Decision Day: 2006
Today, we go to the polls. After almost two months of listening to campaign promises and mud slinging (the mud slung has far outweighed the promises made), Canadians have a decision to make. One that most people feel amounts to choosing between the lesser of two evils. The devil we know: Paul Martin and the Liberal party (although they should officially be taking a small l in their name these days). Or the devil we're pretty sure we've seen somewhere before: Stephen Harper and the Reformacons.
I am not sure if scholars of the future will look back on this day as a seminal point in Canadian history, but I am afraid they will. Why? Because history has a funny way of repeating itself, and we've seen this all before. A saviour charging in from the west, ready to rid a goverment of corruption; pandering to moderates with promises of tax reform, and new social programs, and promising to be kept in line by the built-in checks and balances of good government. Sound familiar?
Stephen Harper will win a minority government. If there is any justice in the world, and if Canadians aren't too stupid to see it, they will elect enough NDP to carry the balance of power, if not be the official opposition. The Liberals are old and tired and desperately need a 100000 km tune-up, but that's no reason to hand our country to the neocons on a silver platter.
Stephen Harper has a not-so-hidden agenda. He is trying to gain our confidence with a newer, friendlier conservative party. A confidence that will win him the chance to form a government and enact seemingly innocent pieces of legislation, like the National Day Care program. A lot of parents struggling to pay day care bills see $1200 a year off the books as a welcome bit of relief. But when that $1200 comes at the expense of funding more subsidized spaces or educating people to be qualified early-childhood educators, it will offer little relief to the women who must leave the workforce and stay at home to raise their children, a choice that most modern, Canadian families simply cannot afford to make.
Yes, Stephen Harper will try to earn our trust through instant gratification. He will buy our votes with cuts in taxes that amount to little more than sleight of hand. And when he has it, he will call another election. I can see the campaign slogan now: See? That wasn't so bad now, was it? And he will win. And that is when we will start to see the real changes that Stephen Harper wants to make to our country. And by then, it will already be too late.
Comments
Hidden agenda or not, it doesn't really matter because a minority government, regardless of the party forming it, will guarantee that we're back at the polls in another year and a half to two years anyways.
A Conservative minority is probably the best scenario right now. It allows Canadians to send a message to the Liberals that they need to get their act together if they want to form the next government while not giving the Conservatives free reign.
The combined vote of the Bloc, NDP and Liberals, won't allow us to participate in Iraq, gay marriage to be repealed or intelligence to be blindly shared with the U.S. They'll keep them in check. It's be best of the three scenarios I see happening. Another liberal minority amounts to a waste of our money and a Conservative majority buys us 4-5 interesting years after which a huge Liberal majority gets elected to undo the damage done by the Conservatives.
Interesting evening to say the least!
Posted by: Sean McCulloch at January 23, 2006 05:34 PM
A really nice cabbie pointed out to me the other day that some of the brightest Canadian moments have occured during minority govt's...I dunno about the '72 Summit Series, or Terry Fox's run, but:
Medicare
The Maple Leaf flag
CPP
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Rejecting participation in the US missile defence program
...amongst other things.
I'm going to start taking more cabs.
Posted by: Troy at February 9, 2006 01:14 PM