vintage

(a slightly modified and probably improved version of something sent to the man himself, which you can also do if you are so inclined.

I also just noticed that my election post was entitled “straight talk,” which was supposed to be a Sarah Palin reference — but in an amusing coincidence, it is also the English title of Dion’s book about Canadian unity. Excellent.)

Mr Dion:

I want to apologise for this country.

I’m nineteen years old, and a completely starry-eyed idealist. I’ve been awaiting my turn to vote in a federal election for years, and allowed myself the slight ridiculous hope that the country might decide to kick Stephen Harper out to the curb. You know better than most, of course, that that didn’t happen. It was a real defeat, I think – not just for your party, or Mr Layton’s or Ms May’s either. It was a defeat for most Canadians, the ones who didn’t vote blue. There were a few of us, or perhaps more than a few, who were hoping we’d hear someone shouting “Prime Minister Dion” at the end of the night; instead, I turned off the TV before all the polls had finished reporting.

I’m not a card-carrying Liberal. I’m actually not a card-carrying anything. I’m a student, an artist, a supporter of equal rights and freedoms. I’m the kind of voter everyone probably wants – the one who reschedules plans in order to go to the all candidates’ debate, the one who reads every party’s pamphlets and platforms in an effort to really determine where her one vote should go. I have a hopelessly idealistic view of politics, and I have a hard time getting my head around attack ads, mudslinging and generally childish behaviour. I do understand that politics isn’t a party, and people don’t just sit around and offer each other tea and cake and work out compromises; sometimes, though, I think a tea-and-cake approach might be what this country needs.

Forgive me if I’m jumping to conclusions, but I think you might be a tea-and-cake sort of prime minister if you got the chance, and I mean this in a good way. You’re a nice guy, Mr Dion – a really nice guy. Headlines these days say things like “Dion bows out with grace”. No one uses the word grace to describe Mr Harper, and with good reason. The Conservative campaign was dirty and unfair, and they portrayed you badly; that CTV interview fiasco was absolutely awful. I think a lot of people felt bad for you by the end, even if they weren’t Liberal supporters. Of course, no leader wants people to feel bad for them – you wanted people to rally behind your cause and get the Conservatives out of office. It didn’t work, but we’re left with an image of the real Stéphane Dion: gracious, honourable, and absolutely unwilling to stoop to Mr Harper’s level.

I’m not saying the Liberal campaign was perfect, nor that it was terrible; my point here isn’t to criticise or offer advice on what’s past. What I am saying, though, is that you and yours ran a cleaner and fairer campaign than the current ruling party, and I respect all of you for that. Perhaps I am too childish in my expectations, but sometimes I wonder how Mr Harper’s advertisers can sleep at night. In my eyes, you had conviction; you thought about it and said “the Green Shift is what I want for Canada; the carbon tax is going to make their lives better”. Then you tried your very best to sell it. You didn’t back down, even when it meant your party suffered serious destruction at the hands of the Conservatives and the left-wing voter split. Of course, looking back on that might yield the wisdom that it wasn’t the best strategy, but the point is: you did what you believed. This is the sort of politics I believe in, stand behind, and wish there was more of. In other words, even though I don’t live in your riding, I felt like I was represented in some way by your actions.

I’m sorry it had to end this way, with you accepting your fate and watching the Liberal party get out their knives. I genuinely hoped you might be prime minister for a while, even if just to affirm that yes, nice guys make it. I’ve never had the honour of meeting you, but I think that if I did, you would pay attention to what I had to say and remember it later in Parliament. I appreciate that kind of thing, and I’m sure the constituents of St-Laurent-Cartierville who voted for you these past six elections do too.

So thanks: for showing Canada that there are still good men in the House of Commons, and for proving that not all politicians are dirty and underhanded. Maybe nice guys do finish last, but you made it pretty far. You might not be our Prime Minister, and pretty soon you won’t be the Liberal leader anymore either, but I have a lot of respect for you — that’s a victory in itself.

Tags: canada, editorial, politics

Allow me, if you will, to take a brief break from the usual subject matter to talk about politics. Canada has just had a general election and the results are, from my point of view, dismal.

