The Canadian Election: Good News and the Bad

Canada survived the election.   Why not, we're certainly in practice, the third election in seven years,  and the good news is that there will NOT  be another Federal election for 4 years.  Maybe that's the best news. 
   The Conservatives and Stephen Harper now have a majority government and a mandate  to do with Canada as they will, not to be hindered,  stymied, threatened or made ineffective as they so piously  pleaded in their previous minority status whilst they ruled.
     Throughout the campaign,  with canned, planned rhetoric void of fire but hinting of  brimstone,  they attempted to instil fear in the hearts of the electorate  at the possibility of yet another minority and potential coalition conspiracies galore.   Mission accomplished.    Please, now,  with that majority, please do not repeat that canned speech one more time lest you drive us all around the bend, never to vote again.
 The Bloc Quebecois was wiped out,  left with four seats,  having occupied those many fine leather chairs in the House of Commons  for far too long --and what other destiny could be more  appropriate for a naval-gazing, regional, separatist, non-representative Canada-destroying party?  Gilles Duceppe,  their fierce leader failed to survive the NDP onslaught in Quebec, and  he is resigning.    From what he is resigning we know not, for without party status,  nothing remains but indignant whispers and a few crocodile tears.  
Smiling Jack Layton, the upstart fiery  cane-wielding New Democratic leader was the real story for the night;  wounded or not,  Jack and the NDP swept Quebec  at the expense of the Liberals and Conservatives to become the 'official' opposition with over a hundred seats.  Heady stuff for Jack.   He gave a speech that was befitting a Prime Minister.  Blew the Liberals and Michael Ignatieff out of the water like a surfacing whale.  That was  good news for him.
The bad news is that as official opposition facing a strong majority Conservative government across the floor,  even with 104 seats  he probably has less power now than he did when the government was a whining  minority suffering  the whims of aggravated opposition ---and Jack was often deal-maker of choice.

Hastily scribbled on the back cover of the Liberal Red Book is  Michael  Ignatieff's resignation;  he will likely to return to academia---and  Justin Trudeau,  yes, the son of Pierre Elliott T. himself  --is already considering  acquisition of that broken leadership and it's broken toys.   Go figure.  That didn't take long.

Thing is, with the  central-left Liberals it's either take on Justin and die or try to reinvent themselves, lick the wounds, and maintain silence and dignity if at all possible, without trying to alienate the electorate any further than they apparently already have .

Bottom line, left  with only a paltry 35 seats, for the Liberals, it's either that or conjure up a leaderless merge with the Leftist NDP,   Bob Rae seems to like that idea, visions of sugar plums at 24 Sussex Drive  dance in his head,  but  the crabby old boy's Red Tie Power  club has 4 years of vacation ahead of them  to figure out how to  politely remove Iggy from the seat of power and  put Justin in charge without offending Bob anyway. Oh, tell them not to bother;  Iggy resigned today.  That was easy.

Way out in the greenest part of B.C, out on the  Saanich-Gulf Islands , a place I always wanted to visit since it's always green on Saltspring,  there's  Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party, who made her own  history by being the first  Green member of Parliament,  let's repeat that,  the first elected member of the Green Party of Canada to be sent to Ottawa.   Watch out, boys.
     Listen up, Stephen.   Now Elizabeth can storm the  leader's debates without the stigma of being the only party leader without a seat.  Now she has one. and it's a nice  Green one  just like the dozens  conveniently vacated by the Bloc for this special occasion, and the point is,  --shall we recall,-- she whupped a Conservative to get it too.  Feisty girl.   She is going to restore civility to the House of Commons single-handed. 
That's good news. Canadians are tired of watching children at play, and  by the way,  Canadians are entering dangerous territory with a government that not only prorogued  parliament twice,  but was also ruled in contempt of parliament.  How soon we forget?  uh-uh...Will the majority status "improve" that marginal tendency to dictate?  What shall we have, a majority anarchy? 
So, that's the bad news?  That's the pointed question.  Maybe the bad news  really is that we're just facing another 4 years of the same old political partisan gamesmanship. 


