Thursday, December 4, 2008

Prorogue

I think I've lost a bit of faith in Canadian democracy today. How can the Conservative response to accusations of "not doing enough about the economy" be to shut down Parliament for 2 months? How is this going to help anything?

I've also been extremely troubled that all the discussions over the past week have been about "who will win in this crisis." I realize it's a bit naive to suggest that nobody should "win" and things should happen that are in the best interest of the country. But don't you find it troubling that our media can't even define it in those terms?

I just finished reading about Stephen Harper driving across the street in a motorcade to meet up with Michelle Jean and how there were 50 "protesters" - mostly recognizable members of the Conservative party - with placards, shouting slogans. And really, this is the only thing that the Conservatives do well. They find one message and they hammer it home with a big, loud show.

Well, I hope this massive polarization of the country makes more people angry at the Conservatives than happy with them. At least they won't be able to do any more damage for the next two months. At least the Liberals will maybe be close to nominating somebody as their leader that is reasonably electable. This whole thing is ridiculous.

Update - This Slate article is pretty interesting. Nothing new in there and I think it's written by a Canadian, but sometimes it takes an explanation meant for people that have no idea what is going on is the best way to explain things.

No comments: