Liberal Party, not part of the left

Listening to The Sunday Edition today and got to listen to a little more analysis from three political hacks: Tasha Kheiriddin Conservative, Michael Byers NDP and John Duffy, Liberal as they once again sift through through the election results.  

At one point Kevin Sylvester says to Tasha something along the lines of, “Jean Chretien used to sit and watch the right side of the spectrum go through this”, referring to the votes that split between the NDP, Liberals and Greens.  

All of the Conservatives and NDPers who think the Liberal Party is fading from the political landscape, and they’re smugness has grown with this latest roll of the Canadian election dice,  are not being realistic.

  I keep hearing this talk of how we have to unite the left, just like the Conservative Party  was born when the Alliance and Progressive Conservatives merged.  I begin to wonder if people have absolutely no memory, short or long…  The Liberal Party is not the left of the Canadian political spectrum, they are the centre, the big giant centre and they won’t be needing a merger with any other party to win a majority government.  Stephen Harper’s Conservatives certainly represent the right of the Canadian electorate, however the right wing in Canada is populated with far less people.  Heck, yes they had to unite the right if they wanted to have any chance of forming a government, minority or otherwise, but that’s because there aren’t that many of them.  They needed every last drop of support to squeeze out a few seats.

The Conservatives ran an excellent campaign, highly disciplined, planned, targeted, strategic, as a politics junkie I really enjoy seeing campaigns ran this well.  The point is they had every possible tool available to them, they had a weak, paralyzed, undisciplined, erratic, messy Liberal party and they still could not win a majority.  This is quite a testament to how unsavory people find Harper.

What will happen, when the Liberal Party elects a new leader, who understands how to campaign?  What will happen when the Liberal Party’s election machinery is brought out of storage and properly assembled?  Will they have any trouble winning a majority government?

For the Conservatives and NDP I’m sure it’s fun to dream, but if they actually begin to believe that the Liberal Party is on the decline, they are in for a very serious awakening.

Stephane, I thought you taught this stuff!

All of the dirty laundry is slowly being aired regarding the absolutely hopeless campaign put forth by the Liberal Party in this most recent election.  Tales of a leader who would not listen to advisors or researchers who had been digging and deeply analyzing policy, deciding instead to go his own way, staple his behind to a piano called Green Shift and jump in with both feet.

Politics is littered with the carcasses of many who have come before, deciding to take a stand against retail politics.  Rejecting the marketing experts, spin doctors and analyzers they do crazy stuff like write their own speaches and pay no attention to aiming for sound bites, scripting, staging or any of the necessary evils required for success in the modern political arena.  Margaret Thatcher spent many long hours doing vocal exercises to lower the pitch of her voice in order to be taken more seriously but she ‘got it’ and her results speak for themselves.   Who does a neophyte leader think he or she is when believing themselves powerful enough to make a whole new set of rules.  Delusional of course, but of what, grandeur or ignorance?

As a Poly Sci guy you would think Dion would know this stuff like the back of his hand.  The day after his selection as leader he should have been running to the experts for advice, new glasses, ties, improved English, dropping the big complicated policy crap for small bites.  Save that policy talk for when you and your nerd buddies get together (can I come?). 

Kim Campbell made a very good point when she, in effect said, that an election campaign is no time to be discussing important issues, she suffered mightily for saying this, but all politicians take a beating when they actually tell the truth.

Canadian electoral system fails again

Once again I watch the Canadian electoral system fail to return a result remotely close to the will of the people.  Democracies snicker as they see us parading through this laughable exercise.

The Canadian electoral system is completely out of date and about as accurate as a drunk surgeon.  Canada needs to join the 21st century and reform its electoral system.  

This election has returned the following screwball results: Conservatives, 37% of the vote and 47% of the seats; Liberals 28% of the vote and 24% of the seats; NDP 19% of the vote and 12% of the seats; The Bloc Quebecois 9% of the vote and 16% of the seats; The Green Party 6.5% of the vote and 0% of the seats.  Wonky, erratic results.

This is the parliament we wanted: Conservatives: 114; Liberals: 86; BQ: 27; NDP: 57; Greens: 20. Nowhere near what we received for our participation.

There is no point in casting a ballot if the system returns such skewed results, voter turnout continues to decline as more and more people become disillusioned by this archaic structure.

Those of us who do vote waste our time and energy trying to plan our ballot carefully in order to block the candidate from the party we dislike the most.  Voting is supposed to be about being able to vote for whoever you want and not feel it is a waste.  

Canada lags as far behind the rest of the world on democracy as we do on climate change.

The end of strategic voting?

Imagine an electoral system which actually reflected the will of the majority when it turned in it’s results.  Not one that takes the the party with a minority of votes and puts it in power absolutely for the next four to five years.  Imagine an electoral system where Conservatives could be conservatives, Liberals could be liberals and New Democrats could be, well in third place…  Imagine a system where you could vote for who you wanted and not have to dig and research to figure out the way to stop those you dislike the most.  Imagine not having to worry about whether a small group is able to hijack and destroy the country you have built.  Imagine being able to relax as a vote…. ah wouldn’t it be lovely.

One could easily argue that the best governments we have seen as Canadians have been minorities, they seem to emit a more measured approach with a greater attention to detail.

