(no subject)
So, yeah. No dancing in the streets.
It almost was. The Orange Wave swept Quebec - and to a lesser degree, the rest of Canada. But it wasn't quite fast enough outside this province. One more week of election, and we would have likely replaced the Liberals and formed the government. But now we're flash-frozen at a moment of the campaign, and our primitive electoral system has handed absolute power to Harper with 40% of the popular vote.
And I mean absolute power. Our prime minister has total control over the bureaucracy, implementation of policies, the military, judicial and Senate appointments, and can even make laws that violate the equality provisions constitution with a majority. Worse, a great many of his people are extreme-right evangelicals who spent the campaign masquerading as fiscal conservatives. We don't know how many, but certainly the majority of them.
Common wisdom is that Harper is going to move slowly to solidify his gains, and whittle away at Canada bit by bit. The extremists in his party have been muzzled a long time, though, with promises that they had to wait until they have a majority government. Well, they have it. They want an end to abortion. They want (at least) an end to same-sex marriage. Some believe Canada is courting their God's wrath by even letting homosexuality be legal. We won't know how many until the Trojan Horse opens.
It's their time now, as they see it. And they'll turn on their leader if he doesn't throw them some fresh meat. They're already making noises.
So that's it. Meanwhile, the media thinks the big story is that a single, unwed mother dared to win a seat for the NDP without even campaigning. The bestselling novel this year in Canada - and winner of one of our two most prestigious prizes - was about a grizzled old Scottish engineer doing just that for the Liberal party. The media and the pundits said that that's just what we needed. Apparently it's different when it's a single mother and bar manager winning for the NDP. Being elected while poor and female is an unforgivable sin.
I've been a zombie for weeks because of this. I'm beginning to get back on my mental feet, and I'll I've been able to do is talk politics for weeks. Now I'm sick of it.
So that's how it is with me. It cast a pall over my birthday :/
It almost was. The Orange Wave swept Quebec - and to a lesser degree, the rest of Canada. But it wasn't quite fast enough outside this province. One more week of election, and we would have likely replaced the Liberals and formed the government. But now we're flash-frozen at a moment of the campaign, and our primitive electoral system has handed absolute power to Harper with 40% of the popular vote.
And I mean absolute power. Our prime minister has total control over the bureaucracy, implementation of policies, the military, judicial and Senate appointments, and can even make laws that violate the equality provisions constitution with a majority. Worse, a great many of his people are extreme-right evangelicals who spent the campaign masquerading as fiscal conservatives. We don't know how many, but certainly the majority of them.
Common wisdom is that Harper is going to move slowly to solidify his gains, and whittle away at Canada bit by bit. The extremists in his party have been muzzled a long time, though, with promises that they had to wait until they have a majority government. Well, they have it. They want an end to abortion. They want (at least) an end to same-sex marriage. Some believe Canada is courting their God's wrath by even letting homosexuality be legal. We won't know how many until the Trojan Horse opens.
It's their time now, as they see it. And they'll turn on their leader if he doesn't throw them some fresh meat. They're already making noises.
So that's it. Meanwhile, the media thinks the big story is that a single, unwed mother dared to win a seat for the NDP without even campaigning. The bestselling novel this year in Canada - and winner of one of our two most prestigious prizes - was about a grizzled old Scottish engineer doing just that for the Liberal party. The media and the pundits said that that's just what we needed. Apparently it's different when it's a single mother and bar manager winning for the NDP. Being elected while poor and female is an unforgivable sin.
I've been a zombie for weeks because of this. I'm beginning to get back on my mental feet, and I'll I've been able to do is talk politics for weeks. Now I'm sick of it.
So that's how it is with me. It cast a pall over my birthday :/