Canada’s Debate

Well the last 48 hours have been interesting. As much as it saddens me that the most gracious and politically astute Canadian so far has been Mario Lemieux, who put off announcing his retirement until after the election so he didn’t steal headlines; the election is done and we can get back to business…

The only question that remains really is “what business?” On the surface Harper is poised to get into running the country, but there is more that is happening here and now. Harper is also going to be “getting down” to something else, and that is engaging a specific set of policy objectives. The only question is “which one?” He campaigned straight down the middle, but lets not forget where he is coming from, and some of the people who are undoubtedly going to form his cabinet. Some pundits were quick to write off such fears, saying that Harper will be able to rely on candidates from Ontario and Quebec to develop a more centrist Government. Apparently these same columnists have very short memories. John Baird and Tony Clement are not moderate, centrist or liberal-leaning. They’re both so right-wing that if you dropped them out of an airplane they’d just end up buzzing around in a circle. I hope, nay pray that cooler (and by cooler I mean more educated, intelligent and rational) heads prevail and the likes of Hugh Segal and Peter McKay take a strong role in the Conservative government… but I have my doubts.

I suppose I should offer my thanks to the Canadian voters too. With only Mike Harris’s example to go on it has been very hard for me to demonstrate how ineffective the right-wing agenda truly is in Canadian governance. Now, with Harper in charge and potentially in a position to unleash a second coming of spend-and-cut economics and “in the good old days” social policy,” I should have fodder to last for years.

That being said, here are some predictions:

1. Harper gets along better with Dalton McGuinty than he does Ralph Klein.
2. If Micheal Ignatieff is selected as the new Liberal leader Harper will win the next election…
3. And if he’s not then Harper will lose.
4. With nobody left to eviscerate (having already devoured the Liberals, NDP, young people, social-activists, Martin and Layton) Macleans inches back towards respectability as a magazine, albeit an irrelevant one as far as government is concerned.
5. Stockwell Day gets a cabinet post, and he makes Alberta proud while embarrassing the rest of the country.