Anyone craving a wise and wickedly funny perspective on the mess in Ottawa should migrate immediately to Rick Mercer’s blog.

There he compares Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion to Knut the psychologically damaged polar bear in the Berlin zoo, a hapless orphan so addicted to human applause and laughter that he can’t function without it. Mercer goes on to write:

“During our current crisis, Conservative staffers are being ordered to stand outside 24 Sussex Drive starting at 6:15 in the morning. Their job is to stand there in dark, in temperatures well below zero. Their instructions are to applaud, wave and sing 'Oh Canada' loudly as Stephen Harper's motorcade pulls out of the gates and drives him to work. Harper, by all accounts, actually believes that the young people are there on their own accord and represent a ground swell of love and support for his actions. It's easier this way. Nobody wants to suffer at the hands of the inconsolable bear.”

Dion, “a humiliated and beaten man,” fares no better. “The applause and cheering stopped for this man a long time ago. Given the chance to exact revenge he will seize it at any cost.

“And so is it any surprise that these damaged men are the architects of a crisis in Canada the likes of which we have never seen?”

In a previous post, Mercer nails Harper’s mad genius.

“Here we are faced with a global economic crisis. Nations all over the world are struggling to figure out how to protect their citizens -- who are terrified. We've seen unheard of cooperation between political rivals all over the industrialized world.

“But not in Canada. Not with Stephen Harper. Not on his watch. No my friends, he has one goal and one goal only and it has nothing to do with governing: how can he use this crisis to destroy the opposition?

“And wouldn't you know, he almost did it.

“Stephen Harper decided Canada doesn't need a stimulus package; all we needed to do was cancel the subsidy that political parties get.

“Which would have saved the government about $26-million. That's about the same amount Harper spends on bodyguards every year when he visits danger zones like Thunder Bay or Nunavut.

“But the real upside for Harper, of course, is that the entire opposition would have been crippled or destroyed. It gives me great faith to know that as our economy crumbles Harper is on the case trying to come up with new and innovative ways to cut back the Green Party's office budget and bankrupt the Liberals. And then the world will be a better place.”

David Beers is editor of The Tyee.