Going to the polls - again!
Much as Canadians resent the position in which they've been placed, it looks as though there will be another election. So soon after the last, which produced a minority Liberal government. Called by many Canada's "natural governing party", the Liberals were left in shabby shape with the departure of the previous Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, he of the small-town cheap reputation. He who so urgently desired his "legacy" to remain intact. So what was his legacy? That of a wise 'little guy' from Shawinigan who governed well? Don't think so. Instead, corruption, pay-offs, snouts-in-the-trough old-style (dare I say it? Quebec style) graft. Funny how it is that the electorate becomes so unreasonable about the waste of their hard-earned and grudgingly rendered taxes.There are few Canadians who really begrudge the government a portion of their wages for needed infrastructure, to ensure a balanced, creative, sensitive and honest federal government. We want and have the nerve to expect that Canadians' desire to live decent lives with appropriate social structures (health, education, social services, affordable housing, reasonable government services, future prospects, public safety) will start with the federal government, trickling down to the provincial government of the day, and finally rest with the municipal governments whose decisions are closest to where we live, as it were.
The federal government has to make hard choices, and we expect them to do so with the best interests of all Canadians in mind. Strangely enough this excludes glad-handing to family and friends, clubby acquaintances and big corporations who hire in-the-know (often former politicians) lobbyists.
Our former prime minister, a true wolf in sheep's clothing, dirtied himself and his party and he dismally failed the Canadian people, despite the occasional (poll-driven) good decision-making ensuring at least that our national pride was kept intact. It is the bad decisions he made, those which lined the pockets of those with influence that have now come back to haunt his 'legacy', his party and his former Finance Minister whom he so much loathed, and who returned the compliment.
Prime Minister Paul Martin, despite (through a veil of suspicion, since this was, after all, the very same finance minister who did his utmost during the previous ten years to beggar our much beloved social safety net) the promise so many hopeful voters saw in his potential has done very little in his short tenure to give the impression that that faint hope would be realized. He was flawed by his association with the former Prime Minister almost as much as he failed the electorate by undercutting our health and social welfare systems. He may indeed be the honourable man he wants us to believe he is, but he is tainted irredemiably by the fallout from the ongoing Gomery Commission into the Liberal "Adscam" scandal, despite the fact that he appointed Judge Gomery.
Pity. All the more so, as Canadians have scant choice as a potential successor. The Bloc? to enable Quebec separation to the general detriment of the country? I'm almost tempted to let them go if they want it so much - but do they? The New Democratic Party? To whom I've always pledged a tentative allegiance, but whose socialistic rhetoric I always found distasteful, and whose current head is a master of such rhetoric. Added to which the sometimes dubious choices of direction and action which the NDP has taken in the past decade leaves me wondering about their collective intelligence. The new Conservative Party? Or should I say Reform-Alliance, as that more accurately portrays their background, their adherence, their support. There would be no separation of church and state with them; we would, under them, realize what a true right-wing governance would look like in this country.
Is this the best Canada can offer to its citizens? Perish the thought.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 14, 2005
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