Sunday, August 23, 2020
It's Not Like They Had Much to Choose From
Canada's Tories, like their Republican cousins to the south, are old, white and increasingly irrelevant. Both parties have to pander to an aging demographic that is becoming more xenophobic and bigoted with every passing year.
That's good news for the Liberals who themselves are bereft of the calibre of talent that once filled their front benches to overflowing. With the Tories setting the bar so low the Liberals can slide through on mediocrity. And so they are.
So it seems that Erin O'Toole becomes the new leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition in place of the part-time, summer help, insurance agency counter clerk, Andrew Scheer.
To me, it doesn't matter. Canadian politics is becalmed in a political Sargasso Sea. As the problems facing our country rapidly increase our political caste become ever less useful, ever more irrelevant. There are no Pearsons, no Diefenbakers, no Lewises or Broadbents, no Pierre Trudeaus or Lauriers or St. Laurents on offer.
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9 comments:
No surprise Otoole won : he was always going to get the right wing nut job votes parked with Lewis and Sloan. The only thing notable is their strength : together they had a bigger share than either potato pete or the old tool.
The homophobic, xenafobic, misogynistic evangelicalw are noe in the CPC driver's seat even more than they were with Harper and Scheer. Oh boy.
.. Canada's political Parties are lumbering dinosaurs.. and an asteroid named COVID-19 has hit the planet..
Political Parties decide who will represent & defend the dreams needs and wishes of Canadians. Well let me back up.. That's what they pretend they will do.. and Media piles on with Opinionation For The Nation.. and (gulp) we venture forth to vote.. Here n there we find gems.. Nate in the Beaches, Michael Chong, Adam van Kouverden (who blew away Ms Lisa Raitt).. and there must be others across Canada.. but what % ?? 2% ??
You nailed it.. 'bereft'
My rant continues re the archaic Parliament evolved from prehistoric times.. We have Ms Rempel whining on Facebook for donor dollars for an impending election (she suggests) Mr Poilievre who was on the committee that agreed to redact.. whining about blacked out segments.. and note that he represents a new riding split from his old riding now represented by his former assistant.. Say Wha ??
I'll check in with Bruce Cockburn and get back to you with my rocket launcher
We need representatives 'generated' from within our communities.. ideally for perhaps a 2-4 year service.. and gone.. Well paid, no pension. Public service.. Get elected because 'you care' and are informed and can hit the ground running.. not as a 'career move' for scumbags a la Kenney, Scheer, Poilievre.. (all multimillionaires last I looked)
Introducing the new Harper 3.0.
Even blander and greyer than previous (pervert-rious?) versions; assuring sleepwalking, Canadian voters they can overlook the nasty meanness in the CONs core that will guide ever decision.
I confess that I have paid the now Rt. Hon. O'Toole less notice than he apparently warrants. He boasts loudly of his "conservative" impulses, whatever that means. What passes for conservative today has gone so far to the right that Edmund Burke would blanche.
If Canada is to be saved from the sleeping sickness we more politely call Parliament - saved in time to rally against the crises that loom over us - there can be but two solutions: electoral reform and lowering the voting age to 16.
Young people have more skin in this game today than youth ever did since I was one yet less cause for confidence in the ideologically-steered lumps we return to Ottawa, over and over again. Beyond that, as we enter this era fraught with perils it is more necessary than ever that all voices be heard. The idea that two out of five - voting on platforms contrived solely to elicit support - should be able to hand the Conservatives or the Liberals a solid majority government is perverse.
As long as FPTP is the law of the land, today's results will be ever more firmly entrenched.
O'Toole - Take Back Canada
Trump - Make America Great Again
I don't see any difference.
UU
We will never be a liberal democracy, Owen, when a party can form majority government without the consent of three out of five voters.
O'Toole is a Harper acolyte, UU. Before he became prime minister Harper gave an address to prominent Republicans where he announced he hoped to transform the Canadian conservative moment in their image. That was fundamental to the Alliance takeover of the PCs and the purge of any "progressive" identification in the merged party. O'Toole is indeed of that same mold. Canada is the worse off for it.
I find Take Back Canada more odious that MAGA, UU. Canada belongs to us all while the CPC seems to believe they can take Canada for themselves.
mr perfect
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