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| Let's Talk About (Canadian) Politics! | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 2 2008, 11:00 AM (63 Views) | |
| Cataphrak | Sep 2 2008, 11:00 AM Post #1 |
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Those of you who WEREN'T paying attention to all the hubbub down south about some black guy and some geriatric warhero fighting for some big fancy office or whatever, will know that all the major political parties in Canada (except for the Bloc, that I know of) have commited to an election by the end of September. Each party is trying to get something out of this. The Prime Minister has gone on record saying that the current Parliament has "Outlived it's usefulness", the Liberals are trying to get a big enough Liberal-NDP coalition together to pass the Carbon Tax, or perhaps even kick the Tories out of power (Although with a milksop like Dion in charge, those chances are admittedly slim). The NDP want to avenge their embarrassing losses during the last few years and are possibly aiming for a Tory minority government with the Libs and NDP holding a combined majority. The Bloc, I don't know, but they're usually opposed to elections (since they want to hold the seats they have in Quebec without losing them to Liberal or Tory encroachment.) but then again, with only 50 odd seats, they can't do much if the smart bits of the government are arrayed against them. Anybody with half a head's worth of common sense will know that, as always, the two major contenders for the PM's office will be the Tories and the Liberals. Anybody who thinks otherwise is either a nutjob, moron or a member of the FLQ. (In my inner circle of friends "When the NDP get a majority" is the equivalent of "When hell freezes over") Neither the Tories or the Grits (That Conservative and Liberal in case you didn't know there) are at their best. Both of them have excellent platforms, and they're sticking pretty true to the ideals their parties were founded on, well, the ones that still apply to today's world anyways. However, both leaders are mediocre at best. Prime Minister Harper has often been compared to a robot (yeah, like on every other episode of Royal Canadian Air Farce) and Stephane Dion, well, he hasn't done anything decisive since the Clarity Act and that was a decade ago. When we live so close to a superpower whose electoral process relies more on leaders than parties, that's a serious problem. I already see the Prime Minister's ads on TV, not ONCE do they mention the Conservative Party. It is not a good idea to vote for leaders instead of platforms, atleast in this country. Unfortunately, thanks to the "unpalatability" of both Liberal and Tory platforms, it looks like both major parties will concentrate on their leaders. Make no mistake, Stephen Harper and the Tories have done great things for the country. They've toughened our justice system, lowered taxes for small businesses and they've even started to turn around that oh-so-distinguished Canadian Insititution of ours, the Armed Forces, despite flak (har har) from idiots who seem to think that Peace and Love can stop bullets. Overall, not bad for a two year minority government. However, the Tories are way too socially conservative for my taste. Raising the unconditional age of consent to 16, I'm fine with that, minimum possible sentences so drug dealers don't walk away from court, that's ok too. Same sex marriage and abortion is where I draw the line though. These are issues of morality, these are issue of choice. As one of our greatest prime ministers put it, "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation". Normally, that wouldn't be enough to dissuade me. This Tory government is actually doing things I agree with, and they aren't bending to American pressure enough for me to credibly accuse them of being Bush's puppet. However, recent Bernier scandal aside, there only two issues that make sure I'll be wearing red come election season: The Carbon Tax and Quebec. The Carbon Tax is a Liberal plan to charge people who use more petroleum products more, and then using the proceeds to try to work a way around our oil dependency. Obviously, the Tories, who have a huge chunk of their party base in oil producing Alberta, are against this plan. As a cynic, I know better. The only way people will stop wasting gas is if we make it too expensive to guzzle. I mean, people gulp down beer, but they'll think twice about chugging Niagara Icewine from the bottle. Me? personally, I'm a fan of Offshore drilling as well, but unlike the right-wingers who sell it as some kind of panacea for our energy woes, I know well enough that it's the only way we're going to buy enough time to convert to something with more reliable sources. We can only wean ourselves off oil if we make people think that it would make financial sense to, anything else is pure fantasy and Anne-speak. (I coined a Cataism!) Quebec, however, is another story. Traditionally, it's been us Liberals who are soft on Quebec, however, this time, we have a leader who drafted the Clarity Act, the one thing making sure that if Quebec separates, they'll be screwed fifteen ways to Caketown. Quebec is securely back as part of the nation, but Harper and the Tories, trying to win more seats in Quebec, grants it Special Nationhood status, making Canada once again, as Lord Durham put it "Two nations warring within the bosom of a single state." Lest I forget, last time I checked, the whims of the seperatist nutjobs in Quebec City do not rule Canada, the people of the entire nation do. It's long past overdue that Quebec bow to the will of the majority and discard all pretentions of statehood. They can keep their language and their religion and their distinct cultural background, but dammit, it will be on our terms. Giving Quebec nationhood status didn't appease the seperatists, it only made them more bold. Now they know that Ottawa can be pushed around, and no doubt that they have even more in store. They'll try to worm their way out of the Clarity Act first, then what? The majority of Quebecers are already xenophobic enough to force immigrants assimilate into THEIR culture or else. As a Chinese-Canadian with the dubious pleasure of having to suffer Quebec's intolerance for anyone who wasn't a white francophone for two years, I will warn you that they will cross the line, and when they do, all Harper's government will respond with is a weak shrug. So yes. If I could vote, I'd vote Liberal. Despite what the PM says, this Parliament is not near the end of it's usefulness. Another 18 months would be fine in my opinion. The military gets stronger, we'll be one step closer to abolishing that useless, overpaid senate of ours, and the stupidity that is the Tory "environment plan" will be revealed as the sham that most smart people already know it is. Besides, I can vote in another 18 months, and by now, I think you all know who I'm voting for... PS: Note I did not mention the Gree Party once in my whole rant. That's because even though the Greens have two seats in the House of Commons (atleast, they did when I last checked), they will NEVER have a sway in national politics. Ther party is a soapbox to air their views to the most powerful audience in the country. The Greens are a wone issue party, they couldn't rule a nation if they were led by Zhuge Liang himself. |
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11:47 PM Sep 8
