Rambly political post
Well, the writ is dropped. John and I are already discussing the likelihood of an election party come Jan. 23. I don\'t like to get political here, but I also think it\'s kind of non-productive to withhold my opinion.
I\'ve voted Liberal since forever, and have no problem doing so again. This is mostly because I like Andrew Telegdi. If I had to vote for a putz like Lynn Myers (just go to an all candidates meeting and listen to him) or, to a lesser extent, Karen Redman (while she managed to pull of a tough job to Government Whip in a minority parliament, was kind of emblematic of everything I didn\'t like about that parliament), I\'d likely be looking elsewhere.
As much as I really don\'t like them, though, I think I could tolerate a Conservative minority government. So I\'m pretty mellow about the possible outcomes this time around. There\'s a large part of me that wants to see them get in and utterly fail. Maybe then the whiners in Alberta will STFU and scrounge up a party that doesn\'t make the prospect of shooting myself in the head look down-right attractive compared to the thought of voting for them.
The fact that Stephen Harper resurrected the same-sex marriage debate certainly made me question his sanity and intelligence, but then I realized he kinda had to. The Liberals were going to call him on it sooner or later. He needed a position he could run on, and this is what his core wants. Putting it to an free vote in parliament isn\'t a bad thing (make sure you know where your candidate stands, even if they\'re Liberal). He said he was going to make sure his party voted its conscience, rather than along party lines. I have a hard time believing he seriously thinks he has the popular support or will have the parliamentary support to win that free vote, but if he does it and fails, he can say he tried. Having said that, however, if he ever brings up the Notwithstanding clause in an election campaign again, he\'s getting cockpunched. I\'ll do it. Somehow, I\'ll track him down and slug him right in the dick. He should know better than that. A leader who doesn\'t know better has no right to govern. The sanctity of the Charter is far more important than his idiotic moral panics about homosexuality or child pornography or whatever he decides to come up with next.
I don\'t care about the sponsorship scandal. Well, I do and I don\'t. The Liberals are going to get reamed for it in Quebec, and I think that\'s punishment enough. If anybody\'s freaked out about how the government\'s wasting \" their\" money, consider that the government has wasted far, far more money in the response to the sponsorship scandal than was ever lost to graft. Yes, it was retarded, and no, I can\'t believe the Liberals were stupid enough to let it happen, but it happened and it\'s being dealt with and that\'s good enough for me. I wish it was being dealt with better (and more cheaply), but there you go.
What was more disappointing about this government was just the naked political game-playing, without any regard to any sort of values or ideals. All parties were paying far more attention to scoring points against one another than actually governing the country. You know, I actually like the fact that the Liberals are wishy-washy, middle-of-the-road populists, but it seemed to me they used to actually be interested in good government. I didn\'t see any of that in the last 14 months. Which is why I don\'t think I\'d be too upset if they were relegated to the bench next period. They need a time out to figure out what they want to be. Even if that means a Conservative minority that was incapable of governing.
What I\'d really like to see is at least one seat for the Greens, and maybe more seats for the NDP, who, out of all of them, I think came out ahead, as the NDP are wont to do in minorities. Beyond that, I\'m pretty ambivalent.