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Thursday, December 04, 2008
Don't Panic!!!!!!
That's right, just relax. There's nothing wrong here, everything is fine. Obviously. In fact things are going so well that as a reward all the MP's are going to get almost 2 months off for Christmas. So, while we ignore the layoffs and tumbling dollar, because obviously that's all ok and what was intended, let's reflect.
I don't want to suggest that this blog has ever had any impact on an election, but who knows. Maybe the dozen people who read it take the ideas and spread them at huge rallies. I am, therefore, going to use the word we. We the Press. Ok, maybe We the Bloggers.
I've been asked more than a couple of times why people don't understand our system of Government here in Canada. I myself have railed against the idea that Canadians vote for parties or Prime Ministers and pointed out that we elect MP's, we vote for the make up of Parliament and everything else follows from there and reflects the will of Parliament. Presumably Parliament represents the will of Canadians. So why doesn't everyone get this?
We commentators and news outlets cover elections as if it is a race. We cover the leaders. We make the election about the leaders instead of acknowledging that every party is based upon it's membership. Even a strong leader like Stephen Harper gets direction from his party. The Winnipeg convention did push Stephen Harper a little further right and it showed when he got back to Parliament. And if he loses his present game of chicken you can bet that his party will replace him with great haste. And we cover that perspective hard. Just look at this blog, go back to the election coverage, it was all about leaders and parties. With that in mind, is it really any surprise that people think they're voting for a Prime Minister and not a Parliament?
Perhaps if we commentators and news folks used the word Parliament more often in our Election coverage, we wouldn't have to use it so often after the election.
Friday, September 19, 2008
When Does It All Make Sense?
Another day another "gaffe" by the federal Conservatives. Each day brings us something new. At some point the only gaffe about these gaffes is that they got out. Because it's certainly starting to look like there's a pattern here, and that pattern is a complete contempt for the people they're supposed to be governing. These are not just fringe party members or administrative assistants, these are sitting party members and ministers. Beyond getting your vote they don't care about you. Or me.
So I think it's time for some comment on where I sit in all of this. As I don't live in Quebec I can't vote for the Bloc. In previous elections I have voted for the Greens, the NDP and the Liberals. In my youth I may even have voted Rhino. Danny Williams' Anything But Conservative war cry is probably the closest to my present feelings.
I like diversity. One of my art pieces states that "Diversity is Health" and I believe this to be explicitly true. I have friends who are conservatives, and I urge them not to vote for the present bunch of rascals calling themselves the Conservative Party of Canada. Not because I don't want their views represented on the grand stage that is the House of Commons, but because I do, and these boys aren't doing it.
It has been a long time confusion for me as to why these people get away with their appeals to a constituency they don't represent. Fiscal responsibility is a big deal to my conservative friends and they feel that every other party would tax and spend the country into deficit, but not the Harper Gang. And yet in reality the Harper Gang are responsible for leading Canada into what will shortly become a deficit for the first time since.....Brian Mulroney. How is it these guys manage to keep their image clean in regards to budgeting when they have the worst record in Canada?
I like my right wing friends, I just wish they had a party to vote for that would actually represent their views. Of course I would then look forward to defeating those views come election time, but at least they'd be represented.