I suppose it happens to everyone when an election comes around: you look at the poll numbers, you look at the people, and you think, “What the hell are you thinking?”
It could very well be that we end up with yet another term for Harper. I shan’t say that it’s likely, because there’s two weeks left in the campaign and if history has taught me anything, it’s that you really can’t know for certain until the election. Sure, you can make some well-thought out predictions. But then, Turner was supposed to beat Mulroney in their second round.
The fact that this is even a possibility, though, pisses me right the fuck off.
We’re talking about a government that made a record number of senate appointees, had the brilliant idea to spend metric fuck tons on the G20 summit and hold it in Toronto with consequences no one could expect, thought the appropriate response to those times when the opposition parties showed balls was to shut Parliament down for months on end, thought there was no reason to be concerned about the economy in November 2008, continuously attempted to push through draconian American-esque copyright laws, slashed arts funding, made the census both pricier and fucking useless, and so many other sins that to list them all would make this paragraph unwieldy and grotesque.
They have proved themselves incapable of keeping the budget in the black and running it into the red responsibly. They delight in pushing their small little worldview on everyone, within Canada and without. Remind me again: why do you want them around?
Fuck, can you even remember the last genuinely solid Conservative government? Mulroney? (Yeah, ask Campbell how well that worked out.) Clark? (How can you even judge with so short a time in question?) Diefenbaker? (I’m pretty sure he stole people’s souls through his eyes. Look at his photos and tell me I’m wrong.)
Contrast that with the Liberals. Chretien was corrupt as an old floppy disk, but he could balance those budgets. Trudeau saved us from the further embarrassment of having to go and ask Mommy England if perhaps we might tweak our own damned constitution, please. Pearson gave us universal health care whilst dealing with the twin troubles of minority governments and Diefenbaker constantly trying to suck his soul out. They have been competent and occasionally capable of grandness, which is better than never achieving that state at all.
(They were also much more stylish and cool then Conservative PMs, Progressive or otherwise. The most stylish thing Harper has ever done was invoke John Lennon and might I remind you which PM Lennon actually hung out with?)
So please, dear Canadians, come May 2nd, please think and vote.
PS: This is not aimed towards any of my Canadian friends because you wouldn’t be my friends if you weren’t already in the habit of thinking, QED.
PPS: I also realise that voting against someone isn’t as sexy as voting for someone. Mayhaps I’ll write an ‘Ignatieff! Layton! May! They’re pretty great!’ post later.
PPPS: Maybe you ought to have a looksee at the CBC Vote Compass then mosey over to the Liberal, NDP and Green Party websites to read their platforms. It would make me happy.
PPPPS: Okay, mom. I’ve written a political rant. Are you happy now?
