Show Me That Smile Again
I hadn't brought it up here until now, but a federal election was called in Canada a couple of weeks ago, to be held on May 2. (If nothing else, Americans reading this may have caught Stephen Colbert making the announcement.)
You can follow the news on it more closely if you'd like (there are plenty of social media options for this, too), but let's start with the basics. This was the parliamentary seat count as of the writ being dropped:
Conservative Party of Canada = 143
Liberal Party of Canada = 77
Bloc Québécois = 47
New Democratic Party = 36
Independent = 2
Vacant = 3
There is some disagreement on why there's an election now, but the proximate cause was a committee finding that the government itself was in contempt of Parliament, which has never happened before in Canadian history. As a result, the Opposition voted that they no longer had confidence in said government, leading to its automatic fall.
If you're wondering why it's taken me this long to bring it up (besides general offline distractions), it's because I've had a hard time mustering up much enthusiasm for this election, the way I did for our last election in 2008. At the time, the simultaneous elections happening here and in the United States left me hopeful that a wave of progressive liberalism was sweeping through North America, changing the whole political landscape for the better...and then the Conservative Party actually gained seats instead.
Most polls were already predicting yet another minority government, but I thought I might feel more optimism for change after taking in both the English debate and the French debate (which, just in case you forgot this was Canada, got rescheduled so as not to conflict with the NHL playoffs) between the party leaders--or the ones whose parties already had seats in Parliament, at any rate. Other than apparently discovering a "Francophone Joe the Plumber," however, this all seems like a very familiar story.
Once again, my riding of Winnipeg South Centre (The Fighting South Centre!) seems like a very safe seat for its Liberal incumbent.
Once again, there is a lot of fearmongering about the possibility of a left-wing political coalition, even though coalition governments are pretty common around the world and ( as I pointed out the last time this came up) every party in the House of Commons has been involved in such talk at some point in the past ten years.
Once again, the Conservatives want to reassure everyone that tax cuts (especially corporate tax cuts) are the best way to grow the economy, even though that is demonstrably untrue.
Once again, Aboriginal issues in general are all but ignored.
Once again, political candidates are making ignorant comments which are often condescending and play on international stereotypes in a hot tub. (Before anyone gets on a high horse about this, I'd remind them that the Tories don't have a monopoly on disturbing comments, as candidates for the Greens and the Liberals have already proven.) Once again, I doubt this will actually make a difference.
Unfortunately, I expect everything to be more or less the same in Ottawa in a few weeks, after the votes have been counted. I'd like things to change for the better (from my perspective, a government somewhere along the Liberal-NDP spectrum), but fear they could change for the worse (from my perspective, a Conservative majority government). I'll still be following along, of course, but I don't see the status quo shifting at any point in the near future.
You can follow the news on it more closely if you'd like (there are plenty of social media options for this, too), but let's start with the basics. This was the parliamentary seat count as of the writ being dropped:
Conservative Party of Canada = 143
Liberal Party of Canada = 77
Bloc Québécois = 47
New Democratic Party = 36
Independent = 2
Vacant = 3
There is some disagreement on why there's an election now, but the proximate cause was a committee finding that the government itself was in contempt of Parliament, which has never happened before in Canadian history. As a result, the Opposition voted that they no longer had confidence in said government, leading to its automatic fall.
If you're wondering why it's taken me this long to bring it up (besides general offline distractions), it's because I've had a hard time mustering up much enthusiasm for this election, the way I did for our last election in 2008. At the time, the simultaneous elections happening here and in the United States left me hopeful that a wave of progressive liberalism was sweeping through North America, changing the whole political landscape for the better...and then the Conservative Party actually gained seats instead.
Most polls were already predicting yet another minority government, but I thought I might feel more optimism for change after taking in both the English debate and the French debate (which, just in case you forgot this was Canada, got rescheduled so as not to conflict with the NHL playoffs) between the party leaders--or the ones whose parties already had seats in Parliament, at any rate. Other than apparently discovering a "Francophone Joe the Plumber," however, this all seems like a very familiar story.
Once again, my riding of Winnipeg South Centre (The Fighting South Centre!) seems like a very safe seat for its Liberal incumbent.
Once again, there is a lot of fearmongering about the possibility of a left-wing political coalition, even though coalition governments are pretty common around the world and ( as I pointed out the last time this came up) every party in the House of Commons has been involved in such talk at some point in the past ten years.
Once again, the Conservatives want to reassure everyone that tax cuts (especially corporate tax cuts) are the best way to grow the economy, even though that is demonstrably untrue.
Once again, Aboriginal issues in general are all but ignored.
Once again, political candidates are making ignorant comments which are often condescending and play on international stereotypes in a hot tub. (Before anyone gets on a high horse about this, I'd remind them that the Tories don't have a monopoly on disturbing comments, as candidates for the Greens and the Liberals have already proven.) Once again, I doubt this will actually make a difference.
Unfortunately, I expect everything to be more or less the same in Ottawa in a few weeks, after the votes have been counted. I'd like things to change for the better (from my perspective, a government somewhere along the Liberal-NDP spectrum), but fear they could change for the worse (from my perspective, a Conservative majority government). I'll still be following along, of course, but I don't see the status quo shifting at any point in the near future.