What if they gave an election and nobody cared?
Yes, the federal election is crucial to our collective futures, as every election is. But I still can’t help getting that Yogi Berra feeling that this is deja vu all over again with the same content, the same players and the same core lethargy at play.
Part of the problem, of course, is that there is so much to vote against and so little to vote for. (Don't you hate it when sentences end with prepositions?)
Once upon a time my vote could be bought for a balloon. When I was a child, former Ontario Premier John Robarts knocked on our front door and gave me a balloon. I solemnly told my mother after he left that she should vote for him.
If only it were still so easy.
You used to be able to identify parties by their general location on the political spectrum. No more.
Some elections were fought more or less on a single life or death issue, or so it seemed at the time.
Pierre Trudeau denounced wage and price controls and then implemented them. Jean Chretien was going to abolish the GST. And those promises came from the party we keep electing over and over and over again.
Why? Because there doesn’t appear to most Canadians to be another reasonable choice.
Voting based on policy, unless you simply want to make the rich pay, as the Marxist-Leninists do, is step-dancing on quicksand. In Ontario we elected Bob Rae and he turned out to be David Peterson, not Tommy Douglas.
So, we jumped from the frying pan into the fire and hired Mike (“get those f....ing Indians out of the park”) Harris because he at least seemed to stand for something. It turned out he stood for dismantling the public service so we’re a little gun-shy in this province about embracing change for change's sake. Stephen Harper's biggest problem in Ontario isn’t Paul Martin, it’s still Mike Harris.
Unless the Toronto-born Harper can convince us that his party isn’t the Reform-Alliance-Common Sense Regurgitation in disguise, he’s going nowhere in the nation’s swing province.
This is a critical election for the NDP. They have a chance to reclaim many votes that were parked with the Liberals last time round by people who were very nervous about Harper.
Having seen Mr. Dithers in inaction for lo these many months and seen the Liberals mired in the sponsorship scandal, a lot of votes may slip away back to the NDP from people who are looking at Harper and Martin and thinking, “none of the above.”
That could make life a little bit more interesting in places like Mississauga, where the NDP has to run stronger if the Tories ever hope to return to their one-time glory.
Comments (2)
As a Liberal and a conscientious Canadian I will be voting Conservative in the upcoming Federal Election.
I do this not as a punitive action against Paul Martin or whatever party it is that he claims to be member and leader of. In my opinion Mr. Martin has had his chance and he blew it.
Unfortunately Jack Layton being too much of a realist cannot allow himself to be an optimist and a dreamer. Jack does not have the ambition to be anything beyond leader of the NDP. Visions of a New Democrat Government are not in his sights so he has resigned himself and his party to being ‘players’ but never directors.
I know the odds and I know the risks in electing the Conservatives under Steven Harper.
It is not so much that I am willing to give the Conservatives a chance but rather I am prepared to take that chance.
It is obvious that nothing is going change unless we the voters change. From all the chatter about ‘the devil we know verses the devil we don’t,’ or the ‘woe is us because things will just be the same after the next election’ and ‘what a waste of money’ and ‘at Christmas time nobody is interested’ it is apparent that we are trying to blame circumstances rather take responsibility ourselves.
If we the citizens and voters of Canada continue to do the same thing over and over again how could we possibly expect the results of our actions and inactions to be any different? This goes the same for any repetitive behaviours it just keeps getting the same results. It is up to us to change if change is what we want in our government.
Posted by Stephen Wahl | December 6, 2005 1:54 PM
Posted on December 6, 2005 13:54
This election is looking kind of lame.
In Ontario the liberals are in the mid 40's, the conservatives in the low 30 and the NDP in the high teens.
Thats almost identical to where things were during the last election.
Unless there a major shift either way very few seats are going to change hands in this province and probably none in Mississauga.
not necessarily a bad thing but it does make for dull election night drama.
Posted by OJ | December 4, 2005 10:33 PM
Posted on December 4, 2005 22:33