Friday, October 03, 2008

Debates avec Boris

I don't have a lot to say on the debates (I watched both the Canadian, and skipped the American; something about the sound of fingernails on a blackboard doesn't sit well with me) that hasn't already been expressed better elsewhere. But I'll just say that I and the three people watching with me kept wondering why we have four opposition parties that seem to insist on maintaining partisan divisions, screwing us, them, and rewarding Harper (no wonder he was smirking through the debates), when all of them more or less want to move the country in the same general direction.

If the Harpercons are able maintain their 30 - 40% support, we risk an endless stream of their governments in spite of the majority of Canadian opinion. I would argue that the rightward shift of Canadian conservativism has actually boiled away the Red Tories and left the Cons with a baseline percentage of support that is enough, given the number of parties in play and FPTP, to produce successive Con governments (minority or slim majority).

Unless at least a couple of the opposition parties decide to coalesce, we're in the shit for a while. And this makes absolutely no sense to me. Talk about a Commons problem [beware of pun]!

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