Embarassing politics in Canada
November 29th, 2005 | by ian |With all the political turmoil in the US in the past year, Canadian politicians have been getting envious of the attention. So they’ve decided to go and do their own boneheaded grab for some media spotlight. And based on over 1000 references in Google News, I would say that it is working.
The story goes something like this:
- The dominant and long governing Liberal party gives away a bunch of tax dollars to their friends under the guise of saving the country 10 years ago. The support for this party naturally wanes and the opposition smells blood, but they are unable to win a non-confidence vote while they are up in the polls.
- Months go by and Canadians tire of the opposition whining without being able to present credible alternatives to government. Besides, things seem to be running reasonably well, so the Liberals are back on top in the polls.
- Then out of what I can only assume is spite, the 3 opposition parties which make up the remainder of the minority goverment, bring down the goverment. Embarassingly this happens while Canada is hosting 190 countries at a gobal climate change conference. I suggest this is out of spite because these three parties could hardly be further apart from each other in their politics and goals, and without any kind of (unified) vision of Canada other than one where the Liberals play a much smaller role, it is unlikely that any of these parties will stand to gain from the election other than an opportunity to run some good ‘ol fashioned smear campaigns.
Flash forward:
Canada wastes more tax dollars than were thrown at their friends by the Liberals during the entire sponsorship fiasco. All this to have the Liberals re-elected in a campaign which debases everyone involved, insults the intelligence of Canadians, and generally makes us look bad on the world stage. Oh and all of this happen during our holiday season, while children on school holidays can watch ads of politicians hurling insults at each other, setting a great example for future leaders.
The only upside I can see is that coming hot on the heels of the climate change conference, perhaps the Green Party will finally get some of their candidates into parliament!