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Bikes are an important feature of NDP Leader Singh's image

I know what some of you are thinking. You are thinking “We need a national cycling strategy? Why? Biking is almost inherently a local activity. Why does literally every damn thing have to be the subject of a national strategy? Isn’t this weakness for ‘national strategies’ an incredibly moronic and trite feature of Canadian politics? Aren’t there good things, any of them, that we don’t need ‘national strategies’ for? Why don’t these jerks shut up, or at least find a different way of saying the same thing?”

I mean, you were thinking all of that, right? Weren’t you?

This is not a column about cycling either being secular sainthood or social poison. I don’t own a car or a bike, so I’m on Team Public Transit And Sturdy Shoes. The arguments between cyclists and drivers, with their weird, bilious mutual fear and intensity, are nothing but theatre to me. This is a column about “national strategies,” and it is probably a little unfair to use Jagmeet Singh’s adoration of bikes as a peg. But he is asking for it.

Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Postmedia News

Pick a news database or just use a Google proximity search to find the number of “national (blank) strategies” that are in the Canadian newspapers at any time. The Liberal government announced a National Dementia Strategy last month, to widespread applause. It joins our cornucopia of state alongside our National Housing Strategy and our National Shipbuilding Strategy. Someone or other was also heard whining for a National Volunteer Strategy, although I’ll bet we have one of those written down and gathering fungus someplace.