How undemocratic does Canada have to be before anyone takes action?  We Canadians like to cast our ballot for her majesty’s representatives and then shuffle off allowing whoever wins to stumble about for the next four years.  Heck when it’s time to look again, if the economy looks in reasonable shape, we’ll let them stay another four years.

One thing I agree with Stephen Harper about is a triple E senate, Equal, Elected and Effective.  I actually studied politics and when I think of the senate I think of a chamber with red carpeting, feeling very cathedral like where people go for their naps…  Perhaps we could tack an A onto the end there and call it accurate, that maybe each of the provinces actually send a group of representatives that reflect the popular vote.

As far as the legislature, we should elect our members with a pure Pacific to Atlantic to Arctic proportional systems.  That is, seats are divvied up according to the percentage of the vote each party receives on a national level.  The Green Party would have 30 seats, the NDP would get a slightly stronger voice at around 60 seats and the other two would not be able to run away with something they never won or deserved.

Climate change is not the only area Canada lags behind the rest of the western world, we lag behind most of the western world in democracy as well.

Harper fails to stand up to closer scrutiny

Canadians are waking up and starting to notice Stephen Harper’s track record or lack there of.

Poll after poll shows the Reformed Conservative Party sliding in support.  Stephen Harper had it right before, say as little as possible.  He tries to float a completely inaccurate portrayal of the arts community whilst trying to woo his core red-neck vote and manages to offend a whole bunch of people, support in Quebec has collapsed.  Couple this with his apparent aloofness regarding the global economic crisis and he has destroyed his embryonic chances at majority government.

Perhaps Stephen could quickly hire a couple of people from the arts community to coach him on on acting, he could work on “character” and “understanding the story”.  Until then Harper should check out this advice in a hurry.

Harper could move much faster than his hidden agenda calls for

Our Prime Minister may get a big chance to move Canada to the right a lot farther and faster than his current methodical blueprint calls for.

2 things need to happen: Majority Government and Continued Heightened Economic fear 

With these 2 simple ingredients Harper could argue for much more radical cuts in spending, much earlier. What do you think he’s going to do, spend money on infrastructure?  LOL, cut taxes, cut spending, cut programs, that’s his economic stimulus package, heck he thought cutting the GST would stimulate the economy, LOL.

Fear sells, this we know, check out my emergency stockpile of food and water. 

Stephen Harper wants to move Canadians to the right

Stephen Harper -

“One thing you do is you have to pull conservatives, to pull the party, to the centre of the political spectrum. But what you also have to do, if you’re really serious about making transformation, is you have to pull the centre of the political spectrum toward conservatism.”

What does Stephen Harper mean by “pull the centre of the political spectrum toward conservatism”?

In order to move the centre of the spectrum to the right, you need to impose unexpected neo-conservative policies in order to demonstrate the moral goodness of these policies.  Harper, steeped in the Calgary School, will begin to implement what he believes good for Canada once safely in power with a majority government.  

A neo-conservative accepts that “noble lies” play an important role in attaining and maintaining power, and according to neo-con father Leo Strauss, it is not possible to be completely truthful and achieve what is necessary.  This is predicated on the  idea that the ruling class are intellectually superior to the common citizen and as such are required to guard and protect those lesser than them.

Some of the elements of the Calgary School’s neoconservatism includes, establishing a stronger military-industrial complex, increased privatization of state assets, stricter punishment for criminals, in the field of domestic policy. Foreign policy is characterized by support for Israel in the 2006 Lebanon war, criticism of Cuba and Venezeula, support for the Iraq war and War in Afghanistan.

“an agenda that focuses on delivering benefits to people and to families instead of creating bureaucracies; whether it’s restoring pride in the country — not just in things like, you know, health care or various government programs, but pride in things like our institutions, our military… – Stephen Harper

Conservative majority means gutting of Canada as we know it

With Stephen Harper’s Conservatives hovering around the majority mark and the Liberals lying comatose, the chips will fall where they may.  Conservative teetering on the brink of unchecked power is sending chills down the spines of many Canadians.

A Conservative majority will mean the dismantling of many of the compassionate programs that help many Canadians maintain a small level of dignity.  These are programs that we decided we wanted as part of our society, certain things should not be the exclusive domain of the elite.  

This does not mean rich galas for those on social assistance, it means a bag of potatoes for the single mother, a breakfast before beginning the school day.

 

Oops I got my pictures mixed up... oh well, same thing

The Conservative agenda has already tipped it’s hand slightly with cuts to the arts and the GST.

We all know that the Conservatives completely loathe the idea of doling out dollars to artists. The GST cut, not simply a vote-getting ploy, follows the Harper/Harris approach, less dollars in, less dollars  out.  These two examples, as minor as they may seem to some, are only the beginning.

 

Stephen Harper is a right wing ideologue and is former president of the National Citizens Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against, among other things, the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canada Health Act.  Even with a minority government Harper, still following his NCC ideals, is close to completing his gutting of the Canadian Wheat Board, the removal of the Canada Health Act will require a much more delicate surgery.

Elizabeth May on art funding cuts

“…for some reason, they’ve [Conservative strategists] decided that cutting arts will win them votes and that’s the whole reason for these stupid cuts.”

Jack Layton asks, “where’s your platform?”…

Best line so far by Jack Layton, “where’s your platform…under your sweater?”