Politics can be a dirty business, but I don't think that I've ever seen as dirty of a move as what's been going down in the Canadian parliament these days.
We just had an election in October. The Canadian people had spoken. The Conservatives were given a mandate to be the leading political party. And now three other parties are crying foul and deciding to go through the backdoor in an attempt to grab power.
A lot of things bother me about this situation and what it says about democracy, but one of the things that bother me the most is the lack of respect being shown for the voters choice. Not to mention those who voted for the Conservatives, but even for those who voted for the NDP and the Bloq. They voted NDP and Bloq for a reason- they had different beliefs in what's best for the country than the Liberals or Conservatives do. But in one swift move, the leaders of those parties are trying to take the votes that were given to them and are trying to hand them to another party. That's essentially what is happening.
What does that say about democracy? When we went to the polls in October, all voters knew that whatever party had the majority of the seats would lead our country. The voters gave the Conservative Party the most seats. Love them or hate them, that's what happened. So now to go and try to reverse that at some attempt to align parties that couldn't be more opposite looks like nothing more than a desperate attempt to grab power.
As much as I would have said a few weeks ago that I wouldn't want another election, I really believe that's the only option we have if we hold democracy dearly. But that choice belongs to the Governor General. And whatever the Governor General ends up deciding, I do believe that this is an attempt that in the end will backfire. Anyone who voted NDP or Bloq will probably think twice about voting that way in the future because look what happened to their vote.
Oh the messes we make...
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