Ah. Breathe that fresh air of optimism. Now that the Cons have their coveted majority, it feels like a 30-kilogram rock has been lifted off my back. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Of course, I’m messing with your head. I’m a Commie, after all. (Note to knuckle draggers: please don’t write in. It’s a joke).
But now that the Reformatories have been given carte blanche, made themselves the natural governing party of polite, middle-of-the-road Canada – yes folks, that’s where we are now – we can all sit back and watch Harper and Co take us down the road to… John Howard’s Australia. Beauty.
Canadians may be less engaged in their politics now than at any time in this country’s history. The huge turnout expected from those advance polls never materialized. Only two per cent more voted in this election than in the historic low turnout of 58 per cent in 2008.
Turns out all those people voting often and early were the Conservative base. The lower the turnout, the better for the Cons. Somewhere along the line Canucks lost interest, again, in their country, even after four million tuned in to watch the televised leaders debates. Sad. I think we need a new drug.
Is politics about ideas anymore? Or, is it little more than a marketing strategy? The idea is not to win broad support, or turn those who oppose your policies over to your way of thinking. The idea is to get those who share your views to the polls. Simple. Surgical. Diminishing. See Harper’s teleprompter-equipped bubble.
Once again our first past the post system has resulted in a skewed Parliament. I’d say ripped off the taxpayers, but voters are always right, supposedly. The Cons won 54 per cent of the seats with 40 per cent of the popular vote the Libs’ support fell by eight per cent, but they lost more than half their seats. A lot of good people got thrown under the bus. The NDP got shut out in Saskatchewan, despite holding 30 per cent of the vote in that province.
Quebecers tried to save Canada from itself, only they went too far, killing the Libs in Montreal while freaking the rest of Canada out about the NDP and ultimately hardening the Conservative vote in BC and Saskatchewan and turning Ontario Conservative blue.
Ontario, with a little help from T.O., had the biggest hand in giving the Cons their majority, some 20 more seat than they started with. Can we start calling ourselves Ontorio? Yes, that would be the same party that has been giving Ontario the finger all these years, T.O. too when it came to handing out that recession bailout cash.
NDP leader Jack Layton is a great guy. But he’s kidding himself if he thinks the Cons are going to do anything but march forward with that budget they tabled before the election. In some respects, the NDP has less power with its 100-plus seats than the party did when it held the balance with only a few dozen seats in the House. Maybe Jack can work some of that let’s work together magic on Harp. Quebec, the NDP’s new base, can’t be completely ignored, or can it? Hmm.
The PM seemed more conciliatory than he’s ever been in his victory speech.
He said that he will govern for all the people, even those who didn’t vote for him. Good one. His good buddy Rob Ford said the same thing, and we all know where that got us.
The Conservatives are all about the politics of divide and conquer. Wedge issue is Harp’s middle name. That grin he was grinning from ear to ear was the unmistakable look of self-satisfaction.
