Monday, July 13, 2009
New Musings
Well it's been ages since I've updated this blog, and a lot has changed since then. The Conservative Party of Canada has won another minority government, convinced the Governor General to prorogue Parliament and has weathered the Liberal Party climbing (and then receding) in the polls under the new leadership of Michael Ignatieff. These have been interesting times for the politically inclined in Canada. Most people in my home province of Alberta seemed to think that the plot hatched by the Liberal Party to form a coalition government with the NDP and Bloc was an attempt to subvert democracy. This just showcased their own illiteracy when it comes to Canadian Politics.
Unlike the American system, where one votes for the leader and representative separately, in the Canadian system we literally only vote for the party, nothing else. The party with the most seats has their leader elected Prime Minister. By virtue of this logic, whoever can command the respect of the majority of the members of Parliament is the Prime Minister. Given the amount of bile that western voters were spewing over this current political debacle, you'd think they had no idea how this system works. Unfortunately for them the Conservatives always seem to do a terrible job of convincing the rest of Canada that they harbor no secret agenda.
I for one would have relished the chance to see the Conservative Party fall, however that seems less and less likely. I do not have the same visceral dislike for Stephen Harper I once did, but every time I feel like they've done the right thing, they take a massive step backwards in my books by allowing some idiot MP to leak something or voice an extremely stupid opinion. As well their policy of getting tougher on drug offenders sickens me. We already have a longitudinal study of how those policies fail in the form of U.S. criminal policy. The same could be said of Health Care, however there are Conservatives here that will always be clamoring for a more American style of governance. One can only hope they remain the minority.
Unlike the American system, where one votes for the leader and representative separately, in the Canadian system we literally only vote for the party, nothing else. The party with the most seats has their leader elected Prime Minister. By virtue of this logic, whoever can command the respect of the majority of the members of Parliament is the Prime Minister. Given the amount of bile that western voters were spewing over this current political debacle, you'd think they had no idea how this system works. Unfortunately for them the Conservatives always seem to do a terrible job of convincing the rest of Canada that they harbor no secret agenda.
I for one would have relished the chance to see the Conservative Party fall, however that seems less and less likely. I do not have the same visceral dislike for Stephen Harper I once did, but every time I feel like they've done the right thing, they take a massive step backwards in my books by allowing some idiot MP to leak something or voice an extremely stupid opinion. As well their policy of getting tougher on drug offenders sickens me. We already have a longitudinal study of how those policies fail in the form of U.S. criminal policy. The same could be said of Health Care, however there are Conservatives here that will always be clamoring for a more American style of governance. One can only hope they remain the minority.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)