Mmmmmm, Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate…
.:.
A Conservative government is looking quite possible. I find this unsettling. Fiscally the tories and liberals are practically twins, so I find no relief there, and am left only with the thought of a prime minister who would’ve surely taken us into Iraq, who probably would’ve blocked same-sex marriage, who almost certainly wouldn’t have instituted a firearms registry and who will likely weaken the economy. Lest any conservatives out there are still naive enough to think that a Tory government leads to means a stronger economy, go do some research.
.:.
A week ago I talked about how my internal mail system delivered a package, opened and two months late. Well, today something even weirder happened. In May 2004 a friend sent me a cheque for some maple syrup he bought from me; it got lost in internal mail and he sent me another one. Since it was only for $16 he didn’t bother stopping the payment. Today he emailed me, telling me that the first cheque — the one sent 19 months ago — was cashed four days ago. This seemed strange, firstly because I hadn’t cashed any cheques and secondly because you can’t cash a cheque that old. From what we can tell, it must have floated around the depths and morasses of internal mail for a year and a half, been opened by somebody (which is issue #1: why is someone else opening mail addressed to me?), somehow been sent to my bank’s processing centre and deposited into one of my accounts. But not my primary account…not even a chequing account! It’s all very, very odd; lots of things wrong with that, obviously. My friend is tracking down how a 19-month old cheque gets deposited at all; I’m trying to find out how someone thinks it’s ok to open my mail. Crazy.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
The thought of a Conservative majority government disturbs me as well. I believe the traditional Liberal voters are punishing the Liberal party for the sponsorship scandal and general corruption (with good obviously).
However, if the Tories do end up getting a majority, these voters are going to be in for a big surprise and this time next year they’ll be kicking themselves for voting Conservative.
Personally I’m considering entering a blank ballot (which is different from a spoiled vote) as a protest vote until this country institutes proportional representation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation)
Yeah, but the Gomery inquiry cleared the Liberal party. Kinda sorta. 🙂
I hear a lot of people saying things like, “Oh, they’ve been in power too long. It’s time for a change. Get them out!” This doesn’t make sense to me; since when is longevity a curse? Yes, they’ve in power for 13 years, probably 13 of the most succesful and lucrative years in the history of the country, so by all means, let’s toss ’em out on their ear.
“Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some.” -Jose Marti
I wouldn’t necessary say that 13 years of prosperity can be attributed directly to the Liberals. Rather the Liberals have been riding the coat tails of global economic prosperity since the mid 1990s.
That’s not to say they haven’t been bringing down the debt and deficit. However, year over year they under estimate the growth of the economy and then at the end of the year conveniently come up with a big “unplanned” surplus and reap the political rewards. Come on, how stupid do they think we are.
I do think the Liberals have done a good job standing up to the U.S. such as not getting involved in Iraq and they do have some good social ideas. However, over the past 25 years Canada has sorely lacked charismatic leadership. None of the governments during this time period have offered a compelling vision of the future and worked towards achieving it. They are always stuck doing a half ass job. They promise and start many things but nothing ever gets completed. There are many excuses but never solutions.
Part of this is the nature of the electoral beast – needing to be re-elected every 4-5 years. Long term solutions are therefore hard to implement.
Personally I do think they have been in power too long. Power corrupts no matter who you are.
Best case scenario from my point of view is a Conservative minority government, with a Liberal/NDP coalition (basically a reverse of what we have now).
I agree, the economic prosperity can’t be attributed directly to the Liberals. I just think there’s something to be said for not fucking up when things are going well. It *should* be easy enough to do, but these are politicians we’re talking about. 🙂
I also agree about the lack of charismatic leadership; I like Paul Martin only marginally more than Stephen Harper, probably because Martin looks like he’s on his way to a graveyard whereas Harper looks like he just crawled out of one. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
I’d rather see a Liberal minority and enough NDP wins to make a Liberal/NDP pseudo-majority, but I’m not holding my breath.
About the chocolate…I am sure Epicure Selections is much better. 🙂 http://www.epicureselections.com