incessantly put us in dread—
Do you really think, at times, it is right to?”
“In my youth,” Premier Dalton replied to the voter,
“I feared ideas might injure the brain;
But now that I’m sure I have no political future,
Why, I have them again and again.”
“You are old,” said the voter, “No longer straight as an arrow,
And have grown most uncommonly mean;
Yet you ignored it when GM gave Michigan the Camaro—
Is it part of your plan to turn Ontario green?”
“In my youth,” said the Ontario Premier, “I kept my own counsel,
“And I voted the way I was told.
I still do—and I hope to be named to the Queen’s Privy Council.
An honour, not offered the bold.”
“You are old,” said Sandra Pupatello, “Its time to give me the reins
Ontario’s ready for a woman to run it;
Not just with a woman’s intuition—but by a woman with brains,
After all, you’re a man and you blew it!”
“In my youth,” said her leader, “I took up the law,
And argued each case with wife Terri;
I lost every case before her—but judges sat in awe,
And that’s why today I am wary.”
“You are old,” said Sandra, “one would hardly believe it
That your word is as good as it was;
You blamed the teachers for the provincial deficit—
Will you take the blame for the cause?”
“I have answered three questions, and that is enough,”
Said her leader; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!”
Drawn from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—Published in 1865.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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