In Mourning

The next federal election, whenever it may be, is going to result in the first of many Conservative majorities to come.

Why would I utter such a repellent thought?

Because the three national opposition parties (I’ll include the Greens here just to spread the rage a bit wider) are more concerned with their own navel lint than they are with the well being of the country.

The Liberal Party is the only one of the three with any realistic chance of winning enough votes to form government.

I know, I know, I can hear the howls of indignation from the NDP even as I type those words. “We’re campaigning to win!”, “we’re the only real alternative”, “the Libs and the Cons are the same guys in different ties”, “who gave you all the fish?”

I’d like the sage masters of political triangulation that reside in the NDP towers of light and outrage to show me their plan to more than triple their percentage of the national popular vote. I’d like them to show me their plan for doing so strategically enough to guarantee the election of 5 times more members than they have now.

No, instead they’ll cling to their antiquated mantras and celebrate like Bacchus when they don’t lose very much ground.

The Greens will have even more reason to celebrate – their percentage of the vote might double. They still probably won’t elect anyone but the organic wine will be flowing at party HQ anyway. A couple of bottles anyway – no budget for more and now there’s a huge debt after the campaign.

The Liberal Party will of course continue on in that confident superior air they’ve so carefully crafted over the past century and a half, consulting amongst themselves and ignoring all others. They will not reach out to either the NDP or the Greens to try to reach some kind of rapprochement or cooperative effort.

And eventually, late on election night, enough of the popular vote will have been drawn away from the only other party with any historically realistic chance to form government and The Right Honourable Stephen Harper and The Conservative Party of Canada will achieve majority government. The well ordered dismantling and reconstruction of the secular, progressive nation formerly known as The Dominion of Canada will begin.

The other parties will undoubtedly make some impotent noise about it but it won’t matter or slow anything down– and anyway, the NDP and The Greens are still celebrating the fact that they got more votes this time. They’ll get more next time too and that, oh that, will be the New Jerusalem.

It won’t matter that The Conservatives will be implementing policies that something like 63 or 64 percent of the voters voted against because they won’t care. It won’t matter that a movement to switch to something other than First Past the Post will gain momentum because they won’t enact it.

Nothing will matter and nothing will change until The Liberal Party, The NDP and The Greens realize that the only way – the one and only way – to ensure that The Conservatives do not have the opportunity to form majority government is for the three of them to work closely together – or merge.

I’m not holding my breath waiting for any of that.

So I’m beginning to mourn instead.