As camels grazed nearby, two representatives of a leading Canadian television network, both fully bilingual, both members of the founding nations, Inuit, Indian, French, and English, both asymmetrically religious, adherents of all five major faiths, and several minor ones, huddled together sharing the heat from a campfire in the Libyan desert. Fuel for that campfire was provided by the nearby camels through an ecologically friendly process that spared the few palm trees, growing around an oasis that lay not far distant, from being felled for firewood.

They had traveled to this remote spot in fulfillment of their duty to report on the historic meeting that had taken place only hours earlier between their own Prime Minister and the President of Libya in a setting that seemed to belong to another age, a huge and richly furnished tent, carpeted, scented-if only by the aforementioned nearby camels-and equipped with all modern inconveniences, cell phones included.

The meeting was historic. It was the first time a Canadian Prime Minister had ventured into that country. Preparations had been in train for months. Advisers had sweated over the planning of the agenda. The topics for discussion ranged wide and far. Thorny issues would be raised. How they would be resolved might lead to great beginnings. At their heart lay the fate of democracy itself.

The Prime Minister had promised his people that he would show his mettle in defence of freedom. He would allay the fears and suspicions of all who thought he lacked the nerve to uphold human rights and democracy in front of the watching world.

True to his word, he lauded the virtues of democracy as practised in his own country. The Libyan leader was most impressed.

"Tell me again," he said. "You, and you alone, can appoint a whole House of Parliament! This democracy is a wonderful thing."

As they huddled together at their campfire, the two fully bilingual, asymmetrically religious, descendants of all the founding nations, fed more chips to the fire, and pondered the wisdom of continuing to cling to the appointment of unelected people to the Canadian Senate, "as camels grazed nearby".

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