A (mostly) non-partisan take on the Federal Election…

Federal politics annoy me. It is very seldom that I see an outcome I had hoped for. On the other hand, I am also aware of the adage: “Be careful of what you hope for”.

So…. I just have to ask:

Why are people actually supporting Steven Harper? I mean, I know that we all have our own partisan views and ideologies. At least we do if we stop to think about it. I’m going to try something here which may be impossible. I will attempt to look at this prickly thing while leaving out partisan, left vs. right rants whenever possible. I’ll be talking about character and integrity, not issues.

I’ll start by telling you why I will not support Steven Harper and why I hope that he is denied a majority government.

1) He’s a thief. No… wait… hear me out. This is the man who lured David Emerson (my MP until recently) to cross the floor, for a cherry cabinet post. And this just hours after election. It was deeply in his political interests to do so. There has been a chorus from Conservative supporters about how this was perfectly legal and is done all the time. That may be true, but it is still immoral. To ignore the wishes of the electorate and actively circumvent them is wrong. The Conservatives placed a distant third in Vancouver Kingsway and would never have won the seat. The people of my riding worked hard to deny Steven Harper representation from this constituency. So he stole it. He ignored the wishes of the voters and used our riding to bolster his fledgling minority government. Shame on him and shame on David Emerson for stealing our democracy.

2) He’s a liar. Again… wait. Harper brought in legislation for fixed date elections. I support this legislation because I feel that our democracy is manipulated and tampered with constantly, usually to the benefit of the incumbent governments, or the groups with the most money. So I thought, “Good on ya, Steve. I may not like you but I can support you on this one.” I should not have been surprised when he called an early election the moment he saw polls that suggested he could form a majority. He excused his dishonesty with some bafflegab about having an “unworkable parliament”. Come ON, people! Wake up and smell the bullshit. I guess it’s okay to have fixed date elections along as the PM can call an earlier one if it might offer him a political advantage. Liar, liar, pants of fire. Oh. And he also lied about the income trust thing.

3) He is a muzzler. I worry when the highest elected official in the country sees fit to fire his best scientific minds when they have views that may be inconvenient or inconsistent with party lines. He did this when CNSC President Linda Keen proved to be a thorn in his side. It looks to me like she was doing her job perfectly well, so why was she dumped? I am also alarmed at the number of Conservative candidates being kept out of the public eye. I think there are some pretty compelling questions that Donna Cadman (from Surrey North) should answer to the Canadian public. Too bad Steven Harper thinks it would be best if she just kept quiet. The same is true of the Conservative who is running here in Vancouver Kingsway (Salomon Rayek). He won’t be bothered to appear at the all-candidates-meeting next week. I’ll assume that’s because the war-room sees that as an opportunity to lessen his votes in an unwinnable riding.

And actually… this war-room stuff is where I’m going with all this. All the major parties have them. They use science, history, polling and manipulation as best they can to “win a war”. It seems like content, integrity, honesty and issues have all taken a back seat to winning an election these days. I, personally, have become completely cynical about politicians. There is not a single party that I feel I cold support wholeheartedly. But there is one guy who I know I don’t want running our country and he is Steven Harper.

That’s why I was so pleased to discover http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/. Although it is based on the notion that all environmentalists would want to band together to deny the Conservatives a majority, it should appeal to anyone who hopes to see that smirk get wiped off Steven Harper’s face. Their approach on how to avoid vote splitting is sound and revolutionary, in my opinion. It’s like the voters of Canada have their very own war-room! Check out your riding to find out if it’s one that is actually “in play” because most of the outcomes are pre-ordained. If voters choose to vote strategically to manipulate an electoral system in which they themselves are being manipulated, they can get back a shred of democracy. As I said before… I’m a cynic. This is a breath of fresh air to me. I encourage you to pass the link along to friends and family in different regions of Canada. If nothing else, it’s fun to see what the site says about your riding.

I knew a kid like Steven Harper back when I was in middle school. He was the guy who stole someone’s lunch money, lied about it when he got caught, and used influence and pressure to make sure his friends (and rivals) kept their mouths shut. After the dust settled, he’d be punished with detention.

Nowadays, if we’re not careful, guys like Steven Harper don’t get sent to detention. They get the keys to our country.