Canada’s Debate

The Ontario election is heating up (even though the official campaign has not yet kicked off) and as usual the blogging community is the first battleground. Kinsella is calling John Tory out for his apparent duplicity in engaging in negative-campaigning. People on both sides of the debate are treating MMP as alternatively a panacea or poison-pill for politics in Ontario. You’ve got a tremendous back and forth on faith-based education, or as I like to call it a really fucking horrible idea. There’s un-costed budget proposals, vague promises galore, and a distinct lack of any actual momentum from any of the candidates. The election is five weeks away, and it feels like it’s months off.

I’m not sure where my vote will fall; as much as I am frustrated by the lack of action by Dalton McGuinty on tackling municipal issues, Howard Hampton has offered nothing in terms of an alternative… is it not said that the road to hell is paved by good intentions? If that’s true Howie is constructing his own personal super-highway. Tory is turning out to be the empty mouthpiece we all thought he would be; he has abandoned the pragmatism of his roots and turned into a “lower taxes, less government” zombie. I guess that leaves Dalton… and I’m not entirely comfortable with that.

The one thing I do know is that the blogosphere is disgracing itself by taking completely shallow positions on virtually every issue. If I see one more “Dalton is a flip-flopper” post because he doesn’t support faith-based funding at the moment; or another MMP will make democracy more fair… and therefore better post I’m going to scream. If the past 12 years of politics in Ontario being tinkered with has taught us anything it’s that there are tremendous nuances to every major policy initiative, and without a thorough exploration of said, those consequences will rear up and bite us in the ass.

But I guess being a “party” (wo)man is more important.