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The Canadians are poised to make a tragic mistake today by giving the Conservative Party a victory over the Liberal Party. The Conservatives are led by Stephen Harper, 46, the Canadian George W. Bush. His party includes a partnership with the ultra-conservative Canadian Alliance party.
I understand the desire to replace the Liberal Party, which was beset by corruption and scandals, including a huge kickback scheme in Quebec. But ruining Canada's image and having a government more like the Republicans in the United States is clearly not the answer. Why would anyone aspire to copy a political party that brought us Katrina, the quagmire in Iraq and record deficits? That's just plain reactionary and stupid. Choosing this form of failed government would be a much greater scandal than anything the Liberal Party has done.
A conservative victory could spell trouble for same-sex marriage. If our neighbor to the north backtracks, cancel your Canadian vacation and visit South Africa or Spain. Let's reward our friends with our gay American dollars. Hopefully, it won't come to this, as I love Canada - particularly, Vancouver and Montreal.
5 Comments:
People are probably just as dumb north of the border as they are here--the right-wingnuts will probably win. Hopefully a backlash against corruption in this country will bring the Dems back into power in the 06 and 08 elections!! Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
1/23/2006 1:03 PM
The republicans brought us (ostensibly, hurricane) "Katrina"?
Amazing...those people are far more powerful than any of us thought...
posted by Anonymous, at
1/23/2006 1:35 PM
Good new is that the conservatives will only get a minority government. What this translates into is that "family values" leglislation will most likely not make it past the parliamentary floor. The campaign for this election has been dreadful. "Prime Minister" Harper put on a moderate facade and muzzled the evangelicals to win the undecided voters. People have been duped and voted for them out of spite for liberal corruption. As the saying goes, better the devil you know than the one that you don't. What is most scary, is that Harper's ideology closely mirrors that of Bush on monetary and social policy. Yes, he will attempt to repeal gay marriage, even using the constitutional "notwithstanding clause", which he promised not to, but know he will anyway. Will he succeed, hopefully not because the majority of our country does not condone state sanctioned discrimination and religion is far less prevalent in Canadian politics. I am not happy with this outcome obviously though.
posted by Anonymous, at
1/23/2006 11:40 PM
BC Waterboy, lets hope that the NDP will side with liberals on any legislation relevant to the LGBT community. I'm relieved that Harper doesn't have a mandate and I hope he has hard time in office. Lets also hope there are some skeletons in his closet. In my personal opionion, it is never an option to have a conservative government no matter how corrupt the left might be. Corruption on the right is rife here in the U.S., probably some of the worst in political history, if not the worst.
I am most interested in what Harper will do to keep the muzzles tight on his extreme right wing homophobes who regularly trash gays in public. As Prime Minister, it is his job to protect the dignity of all Canadians, and that includes not allowing derogatory rhetoric to go unchallenged. If he lets it go unchallenged, that will tell me a lot about his leadership skills. I think he will either sink or swim based on how he handles delicate social issues and minorities. He has virtually no support in any of our major cities: No seats in parliament in either Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver or Halifax. That is millions of people of most of the country's population. He won by the rural vote, one of which that is typically out of touch with most of what goes on in real life outside of small centres.
posted by Anonymous, at
1/25/2006 12:07 AM
