Not A Happy Canadian Today...

At Least Elizabeth Won!

Warning: Today’s post is all about politics and it’s not pretty.

There is not language to describe how disgusted and angry I am about the results of last night’s election (and I’m a Green so I should actually be quite happy right now that my party’s leader finally got in).

But I’m not angry at Harper and his Conservatives. Disgusted yes, but not angry. They ran a smart, though occasionally dirty, campaign and got the results they wanted. Harper stayed clam, stayed on message, stayed on top of the ridings and groups he needed and was rewarded with a win.

The whole we’re-not-going-to-win-a-minority-but-that’s-what-Canada-needs line he kept repeating over the past weekend was an especially good move. It probably helped to get his people out to the polls, while luring other, non-Conservative voters into a false sense of comfort.

No, who I’m really angry with is the roughly 5,829,350 of Canadian voters who picked the only party in the history of the Commonwealth to be found in contempt of Parliament.

And that’s just the start of the Conservatives' very long list of very bad things. Just sitting here I can think of the disaster, on so many levels, that were the G8/G20 summits; the overpriced fighter jets; the unnecessary fight on crime; the eroding of women’s rights; the defunding of NGOs that don’t fit with the Conservative’s value system; oh, the deficit, that’s literally a big one.

I do understand why some people vote Conservative. Their policies are quite financially beneficial to a small number of Canadians. And let’s not forget about the “spite for Central Canada” vote. I’m originally from Alberta and the Conservative party could probably order a genocide and far too many Westerns would still vote for them.

But most of that 40% that voted Conservative aren’t rich, nor are they bitter Westerns who hate Toronto and environmentalists. They’re typical Canadians with typical jobs and typical struggles and a Conservative majority is bad news for them. They think life’s expensive now? Just wait until they have to start paying more for post-secondary, for health care, for senior care, for child care… You get the picture.

And just like super jets, super jails don’t come cheap. Tax revenue, in some form, needs to be at least maintained, if not increased, and I think we can all agree that increase won’t be coming out of the pockets of corporate Canada.

I could go on and on and on, but let’s just sum things up by saying I don’t picture the next four years being kind ones to most Canadians, including most of those responsible for voting Harper into power. The evil part of me wants to take some joy in this, thinking that these people will be “taught a lesson”. But the less evil, and smarter, part of me knows that no “lesson” is worth damaging our country.

My only comfort in all of this actually comes from the US. This election reminds me of the 2008 US election when Bush was re-elected. Back then, everyone was asking, “How the fuck…”, just like many Canadians are asking today. And while 2004-2008 weren’t great years for the US, it got through them and now look at the Republican Party, it’s a complete, crazy mess.  Maybe the same thing will happen here… *Fingers crossed*