Monday, May 02, 2011

Con majority: a country divided

Canadians have elected a majority Conservative government despite their record of unprecedented scandals and dishonesty.

The fact that this Con majority was picked by 40% of the voting population speaks volumes about the legitimacy of that vote. The fact that some votes are worth more than others under this system speaks volumes about this result. SIXTY per cent of this country did not vote for Stephen Harper. There is solace in the fact that the result of this election, like the many before it, does not represent the popular distribution of the vote. This is not democracy.

The Liberals especially, theoretically the ideological champions of democracy while duplicitously benefiting from an unfair distribution of the vote, are probably regretting their back down from the endless opportunity to form a coalition with the NDP and defeat the Conservatives.

Because now, now, the Conservatives will legislate the removal of public funding for Opposition parties and plunge the country into 4 years of their blinkered fascistic and fanatical social and economic engineering.

Them's the apples. Sigh.

In the meantime, the rest of us, 60% of us voting plebes have bit of work to do. Because fuck these fucking fuckers.

19 comments:

Uncommoner said...

I need a stiff drink, followed by a dozen other stiff drinks.

The Liberals and the Conservatives have switched places. Congratulations. In the process, they've handed Harper the reins of a majority and now we're treading water while a bunch of grinning bigots huck rocks at us.

Fantastic. Where do I go from here, because just now I'm thinking of emigrating to Norway. Maybe I'll claim refugee status.

karen said...

Two questions: Is the contempt issue dead? And can he be found in contempt in a majority situation?

karen said...

Oh, and I'm with you on that, Boris: fuck these fucking fuckers.

Dana said...

I'm going to miss Canada.

But me and mine'll be all right. Our household taxes will go down. We won't have to pay for as much civilization anymore. That seems to be new societal paradigm.

Sometime after Harper trounces the dippers and libs for the second time 4 years from now reality might settle in and a merger might happen but it'll be far too late to matter much. The damage will already be done.

This is liable to be the last I'll post. What's the point?

Enjoy the torment. We all earned it.

Chris Charabaruk said...

@karen: When someone holds a majority, it's pretty easy to shut out any kind of dissent. The contempt issue is dead, there's no way to hold Harper to account. :(

karen said...

I was afraid of that, but I was hoping someone had a ray of light out there.

Uncommoner said...

Please note: for the forseeable future, the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

West End Bob said...

Wonder how long 'til harpoon-hurling-harper declares war on someone to use his new over-priced fighter jets ? ? ? ?

The Mound of Sound said...

Karen, had the Libs and NDP put their differences aside and worked for the common good Harper wouldn't have had his "Jack Latyon 'Get Out of Jail Free' Card". They didn't and he does.

It shouldn't be remotely surprising to find swine on the left as well as the right.

Uncommoner said...

That would be delicious, Bob, because they
a) don't come with engines, weapons or electronics
b) won't be stealthy when carrying a decent warload and
c) won't be able to outmaneuver their competitors in dogfighting.

Evil Brad said...

Let's not forget that the worst thing that can happen to a party of right-wing ideologues in a democracy is to get a free hand to do what they want. Just look at how the Bush years ended for the Republican Party in the States.
The coming five years of living in a 1930's theme park should do wonders for the NDP's prospects. And we don't have much of a Tea Party, either: The Reform Party base that will be running the show really is a fringe group in Canada.
It's time to just grit our teeth and ride out the storm. Too bad about all the damage that's going to be done in the meantime...

West End Bob said...

Too bad about all the damage that's going to be done in the meantime

and therein lies the rub . . . .

Cliff said...

Mound of Sound is throwing words like 'swine' and 'vermin' around on his own page and in comments on a lot of others - he's let loose a torrent of howling scatalogical abuse on several sites and been banned on a few - including mine if he can't articulate anything else.

I guess we can find hatemongers using despicable eliminationist rhetoric straight out of the Völkischer Beobachter on either the right or the left.

Boris said...

Cliff I saw that. I normally find much of his writing interesting, and I hope he apologises in the morning when the hangover dissipates...

Uncommoner said...

Cliff,

I do think Mound is being a little extreme, but I can sympathize and empathize with him. The last time I had an evening go this far wrong I accidentally set myself on fire with a camp stove.

Haven't you ever had something you cared about break or die? I can't be alone in feeling that way tonight.

The story I'm taking away from this election is simple - every side fought every other and everyone but Stephen Harper lost.

RossK said...

Evil Brad--

While we don't have much of Tea Party, we do have a newly unveiled TeaParty Maker.....

OK?

.

ch said...

I think it's more than 40%. There are Liberals who would rather have a Conservative government than a NDP one. And there are NDP that would rather have a Conservative government than a Liberal one, including the leader, Layton. On babble people have been speculating for years that they would likely have to go through a Harper majority in order to get rid of the Liberals and finally elect an NDP government. For them, this is a positive progression. So, I think Harper has a more legitimate mandate from Canadians than the 40% vote would indicate.

thwap said...

And Tiny Tim said: "Fuck those fucking fuckers, everyone."

Scotian said...

And the scary thing is that ch is right, especially about the Dippers. This was what I was saying all along, the NDP was no longer about placing principles first, they were about replacing the Libs first, because while Harper was clearly the FAR greater threat to core NDP espoused principles it has always been the Libs that were their greater electoral threat. The NDP clearly spent more energy running against the Libs this time than they did against Harper, and the Libs spent little time running against the NDP which shows which party was actually more concerned with stopping Harper first, but in the process they got caught in the squeeze created when they were under constant attack on both sides of their flanks.

The NDP under Layton may have increased their seat count in this election, but it was at the cost of not just their own souls (and credibility as a party of principles first, and you wait Dippers, now that you look like a real possibility for power you WILL have your record carefully gone over and every example of where you talked out of both sides off your mouths regarding these principles you supposedly place first which you've been getting away with so far will be used to discredit you then) but the Canadian progressive traditional soul as well. The expression of winning the battle to lose the war has never seemed more apt in federal politics to me in my life as it does today.

I was always afraid this was going to happen, I warned about it for years, it was why I said it was far better to leave Martin in power instead of bringing him down when it happened to suit Harper. If this was with a more Canadian rooted Canadian Conservative leader and party I could handle what I am seeing with some equanimity, but my whole point was that this wasn't that party, and that this was the time we most needed defenders of progressive values to put their money where their mouths were, and this was the time that those self proclaimed defenders placed instead their own expediency driven lust for power in crushing their electoral rivals ahead instead. The NDP has proven that it is no different than the Lib party it may have replaced in this respect, and with the additional negatives that they have little to no credibility on the economic front unlike those Libs which will make them even less palatable to many in the electorate that would otherwise find someone like Harper beyond acceptable.

The NDP surge pushed many centrist voters to Harper because they didn't see that Harper was all that different than what had gone before, in no small part because the opposition parties never united in their opposition to Harper before all else, with the results that I always said would happen. Well congratulations there Dippers enjoy your "victory", because it was Canada and Canadians that lost because of it.