so today's the day that
Steve-O Harper is putting forth his motion of non-confidence in parliament. Or as CNN now puts it "
Canada's Government of verge of collapse" - sounds scary doesn't it. Well truthfully it is scary. Scary on how much money will be spent on this election over the next four to six weeks by the government and major political parties. That money should have been ear marked for distraught
native Canadians who went through a physically tough and culturally warping
residential school system. Oh wait - we're already giving them a couple bucks [if the government makes it through the day]. Maybe the money should have been spent on distraught native Newfoundlanders who's economy has plunged since they joined confederation in 1949 - my guess is they're the next group who'll rightly deserve couple bucks. Maybe the government should proactively buy them off ahead of time. Or maybe the government should give ME the money. At least I'd do something smart with it, like donate it to
Sick Kids or start an advertising and
sponsorship program in Quebec to promote federalism at figure skating events. I just hope that $4 Billion Martin has promised comes through.
So why is Steve-O pushing for an election right away? We already know that Martin promised to call an election 30 days after the final Gomery report is due in February, which means an election just before the playoffs - like usual. Even Ralph Klein is predicting another Liberal minority. The only benefit I see in Harper pushing for a mid-January election is a low turnout. Steve-O's playing a
numbers game, and truthfully its the only way he'd ever get close to being Prime Minister.
Let me paint this dreary picture for you:
January 23, 2006. 5:15PM. It's dark and -12 outside ... and it's a Monday.
You've just worked all day and now your scraping the ice and snow off your car. Thankfully your car starts, but barely. You shiver inside your 5 year old car for the mandatory 45 seconds before you can go anywhere. If you put the car in drive, the transmission will fall apart from the bitter cold. You wait for the sub-arctic temperatures inside your car to slowly increase, hopefully to the point where your feet will finally start to thaw out.
You dread this drive home, through a snowy, slushy and icy congested traffic nightmare, known as hell. Your car is not moving beyond 40km/h for the first 20 minutes of the second half of your daily commute, and the vehicle not fully warmed up until you're about 5 minutes from home. But you enjoy that well deserved temperate oasis because you know you're going to have to start shoveling your driveway in just under 4 minutes and 15 seconds.
Parking the car on the street and not in the driveway (as to not pack down the snow making shoveling quite difficult, if not impossible) you begin the less-loved of all winter chores. It's well after 6PM, and you haven't even thought about dinner - but now the hunger is eating you from the inside. As you quickly prepare your dinner for one, you turn on the TV to realize you were supposed to go out and vote today. You won't be finished dinner until at least 7:30PM, the polls close at 8PM, and you can't seem to find that little orange piece of paper given to you by Elections Canada 6 weeks earlier. "There's no point rushing around" you say to yourself, not really wanting to venture outside into that bitter, wind-chilled cold anyway, "The Liberals will just win another minority government - Ralph Klein said so himself back in November".
Around 11PM you bunker down and begin to watch the election results - not wanting to fully miss out on your only true civic duty. Lloyd Robertson and Mike Duffy are saying the story for Election 2006 is the low-turnout nation wide. You look outside your window into the crisp cold darkness saying "I can believe it!".
Only 35% of Canadian voters come out to the polls, and suddenly you feel a little uneasy. Maybe you should have put the extra effort in going out to vote. The news gets worse and worse... A neck and neck race at first and then the Conservatives move ahead with a slight 3% lead. You quickly realize you've been tricked!!! The same way you were tricked back when you were a child. Your older brother pointing to something behind you, stealing a french fry as you naively look to see what he was interested in. You bought in to his trick then, and you bought into the Tory's trick now. " Damn You, Steven Harper !! Damn you, Ralph Klein !! "
"Have an Election in January, so no middle-of-the-road, working class Canadian or new immigrant will want to go vote" is what Steve-O is thinking. "It'll be too cold to vote. Make it seem like they're going to win anyway, just to give those same middle-of-the-road Canadians no reason to have they're voice heard."
Only the extremists, like Harper, would want to go vote. Only the pissed off, like Duceppe, would want to go vote. Only the power hungry, like Layton - wanting to have his social democratic voice heard - would want to go vote. Laid back centrist Canadians, the true 'Majority', would rather relax, be apathetic and not vote - and not because they don't have confidence in the Liberals, but because they don't have confidence in any of the other options either. Those real Canadians are sick of parliamentarians playing political games.
Like it or not we're destined for another minority government. Whether it's something which will function for more than 17 months is all we're deciding. The Liberals and the NDP will be able to knock down any Tory government, the separatists from Alberta and Quebec will be able to over throw the Grits. I guess the only other option would have the Liberals and the NDP incorporated into a cojoined party in order to lock up the slightly right of centre; the centre; and the english left of centre votes.
It wouldn't be such a bad idea would it - social democracy with fiscal responsibility ??
