Accountability
I don't think many people appreciate how historic this past federal election truly was. It ended 11 years of complete dominance by the Liberals. I only bring this up because I was reading a post by Arjun Singh on the BlogsCanada blog where he discussed Conservative MP Betty Hinton's views on the productivity, democracy and accountability created by June's election.
Let me quote you two paragraphs from one of my favourite bloggers - The Monger:
Given that they are not ideological allies, is there any practical (read: electoral) advantage for the Alliance in merging with the PC's? In a word, no. The PC vote in the Atlantic and Quebec is going to go almost entirely to Martin in the next election, and likely the same thing in Ontario. Martin will win a bigger electoral margin than Mulroney in 1984: I'll bet a U.S. dollar against anyone who says different.
The Alliance should therefore not fear going into the next election without a Tory partner. They will lose anyway, so what's the advantage in cuddling up to a bunch of unreconstructed Quebec nationalists and Atlantic welfare-statists? Let the Martin juggernaut finish off the Tories once and for all, and see what happens after that. Maybe Harper can forge a new coalition: western small-c's, Ontarians fed up with socialist Grits at both federal and provincial levels, and a handful of Atlantic Canadians. Quebec is a write-off for any conservative party, for at least a generation; but seeing as it would be a write-off for the PC's as well, this is no big loss to the Alliance.
That post was written 15 and a half months ago, by one of the keenest, sharpest and probably smartest bloggers in the country. The Monger was noticeably shaken when the conservatives failed to win just 7 months later, and I never really understood why. Yes, they could've and should've won... but at least in relation to expectations (that weren't less than 2 or 3 weeks old), they did win. And now, things are genuinely improving. Read Arjun Singh's post and you'll see how. Yes, a majority or even a minority (Conservative) government would be so much better, but in comparison to the past decade, this is pretty good too.
Let me quote you two paragraphs from one of my favourite bloggers - The Monger:
Given that they are not ideological allies, is there any practical (read: electoral) advantage for the Alliance in merging with the PC's? In a word, no. The PC vote in the Atlantic and Quebec is going to go almost entirely to Martin in the next election, and likely the same thing in Ontario. Martin will win a bigger electoral margin than Mulroney in 1984: I'll bet a U.S. dollar against anyone who says different.
The Alliance should therefore not fear going into the next election without a Tory partner. They will lose anyway, so what's the advantage in cuddling up to a bunch of unreconstructed Quebec nationalists and Atlantic welfare-statists? Let the Martin juggernaut finish off the Tories once and for all, and see what happens after that. Maybe Harper can forge a new coalition: western small-c's, Ontarians fed up with socialist Grits at both federal and provincial levels, and a handful of Atlantic Canadians. Quebec is a write-off for any conservative party, for at least a generation; but seeing as it would be a write-off for the PC's as well, this is no big loss to the Alliance.
That post was written 15 and a half months ago, by one of the keenest, sharpest and probably smartest bloggers in the country. The Monger was noticeably shaken when the conservatives failed to win just 7 months later, and I never really understood why. Yes, they could've and should've won... but at least in relation to expectations (that weren't less than 2 or 3 weeks old), they did win. And now, things are genuinely improving. Read Arjun Singh's post and you'll see how. Yes, a majority or even a minority (Conservative) government would be so much better, but in comparison to the past decade, this is pretty good too.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
12:06 AM
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