The good news is, the Harper regime has been voted out decisively in favor of a Liberal majority. Most of Canada heaves a sigh of relief. Turnout was way up, with many young people voting. Yeah! Dingdong the witch is dead!
The bad news is, the party of my choice, the social democratic NDP, got clobbered, though the NDP candidate in my riding squeezed in.
I can understand why. The high watermark of the party's standing, forming the official opposition for the first time ever in 2011, owed much to the personal charisma of its former leader Jack Layton, who died of cancer shortly after the 2011 election. He was a tough act to follow, and Tom Mulcair lacked the charm of his predecessor.
Mulcair also made the mistake of trying to out-Harper the conservatives by promising balanced budgets, which left the door wide open for Liberal Hope and Change Boy Justin to promise stimulus instead, and never mind the deficit for now, let's get things moving first. Ironically Trudeau ended up sounding more like Jack Layton than Mulcair did. We might say the NDP got outflanked on the left.
While I am beyond happy that Harper is gone I am curbing my enthousiasm for the outcome. It all reminds me a lot of Obama. Personal charisma and Hope and Change yada yada. Then the moment he gets in what does he do? Nominate Monsanto man Tom Vilsack to agriculture. My spidey senses started tingling when an email was leaked by a close Trudeau associate, advising the oil industry on how best to lobby an eventual Liberal government. That individual stepped down, but I fear the revolving door between corporations and government will keep merrily turning. And let's remember that Hope and Change Boy voted for Bill 51, with some vague promises about fixing the worst excesses of the invasive spy bill. Mulcair promised to do away with it.
Anyway, let's wait and see. This will be better than the previous government for sure. Part of me would like to cheer for young Trudeau and part of me is cynical. Sure, the black cats are gone. But I had been hoping for a government of mice, not a return of the white cats.
Update a month later. The new cabinet is in and it looks very promising. I fear this government will end up giving too much power away to the TPP, another one of those sovereignty destroying trade agreements that support corporations over citizens. But otherwise things look good. Imagine an indigenous woman as minister of Justice and Attorney General?! Yeah!
The bad news is, the party of my choice, the social democratic NDP, got clobbered, though the NDP candidate in my riding squeezed in.
I can understand why. The high watermark of the party's standing, forming the official opposition for the first time ever in 2011, owed much to the personal charisma of its former leader Jack Layton, who died of cancer shortly after the 2011 election. He was a tough act to follow, and Tom Mulcair lacked the charm of his predecessor.
Mulcair also made the mistake of trying to out-Harper the conservatives by promising balanced budgets, which left the door wide open for Liberal Hope and Change Boy Justin to promise stimulus instead, and never mind the deficit for now, let's get things moving first. Ironically Trudeau ended up sounding more like Jack Layton than Mulcair did. We might say the NDP got outflanked on the left.
Anyway, let's wait and see. This will be better than the previous government for sure. Part of me would like to cheer for young Trudeau and part of me is cynical. Sure, the black cats are gone. But I had been hoping for a government of mice, not a return of the white cats.
Update a month later. The new cabinet is in and it looks very promising. I fear this government will end up giving too much power away to the TPP, another one of those sovereignty destroying trade agreements that support corporations over citizens. But otherwise things look good. Imagine an indigenous woman as minister of Justice and Attorney General?! Yeah!
No comments:
Post a Comment