The return of Parliament, the anniversary of the Occupy Movement and the NHL lockout may seem like improbable subjects for a single opinion column. But bear with us.

In Hegelian terms — you remember The Hegelian Dialectic from first-year poli-sci, don’t you? — the disgusting money fight between greedy multi-millionaire hockey players, and greedy multi-billionaire hockey team owners, is the THESIS.

That is, it is one side of the debate.

The ANTITHESIS — the other side of the debate — is found in the Occupy Movement, this week celebrating its one-year anniversary.

Some will say that the Occupy Movement isn’t as active as it was a year ago, and that is perhaps true. But the rich and the powerful

are deluding themselves if they think the ideals that

motivated the Occupy kids are passe.

There is just as much rage that the rich are getting much richer, and that the poor are getting much poorer; that hedge fund managers continue to receive multimillion-dollar bonuses, while average folks lay awake at night, wondering how to pay the hydro bill.

So, that’s the THESIS and the ANTITHESIS: Greed and avarice on one side (the NHL), a pervasive feeling of disgust on the other (Occupy).

Action, reaction. Two polarities which neatly set out one of the great philosophical conflicts of our age: The 99 per cent versus the one per cent.

How does it all come together to form what

German philosopher Georg Hegel called the SYNTHESIS?

That is, the thing that resolves the conflict between the two?

Well, that is where Parliament comes in, or should.

Nobody, with the exception of the NDP, believes that Parliament should intervene in the absurd NHL dispute.

A few days ago, Ontario New Democrat MPP Paul

Miller said the Ontario government must step in to stop the hockey lockout.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty ignored Miller, and quite a few other people laughed at the NDP. They thought his suggestion was crazy, because it is.

But what about the Hegelian Dialectic stuff, then?

How does the clash between the 99 per cent versus the one per cent resolve itself?

Not in the Parliament of Canada, based upon what we’ve seen to date. The

Official Opposition, as it continually insists on calling itself, has been more concerned with pitting one region against another.

The government, meanwhile, increases the tax burden on regular folks, while doling out generous tax cuts to big corporations.

By 2015, the share of federal programs paid for by corporations will have dwindled from 20 per cent to 12 per cent.

You and I will pick up the rest of the tab.

A year after it began, therefore, the Occupy Movement’s principal goal remains a worthy one: To close the gap between the have and the have-nots. To make things a bit fairer. To balance.

Will it ever happen? Who knows. Meanwhile, rage grows.