Whining and Howling Resumes
It's been three days since the Canadian election put Stephen Harper's Conservatives back in the driver's seat, this time with a firmer grip on the steering wheel and the wheel alignment straightened out. However, there are still some bratty children in the back seat.
It's been three days of whining, howling and spinning from leftists on various and assorted blogs and media organs, including the one paid for by the 37.6% of the population that didn't want the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc, the Greens, the Independents or the other assorted pieces of fluff on the edges.
Most of the body politic whose sympathies lie in support of those rejected groups are making much of the fact that the Cons are "arrogantly" claiming a mandate with only 37.6% of the popular vote. Yah, well. That's Canada's system for ya. What would you rather have in the driver's seat? The Liberals, who were rejected by 73.8% of the voters? The NDP who failed to convince 81.8% of the voting population to support them? Or maybe the Greens? Isn't a 93.2% rejection rate enough to guarantee that you don't get a turn at the wheel? Or how about the Bloc, is a 90.0% rejection ... oh wait, 77.4% of us never got to even see a ballot with a Bloc candidate on it, let alone have the opportunity to reject them. How unfair is that!?!?!?
Yes. We need a better system, but every one that could be tried has similar flaws. Our history and our geography has a lot to do with this, folks. We are not going to be able to change the fact that Quebec has a major political movement that doesn't want to embrace even the old guard parties let alone all these lessor parties. We are not going to change the fact that our population distribution is extremely uneven and that political power gravitates toward population rich regions, which tends to create a sense of grievance in the more thinly populated areas.
But hey, elections aren't the only pillars of democracy. We also have a free press (not counting the CBC, of course) and a judicial system that works fairly well and adheres to the longstanding British common law tradition of equality before the law and innocence until proven guilty (not counting Quebec, on that last one, of course, since they use the Napoleonic code, where the onus is on the accused to prove his innocence). We have freedom of assembly and freedom of movement, and if the Cons do what I want them to do, we will once again have freedom of expression.
No. What needs to happen now, while the Cons are implementing some long overdue reforms that will strengthen our democracy by reforming the senate and forcing the CBC to grow up (ie. stand on its own merits without the handouts), is the Libs need to reorganize, choose a real leader and do some serious soul searching to determine what they are all about. The rest of the left needs to amalgamate or give up. Splintered parliaments do not work well, especially when they are filled with stubborn asses. They only serve to maintain the status quo and who the hell wants that.
Oh. And speaking of percentages, only 59% of us actually voted. Apathy isn't good, folks. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, and believe me, you don't want to lose what we have, even if it isn't perfect. And as this National Post article claims, the ban on publishing election results prior to the closure of polls on the West Coast has to go. The Internet simply cannot be controlled and the feeble attempt to circumvent that by setting different opening and closing times in each time zone may have contributed to the low turnout. When folks in Ontario can't vote prior to 9:30 in the morning, and those in BC have to show up before 7:00 pm or find themselves on the wrong side of a locked door, then we have a problem. Whether you're a leftie or a rightie, none of us should have to face these kinds of barriers to exercising our hard won right to cast our secret ballot.
It's been three days of whining, howling and spinning from leftists on various and assorted blogs and media organs, including the one paid for by the 37.6% of the population that didn't want the Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc, the Greens, the Independents or the other assorted pieces of fluff on the edges.
Most of the body politic whose sympathies lie in support of those rejected groups are making much of the fact that the Cons are "arrogantly" claiming a mandate with only 37.6% of the popular vote. Yah, well. That's Canada's system for ya. What would you rather have in the driver's seat? The Liberals, who were rejected by 73.8% of the voters? The NDP who failed to convince 81.8% of the voting population to support them? Or maybe the Greens? Isn't a 93.2% rejection rate enough to guarantee that you don't get a turn at the wheel? Or how about the Bloc, is a 90.0% rejection ... oh wait, 77.4% of us never got to even see a ballot with a Bloc candidate on it, let alone have the opportunity to reject them. How unfair is that!?!?!?
Yes. We need a better system, but every one that could be tried has similar flaws. Our history and our geography has a lot to do with this, folks. We are not going to be able to change the fact that Quebec has a major political movement that doesn't want to embrace even the old guard parties let alone all these lessor parties. We are not going to change the fact that our population distribution is extremely uneven and that political power gravitates toward population rich regions, which tends to create a sense of grievance in the more thinly populated areas.
But hey, elections aren't the only pillars of democracy. We also have a free press (not counting the CBC, of course) and a judicial system that works fairly well and adheres to the longstanding British common law tradition of equality before the law and innocence until proven guilty (not counting Quebec, on that last one, of course, since they use the Napoleonic code, where the onus is on the accused to prove his innocence). We have freedom of assembly and freedom of movement, and if the Cons do what I want them to do, we will once again have freedom of expression.
No. What needs to happen now, while the Cons are implementing some long overdue reforms that will strengthen our democracy by reforming the senate and forcing the CBC to grow up (ie. stand on its own merits without the handouts), is the Libs need to reorganize, choose a real leader and do some serious soul searching to determine what they are all about. The rest of the left needs to amalgamate or give up. Splintered parliaments do not work well, especially when they are filled with stubborn asses. They only serve to maintain the status quo and who the hell wants that.
Oh. And speaking of percentages, only 59% of us actually voted. Apathy isn't good, folks. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, and believe me, you don't want to lose what we have, even if it isn't perfect. And as this National Post article claims, the ban on publishing election results prior to the closure of polls on the West Coast has to go. The Internet simply cannot be controlled and the feeble attempt to circumvent that by setting different opening and closing times in each time zone may have contributed to the low turnout. When folks in Ontario can't vote prior to 9:30 in the morning, and those in BC have to show up before 7:00 pm or find themselves on the wrong side of a locked door, then we have a problem. Whether you're a leftie or a rightie, none of us should have to face these kinds of barriers to exercising our hard won right to cast our secret ballot.
posted by Louise at 6:01 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home