(no subject)
I'm not as disgusted with this country as I thought I might be today. 64% percent of us who voted, voted against Harper. It could have been a lot worse.
Last night I was really in the mood to go out, I guess to distract myself a little from the predicted coming pain. Though a house party would have been much to my taste, the picture in my head was hanging out at some classy joint with a fireplace and a big screen tv set to election results, sophisticatedly sipping drinks and making witty political banter - sort of an intellectual political-sports bar. A little pretension would have soothed my soul. Instead, we ended up back at Jay's aunt and uncle's house, watching the coverage of various channels. I yelled politically incorrect thing at the television, drank tea and knit. All things considered I enjoyed myself. It didn't go as badly as they were saying it would. In my heart of hearts I hadn't thought it would, but that could just have been some self-preserving denial. I liked watching Deborah Gray's face as Bif Naked weaved some rather winding political commentary- we were all pretty sure she was stoned. Hell, I can't blame her, I had figured if any night appealed to me to get drunk, it would be the first night in my socially aware life that Canada elected in a federal conservative government.
So, I would like to officially wish our new overlord Harper a happy minority mandate. I hope you enjoy the next 18 months, because that's all they're predicting you're going to get. It'll be interesting to see what happens once your less socially progressive party members manage to spit out the ball gags they've been wearing the last couple months. I do heartily congratulate you on your smooth-as-teflon campaign; I admit it was very well done, between being the best prepared, keeping your mouth shut as much as possible on certain issues and dealing fairly commendably with such things as having to fire candidates for apparently smuggling booze. It just goes to show that you get what you pay for, and you sure pumped the money into your campaign.
Oh, and, Harper, that's overlord with a little 'o'. I don't disagree with everything you have to say on every single issue, so there's a few things I wouldn't actually mind you doing. But for the most part I'm glad you are pretty much stuck in a corner with very little room to move at this time. It'll be interesting to watch how power is negotiated in the new parliament. And I hope you mess up enough that you get the boot next time. Minority governments, even with people like you in power, can be a good thing. But a majority conservative government scares the snot out of me, and your ability to play it cool does worry me. I'm afraid if you are very modest in your reform this time, Canada will forget that you aren't the PC and vote you in a majority. *shiver*
Poor Paul Martin. That was such a bad campaign, I can hardly believe it. It was just so bad; the ads, the bad timing, the lack of speech coordination. Yeesh. But stepping down last night was a surprisingly smart move to make - we knew it would happen, but I didn't think it would happen so quick. Why couldn't you pull off speeches like that the last two months, you poor sod? Maybe he'll go back to a finance (critic) type position? He is good at that. Liberals: elect a new, outspoken, and preferably somewhat younger leader very soon. Trim back the fat and get over your stupid internal rifts. You may be a bloated old lazy status quo party, but I still trust you more that these 'united right' thugs. Get unified and strongly led quick, because it's not in the conservatives interest to give you too much time to regroup. And neither you nor I want them to do better next time around.
Go Jack and Olivia - we were hoping you'd both get in! I'm pleased the NDP did as well as they have. We kept cheering them on, hoping they'd keep at or above 30 ridings. I hope this new governmental arrangement gives them a chance to flex a little lefty muscle. (Jack Layton and his right honorable guns - teehee.) Go rabid terrier on this government, and don't let Harper get away with anything crazy. Get your new people settled in their seat so you can pick up more next time. Not a bad job - too bad more people don't pay attention to you. This parliament, make them!
P.S. Holy crap, the candidate I voted for actually won. An NDP candidate. Whoa.
Last night I was really in the mood to go out, I guess to distract myself a little from the predicted coming pain. Though a house party would have been much to my taste, the picture in my head was hanging out at some classy joint with a fireplace and a big screen tv set to election results, sophisticatedly sipping drinks and making witty political banter - sort of an intellectual political-sports bar. A little pretension would have soothed my soul. Instead, we ended up back at Jay's aunt and uncle's house, watching the coverage of various channels. I yelled politically incorrect thing at the television, drank tea and knit. All things considered I enjoyed myself. It didn't go as badly as they were saying it would. In my heart of hearts I hadn't thought it would, but that could just have been some self-preserving denial. I liked watching Deborah Gray's face as Bif Naked weaved some rather winding political commentary- we were all pretty sure she was stoned. Hell, I can't blame her, I had figured if any night appealed to me to get drunk, it would be the first night in my socially aware life that Canada elected in a federal conservative government.
So, I would like to officially wish our new overlord Harper a happy minority mandate. I hope you enjoy the next 18 months, because that's all they're predicting you're going to get. It'll be interesting to see what happens once your less socially progressive party members manage to spit out the ball gags they've been wearing the last couple months. I do heartily congratulate you on your smooth-as-teflon campaign; I admit it was very well done, between being the best prepared, keeping your mouth shut as much as possible on certain issues and dealing fairly commendably with such things as having to fire candidates for apparently smuggling booze. It just goes to show that you get what you pay for, and you sure pumped the money into your campaign.
Oh, and, Harper, that's overlord with a little 'o'. I don't disagree with everything you have to say on every single issue, so there's a few things I wouldn't actually mind you doing. But for the most part I'm glad you are pretty much stuck in a corner with very little room to move at this time. It'll be interesting to watch how power is negotiated in the new parliament. And I hope you mess up enough that you get the boot next time. Minority governments, even with people like you in power, can be a good thing. But a majority conservative government scares the snot out of me, and your ability to play it cool does worry me. I'm afraid if you are very modest in your reform this time, Canada will forget that you aren't the PC and vote you in a majority. *shiver*
Poor Paul Martin. That was such a bad campaign, I can hardly believe it. It was just so bad; the ads, the bad timing, the lack of speech coordination. Yeesh. But stepping down last night was a surprisingly smart move to make - we knew it would happen, but I didn't think it would happen so quick. Why couldn't you pull off speeches like that the last two months, you poor sod? Maybe he'll go back to a finance (critic) type position? He is good at that. Liberals: elect a new, outspoken, and preferably somewhat younger leader very soon. Trim back the fat and get over your stupid internal rifts. You may be a bloated old lazy status quo party, but I still trust you more that these 'united right' thugs. Get unified and strongly led quick, because it's not in the conservatives interest to give you too much time to regroup. And neither you nor I want them to do better next time around.
Go Jack and Olivia - we were hoping you'd both get in! I'm pleased the NDP did as well as they have. We kept cheering them on, hoping they'd keep at or above 30 ridings. I hope this new governmental arrangement gives them a chance to flex a little lefty muscle. (Jack Layton and his right honorable guns - teehee.) Go rabid terrier on this government, and don't let Harper get away with anything crazy. Get your new people settled in their seat so you can pick up more next time. Not a bad job - too bad more people don't pay attention to you. This parliament, make them!
P.S. Holy crap, the candidate I voted for actually won. An NDP candidate. Whoa.