To elect or not to elect, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the inanity of the current parliament with its showmanship and buffoonery or to take arms against this sea of trouble and by a ballot end it. Ah to vote, perchance to get more of the same. Aye there’s the rub. For what spectres of absurdity might come when we shuffle off this current catastrophe must give us pause and make us rather bear those nitwits we have than to fly to others we know not of.
Such is the dilemma of the Canadian people this fall. Michael Ignatieff vows he will bring down the government at the first opportunity. An easy vow to make knowing the NDP is in no shape for an election and would be inclined to support the Harper government rather than fly into debt they cannot pay. Actually Layton and the NDP had been using the same strategy vowing never to support the Conservative government in the knowledge that the Liberals at that time feared an election. And so the brinkmanship and the nonsense continue. Caught in the middle of the sandbox, surrounded by surly children each wanting to be King for a day or however long a government lasts these day, is the Canadian people. Mired in recession, casualty counts from an unpopular war rising and being shafted by the so called friend (U. S.) that dragged us into this mess, Canadians are in no mood for childish behaviour.
The sad thing is that minority governments can be the best government. Forced as they are to compromise in order to govern, history has supplied us with numerous examples of successful minority governments. Much of the social safety net we are so proud of today was the result of minority government as were our national anthem and our flag. Minority government can also be full term government as in the Davis minority in Ontario during the early 1980s and the King federal government of the early 1920s. Both of those lasted four years.
In this round of minorities the egos of the players get in the way. Mr. Harper strikes at Mr. Ignatieff’s narcissism and lengthy sojourn to the land of the drive-thru gun shop. Mr. Ignatieff parries and replies with a thrust at Mr. Harper’s dogmatism. The King-makers are the 2 court jesters. Painted harlequins they prance around the two main party leaders, now getting smacked aside, now being embraced and cajoled. Their patrons laugh and sneer at them at caucus meetings and use them as they wish in the House of Commons. They stand as the most fitting symbol of the current state of Canadian politics: parliament would be funny if so many people weren’t getting hurt.
Arguing that we should avoid an election now because we would just get more of the same begs the question whether we should ever again bother with such an ineffective, expensive farce. More of the same is what we will get for the foreseeable future. Even if one of the head knobs were to form a majority government, nothing much would change except that the opposition parties would feel even more secure in mugging for the cameras, portraying themselves as the great champion of the Canadian people. No my friends Canadian politics has changed. We can hope that Harper’s Hamlet and Ignatieff’s Laertes politically die on each other’s swords but the hope is probably vain as who might follow may be no better. No my friends we must come to the realization that the only lions left in Rome are in the arena.
