Wednesday, October 15, 2008

he, robot

/soapbox

Ahh, yet another Minority Conservative government. I don't understand voters. First, hardly any of them show up. Then, the ones who do vote for a guy who claims to have an economic solution but, yet, has squandered through almost $12B in a surplus, a guy who calls an election (which costs millions of dollars) but gets almost nothing for it. I just don’t get the appeal, folks. I'm a pretty conservative person (yes to Capital Punishment, yes to tax incentives for big business) but I just cannot see how we can vote for a party that only has one province's interests at heart. All we have to do is look South of the border to realise how damaging a conservative/republican government can be to not only one's own economy/country but to that country's reputation globally.

I know that Stephane Dion does little to inspire voter confidence; however, Harper inspires far too little trust. I feel like this is a man who would sell our economy (and our resources) to the highest bidder with absolutely no thought to our sovereignty or long-term well-being. Oil sands can only yield so much and already the barrels are tumbling. Will we wake up one day and realise that we need to take greater steps to protect the things that will really matter in the coming years? Things like our forests, fisheries and fresh-water? I hope so - but I really hope it doesn't happen too late. I remember Mike Harris and his subsequent pillaging of the Ontario economy, his shortsighted promises of dismantling photo-radar (which he then sold to fellow conservative, Ralph Klein who went on to make BILLIONS of dollars in revenue for Alberta) and the devastation that he left in his wake.

Like the provincial (Ontario) Liberals who came in and cleaned up the mess, the federal liberals will be left with the aftermath again (remember Mulroney?). I wish that voters had longer memories than just the past few months. I wish they would remember that we haven't had a strong, vital conservative government since John A. Macdonald. I really wish they would remember that these Conservatives are primarily made up of those whack-job Reformers who hired the Heritage Front (you can Google them) as their security.

While the Liberals were in power, we enjoyed a healthy economy (for all, not just the rich) and we were working toward Kyoto. Now? I just don’t know. Sure, there were like $20 million dollars given to some advertising firm during the referendum… so? Even a $100 million spent to keep our country together doesn't seem that big a deal. We've spent billions of dollars keeping the oil barons rich since then. While the Conservatives are in power, I feel uneasy… something I'm not used to in this wonderful country of ours.

Here's hoping for a new Liberal leader that can get us away from these right-wing fat cats.

/end soapbox

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