As my  brilliant friend John says,  "We shall see what we shall see".   Just don't hold your breath while you wait. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Four Questions? Unbelievable Playground

(c)2011 r.a. kukkee

May 2nd approaches .  With the Canadian Federal election and campaigns in full swing, it is not surprising to see the playground empty. It is not  surprising to see, but difficult to understand  why any leader of any honest political party would  reasonably find it necessary to  "limit" reporters to FOUR questions a day. 

Four questions that are supposed to provide  enough "answers"  that will in turn somehow magically convince 34,000,000 election-exhausted  Canadians that a Conservative majority is deserved after a  problematic minority? 

Would a majority Liberal government be any better?

 Think about it.   We're more than  a bit skeptical.

Is the "Opposition" any better out on the campaign trail?  You guess.   

Here at Incoming Bytes, everyone is allowed to draw their own  opinion at will,  but  the majority of  election-savvy Canadians recognize  that campaigns are artificial events designed to deceive.     This is not just a policy to make an already tightly-scripted,  memorized,  highly-controlled plastic campaign  more effective,  but rather to  guard the fort and keep the  hidden agenda hidden more effectively, so please....the electorate does know better.

All Canadians know that such tools are  official  Party Muzzles  for ANY  politician that is almost guaranteed to make a mistake when tired,   grab someone by the throat,  stutter,  stammer, stammer a horrible gaffe , blow a line, promise the sky,  slobber all over the baby,  say the wrong thing,  stumble into enemy territory, insert both feet into  the foaming mouth, ---and  thereby throw  the "perfect"  political  campaign  off track, out into space, --or more likely,  as we commonly observe,   bury it  up to the hips in  the inevitable pile of crumpets out behind the horse barn. 

Such are political campaigns, nice try, boys.... but they do NOTHING to answer  REAL questions.  Funny,  the truth always comes out. 

We have questions. Real ones.  Not "approved" by the event organizer, changed to suit the campaign manager, or tweaked for an optimal  photo op.

• Just who IS stealing the election here?
•  Who tried to create a coalition in 2004 and is pretending otherwise?
•  Who has the WORST attendance record in parliament? 
• Does ANYONE deserve a majority? 
• Which Political party has NOT been scandalized or corrupted in the last 40 years?
• Who has told the most blatant, willful lies?
• Who has made the most inflated  promises, knowing full well they can not be kept?
• Who is buying the Canadian electorate with their own money? 
• Why do we still have a Senate which does nothing but cost taxpayers more every year? 
• Why are corrupt politicians allowed to collect fat Senate pensions?
•  Why is a  treasonous, regional separatist  party allowed to sit in our House of Commons ? 
•  Why are Canadians subsidizing petroleum companies when consumers are being gouged and gasoline is over $6.00/ gallon?
• Why are we exporting oil to the U.S. of A.  that has it's own GIGANTIC shale oil reserves? 
• Why are Canadian taxpayers subsidizing the oil sands to export that same oil to the USA ? 
• Why are Seniors in Canada forced to live below the poverty level?
• Why are Canadian troops still in Afghanistan? 
• Why are we buying  $150M per copy F35's  with  no engines?  
• Why did we spend a BILLION dollars on the G-20 summit? 
• Who is INTENT on gutting Canada's universal health care system-- perhaps the best health in the world? 
• Why should Canadians  possibly believe a "majority" would do any better, or more honest ?
•  Why is "fear-mongering" being used instead of common sense and logic? 
• Where are YOU taking OUR Canada??

OOPS.....that's more than four questions ----in  less than five minutes, ...imagine that.  hm.................What are we going to do for the REST of the campaign ? 

Let's face it,  in any political forum,  four questions a day doesn't cut it,,,,,,period.

Let's  cut the bull and call it what it really is,  a canned, memorized campaign  intended to  numb the minds of the election-weary electorate so REAL issues will never be addressed.   

Sadly,  it is clear that Canadians have a right to be skeptical.   Canadians have a right to a better, more responsible and more honest government.   
Get out in the playground and provide some good, honest governance, that's what you're being PAID to do. 

I know one thing; as a skeptical  Canadian voter I  have no intention to vote for "the dishonest". 

That's my opinion  and I'm sticking to it.