Tiring Politics
Yesterday was election day in Canada, as many of you may know, and I hope you voted, no matter what your political inclination. And yes, as the polls indicated, the conservative dude won, with a weak minority, thankfully. Imagine a Republican's Republican in the U.S....that's like him, Stephen Harper. Most people agree he's got some ultra right wing agenda in mind, based on his past views and actions. But with this minority, he will have to continue to be moderate to appeal to the people who aren't ultra right wing like he is. Also, if he tried to pass anything extra weird in parliament, the other opposing parties have more than enough power to bring any of those motions down, which is good, and means that he probably won't even bother trying.
Anyway, for once politics are somewhat interesting in Canada. It's no longer a majority that simply does what it wants. I'm actually a big fan of minority governments now. When they're not fighting for power, good things get done because the party in power can not just bring in whatever bill they want; they must work with the other parties, and this brings in a lot of balance into how the country is run.
So for now I think this change in government will be good for the country. The Liberals are somewhat out of power, meaning they can hopefully clean themselves and their image up, and the Conservatives don't have enough power to pass any huge changes if the other parties are opposed (and a combination of Liberal, Bloc, and NDP, which are all centre or centre-left parties, should keep them in line). Who knows, maybe in the next election the NDP will do even better? They've made a large gain in seats this time around (from 18 to 29), maybe next time (which could be soon if the Conservatives screw up), they will gain even more.
As a result of all this political Brou-ha-ha I am quite tired. I couldn't really sleep last night afterwards (although I'm not sure that was from the election or from the street noise outside the window, or because I watched a good movie (The Motorcyle Diaries) with ___). It seems like my stupid cold is returning a bit, so I'm doing all I can to ward it off, and I hope by tomorrow it will have disappeared.
Ciao for now
GS
Anyway, for once politics are somewhat interesting in Canada. It's no longer a majority that simply does what it wants. I'm actually a big fan of minority governments now. When they're not fighting for power, good things get done because the party in power can not just bring in whatever bill they want; they must work with the other parties, and this brings in a lot of balance into how the country is run.
So for now I think this change in government will be good for the country. The Liberals are somewhat out of power, meaning they can hopefully clean themselves and their image up, and the Conservatives don't have enough power to pass any huge changes if the other parties are opposed (and a combination of Liberal, Bloc, and NDP, which are all centre or centre-left parties, should keep them in line). Who knows, maybe in the next election the NDP will do even better? They've made a large gain in seats this time around (from 18 to 29), maybe next time (which could be soon if the Conservatives screw up), they will gain even more.
As a result of all this political Brou-ha-ha I am quite tired. I couldn't really sleep last night afterwards (although I'm not sure that was from the election or from the street noise outside the window, or because I watched a good movie (The Motorcyle Diaries) with ___). It seems like my stupid cold is returning a bit, so I'm doing all I can to ward it off, and I hope by tomorrow it will have disappeared.
Ciao for now
GS
posted by a bike rider in the big smoke at 3:32 p.m.
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