There is happiness in Conservative circles today, and why not? After all, their man Stephen Harper was written off a year ago as a spent man, and yet today he is poised to ascend to the highest office in the land.
But let us dissect this victory for a moment.
Paul Martin was the ineffectual head of a scandal-plagued and exhausted party, wracked by a decade of Jean Chretien's uniquely slimy leadership that left a coating of scum Martin simply could not scrub away. Every promise the Liberal Party made under his tenure was just that: a promise. Nothing ever got done, mind you, but the promises certainly sounded sincere, even with constant repetition. Despite the window dressing of progress and yet another painful Red Book full of even more promises, the Canadian public sensed the intellectual vacuity behind the Martin Liberals, and wanted change.
Within this turbulent political landscape, Martin ran what had to be the most disastrous campaign in recent memory, complete with gaffes, bad advertising, dodgy candidate selections and awkward sloganeering.
Against this, Stephen Harper ran a tight ship and a well-crafted campaign, and everyone seemed to agree he was the top of his form.
Yet the best result he could do was to squeak out a bare minority. You might call that a victorious defeat. Even his vaunted breakthrough in Quebec owes far more to Liberal rejection and referendum exhaustion than to an embrace of conservative principles.
Canadians are desperate for a viable option to the Liberals federally (I think they already have one in the NDP - but hey, that's just me). They have just given Harper a very tentative chance to prove that his party is a centre-right party in the Canadian tradition, and not a pack of pseudo-American neo-con shills waiting to dismantle the federal government and empower the corporate elite.
The future of Canadian conservatism rests on whether or not Harper can resist his neoconservative impulses, a shaky proposition at best.
The NDP will not be a viable option until they establish themselves in Quebec. The NDP needs to establish a Quebec presence and a francophone presence, and it should be their top priority - because forging those links takes time (and lots of effort).
I agree, foo, and I noticed that Jack Layton made a direct appeal to Quebeckers in his post-election speech last night. Layton is a Quebecker himslef, so I have hope that he might be able to build some in-roads there, especially if the Bloc wanes as a political force.
Tim,
A lot of hype and inuendo. How about substance? I looked at the CPC platform vs the others on the FP website the otherday. The vacuity of everyone but the CPC was readily apprent. Idea, after idea, after idea! Who's ideas were better? Hmmmm....Lies, promises and ineffetive policies on one hand vs a considerate, measured deliberate offering on the other. Ideas and solutions! A fair tempered reasoned explanaionion or WWF type electioneering by Martin? The WWF is very popular but should their party be runnig the government?
Canadians are desperate for a viable option to the Liberals federally (I think they already have one in the NDP - but hey, that's just me).
Without some kind of proportional system, the NDP keep coming in last with no real hope of a serious breakthrough by which they could ever form the government. In Ontario, they're fortunes improved but they still didn't get their fair share of votes. On the other hand, they placed 3rd in more than 80 ridings in Ontario and second in about 10.
They have just given Harper a very tentative chance to prove that his party is a centre-right party in the Canadian tradition, and not a pack of pseudo-American neo-con shills waiting to dismantle the federal government and empower the corporate elite.
They're saving that for majority rule and will probably do everything they can to not appear extreme and unreasonable. A serious challenge indeed.
They may not even try to go stealth for a year or two: I'm in the West, and the wingnuts out here are starting to yammer gleefully about Radical Change.
The one thing I'm hoping for is that the Liberals pick a good leader bloody quick.
Bob Rae killed any national hopes for the NDP after he became premier of Ontario and (after his first budget which came under harsh criticism for it's excess spending) ended up more Conservative than the Torie's were under Davis! It seems that leaders are governed themselves by forces beyond their own controle! Canada cannot be resposibley determined to a progam determined by idology in and of itself. We can only afford so many progems. Are we getting value for our tax dollar? Ae we entittleing people to support for ever or are we truly helping them to become able to contribute to society?