Dear PM: Leave God out of your speeches

This is an open letter to our Prime Minister Stephen Harper, filed with The Independent Free Press for publication. Dear Prime Minister, I think it prudent to drop the phrase " God Bless Canada" , you have been using lately to end all of your rousing speeches. Your pal George Bush and "God Bless America" is not exactly a role model to emulate. If this god is the same one that most religions look up and pray to, I don't believe you have much of a shot at having god bless Canada. What with the millions of Muslims praying five times a day, -- the terrorists blessing themselves just before they blow themselves and many innocent other prayers up, and the Christians doing it on Sundays and through the week when they feel the need for a little extra extra something, whew !-- this god must be overwhelmed with requests coming in at millions and millions of times a second. So what chance do you think you have of having us blessed ? Beside I don't think many citizens really know what it really means to be blessed. Could it be you are a little indifferent to most of Canada's citizens who are mostly secular ? Or are you just playing up to the group that helped get you on your way, something like "pray back time" and hope the rest of us don't notice? In any event I must confess I tried it myself when I was young and naive with the same ambiguous results so I think it's just a meaningless and some what demeaning phrase, best left south of the border where it doesn't seem to work either. Wm. Pomeroy Norval