Some of your friends' countries may already be this fucked
So Harper is claiming we shouldn't worry because even if he wins he won't have absolute power (only in Canada, and yet it makes me feel worse, not better), Martin is appearing on TV to plead for our votes and attacking the NDP for screwing everything up, Layton can't even think of an example of Liberal corruption, and it looks like we're headed for a Conservative majority (see the "Poll Tracker").
This is a man who wants to give families $100/month for child care (if you think that's enough, you've never had a kid or you're rich, in which case why are we giving you money?), who to quote Jack Layton wants "to increase income taxes on people with low incomes so that [he] can pay for a cut in the GST". We headed for the Mulroney/Harris years again, it feels like, and if you think that's a good idea you were either not paying attention or rich during those years.
I'd ask what the hell people are thinking (and that email Gord responded to that I posted is, I'm afraid, what most of them are), but I'm afraid that's what happens with a two party system when people get fed up with one party. It probably won't be as horrific as I'm afraid of - we've always been a moderate country in many ways (and it's not conservatism I object to, by any means - it's extremism), and although we've broadly followed American political trends we've never gone as far in any direction as they tend to.
This is a man who wants to give families $100/month for child care (if you think that's enough, you've never had a kid or you're rich, in which case why are we giving you money?), who to quote Jack Layton wants "to increase income taxes on people with low incomes so that [he] can pay for a cut in the GST". We headed for the Mulroney/Harris years again, it feels like, and if you think that's a good idea you were either not paying attention or rich during those years.
I'd ask what the hell people are thinking (and that email Gord responded to that I posted is, I'm afraid, what most of them are), but I'm afraid that's what happens with a two party system when people get fed up with one party. It probably won't be as horrific as I'm afraid of - we've always been a moderate country in many ways (and it's not conservatism I object to, by any means - it's extremism), and although we've broadly followed American political trends we've never gone as far in any direction as they tend to.
_WOW_
Harper reassuring voters that a win would not give his party "Absolute Power"...
Just having to make a reassurance like that should have him barred from politics.
My last remaining hope under a Conservative majority, is that under the NEXT federal election, just one of the opposing parties remembers that if you follow the Conservative lead, most laws/bills they pass can be reaplealed after the fact (as the Conservatives will prove with the gay marriage bill), therefore negating however many years they are in power. Lets hope it is few.
Posted by
Gordon |
8:12 AM
Yeah, the absolute power thing is on a level with Layton asking to "borrow" Liberal voters for this election, and Martin's fearmongering about the Conservatives; all three show a certain disdain for the electorate, and assume (unfortunately not without reason) that Canadians vote not for what they believe in but as cynically as possible.
Posted by
Ian |
10:10 AM
Harper seems to have forgotten that the bureaucracy is directly subordinate to the government, that the senate is tradition-bound to follow the lead of the House of Commons, and that the supreme court is nothing but a creature of Parliament.
Or perhaps he's just assuming the voters have forgotten these things. In any event, it's just the same old democratic BS. The election is all but decided now, so I guess I can become a libertarian again. :-P
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:26 AM