For those of you who are unaware, Canada elects our prime minister indirectly. The country is divided into electoral districts, or ridings, based on population; the residents of the riding elect a representative, who is affiliated with a political party (note: there are independent candidates as well, but the majority of those running for office are party-based). Whichever political party has the most representatives forms the government, and the leader of that party becomes the prime minister.

There are 308 seats in Canadian Parliament; 155 are needed to form a majority government. If the ruling party has less than 155 seats, but has more than any one of the other parties, it is a minority government (this is incredibly confusing if you haven’t encountered it before, but the numbers following will help, I hope). This means it’s kind of unstable and could fall at any time due to a non-confidence vote, which essentially means that the electorate has lost faith in their government and an election will be called.

Our previous government was a minority, and our Conservative prime minister called an election (breaking his own fixed date law in the process, I might add) in the hopes that he would win a majority. Not so, my hero. Let’s check it out.

The data

Unofficial numbers of the 40th Parliament, as of just before midnight Eastern:

Conservative 143
Liberal 76
Bloc 49
NDP 38
Other 2

All right, let’s have a look at this. Here are the numbers of the 39th Parliament upon its election in 2006:

Conservative 124
Liberal 103
Bloc 51
NDP 29
Other (Independent) 1

The tally

Okay. So that means a net gain for Harper’s Conservatives of just under twenty seats. This is a pretty strong showing — especially considering that the Liberals lost nearly thirty seats, and many of those probably went blue. This is a colossal disappointment for Dion and company, and means there will definitely be some shakeups there fairly soon.

Layton and Duceppe, however, are doing pretty well; the New Democrats picked up nine seats, including a key spot in Québec, and the Bloc managed to hover around their previous numbers (they do have a majority over the Conservatives in their province). Unfortunately, the Greens yet again did not pick up a single seat despite party leader Elizabeth May’s bold predictions of up to eight elected MPs; indeed, even May lost her race against Central Nova incumbent Peter MacKay, Conservative.

The grumbling

The only other prime minister in Canadian history to win back-to-back minority governments was Lester B. Pearson, in 1963 and 1965. This is more of a point of interest than anything else. Pearson was also a Liberal.

Stephen Harper essentially wasted $300 million of Canadians’ money on this election, and he didn’t get what he wanted. In the latter days of the campaign, he was quoted as saying he would be happy with another minority — but he won’t be entirely happy about it. He called this election to win a majority, and he didn’t. Still, he gets to keep his job … which is more than some people can say.

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is in for some major trials, which will likely cost him his job. The Liberals have posted one of the worst showings in history, losing almost thirty seats between elections. Dion was a long shot to win the leadership in the first place, and took far too long to prove himself an effective leader; he did excellently in the final weeks of the campaign, but by then it was too late. For the record, I really like Dion and I think he could be a terrific leader, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. The party will likely be expecting him to step down in the coming weeks to avoid a costly leadership convention, and candidates like Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff will step up to battle for his job.

I’d also like to address the problem of the Bloc Québécois. Here they are calling themselves a federal party, yet they only run candidates in one province, and their mandate only covers that province. I understand that there are separatists out there, but — if you’ll pardon me — in terms of being a national party, I think they can stuff it. If you’re running in a federal election, you cover the entire country. Case closed. It should be illegal to do what the Bloc is doing, and unfortunately, it is not. I don’t agree with their inclusion in the general election, and I think those candidates would be better served in the Liberal party.

That being said, Gilles Duceppe is totally awesome and should be our prime minister (provided he drops the Québec-first business).

On Québec being recognized as a separate nation, etc: I read an editorial the other day that said mothers with more than one kid might have a favourite, but if they put that in writing or even just say it, it’s total disaster. The same goes for putting one province’s interest above all the rest so blatantly. What about the aboriginal culture in the north, or the hodgepodge of influences in the Atlantic provinces? What about the Acadian and French heritage in New Brunswick (very similar to Québec’s)? The Québec thing implies that the other provinces are less important, and that’s the last kind of division we need.

In short, I hope at least one country does something right.

(These views are mine, I’m not trying to offend anyone, yes you are welcome to debate or challenge my views — or, heaven forbid, agree with me — and no, those tallies are not official numbers. And no, I don’t officially endorse Stéphane Dion, Gilles Duceppe, Barack Obama or anyone else I mentioned in a faintly positive light.)

Tags: canada, editorial, politics