Election 2008

The time has come for Canada to vote again, and to me it's never felt more like a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. To me everything the Conservative Party of Canada has done over this last minority government has been the right political maneuver, but the wrong thing for Canada as a whole. They've constantly rattled their sabers over every bill that tried to pass the house of commons, bullying the leftist parties into compliance with the threat of a premature election, and now they've finally pulled the pin on that threat, right when they're in the best position in the polls.

I am a die hard liberal anarchist, I reject every form of arbitrary authority, every privilege of rank or station on principle, and I think that social mobility in this country is directly at odds with the machinations of the Conservative Party of Canada. This party is the self absorbed impulse of the baby boomer generation personified, the kind of people that went to university in the 1970s for what would amount to pennies on the dollar today, and then when they 'grew up' slashed taxes to the point that post secondary education in this country is getting to be prohibitively expensive for many Canadians. These are the people that want to get tough on crime even though crime is at it's lowest point in thirty years. These are the people that actually had the gall to bring an anti-gay marriage bill to the house of commons even though the issue is dead and buried for the vast majority of Canadians.

I get seriously worried about what the Conservative government will do when they gain a majority in this coming election. Their agenda is pure tripe as far as I'm concerned, I for one do not want to see a militarized Canada built to "defend Canada's interests around the globe" as Harper put it. That kind of talk smacks of the United States in the 70s in their dealing with South America, overthrowing democratically elected governments and replacing them with naked fascism in an attempt to protect America's interests.

Unfortunately for Canadians as a whole, Stéphane Dion and the Liberal party seem to have forgotten how to win an election. They're passively accepting the barbs hurled from the Conservative camp, and not striking back with anything on Harper worth remembering. I fear that Harper will introduce another round of tax breaks with the aim of making socialized medicine economically unfeasible without raising taxes, something any party would be loath to do given the general shortsightedness of the electorate.

We as Canadians are at a crossroads. The way we have always done things is fast becoming environmentally and economically unfeasible. We are not a pure consumerist culture like the United States, but the Conservative Party makes no secret of their love affair with the Republican Party. My MP, Rob Anders was actually a republican hatchet artist, and he routinely wins elections even though he refuses to attend debates and has been demoted to a party back bencher for his asinine musings (like calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist for one). We cannot continue to hack away at our social programs and expect to maintain our national identity.

Unfortunately, in a true democracy, you end up with the Government you deserve.