"...and I felt EVEN BETTER."
I thought I'd posted about this before, but I must just have linked it at The Other McCain.
Canada just had another election, forced on it by the Bloc Quebecois, Liberals and NDP, and to nobody's surprise (save for the chattering classes of Canada, who were all Pauline Kael about it), PM Stephen Harper's Conservatives utterly crushed both the Liberals and BQ to win a solid majority for the next four years. And by "utterly crushed", I mean kicked their asses. The BQ was reduced to four seats in the House of Commons, and the Liberals have gone from the "Natural Governing Party" to holding a mere 33 seats, which makes them the third party, far behind the radical-left New Democratic Party.
Obviously I find this encouraging. While Harper would be considered a RINO down here, up north he's considered somewhat of a slavering reactionary by the press. Well, most of them, anyway; as you can see in the video below, Rex Murphy sees PMSH for what he actually is*, the heir to Preston Manning's Reform Party, and that's no bad thing. This is what makes me hope Tim Pawlenty does well in the primaries and caucuses; he's a quiet, competent fellow who isn't afraid to admit he made a mistake, and I think we need that more than a firebrand.
*(Kate)
Post title taken from the chapter in P.J. O'Rourke's All The Trouble In The World dealing with the Nicaraguan elections of 1990, which ends with O'Rourke passing Bianca Jagger in a hotel lobby, where Jagger is sobbing brokenly over he defeat of the FSLN at the polls.
Canada just had another election, forced on it by the Bloc Quebecois, Liberals and NDP, and to nobody's surprise (save for the chattering classes of Canada, who were all Pauline Kael about it), PM Stephen Harper's Conservatives utterly crushed both the Liberals and BQ to win a solid majority for the next four years. And by "utterly crushed", I mean kicked their asses. The BQ was reduced to four seats in the House of Commons, and the Liberals have gone from the "Natural Governing Party" to holding a mere 33 seats, which makes them the third party, far behind the radical-left New Democratic Party.
Obviously I find this encouraging. While Harper would be considered a RINO down here, up north he's considered somewhat of a slavering reactionary by the press. Well, most of them, anyway; as you can see in the video below, Rex Murphy sees PMSH for what he actually is*, the heir to Preston Manning's Reform Party, and that's no bad thing. This is what makes me hope Tim Pawlenty does well in the primaries and caucuses; he's a quiet, competent fellow who isn't afraid to admit he made a mistake, and I think we need that more than a firebrand.
*(Kate)
Post title taken from the chapter in P.J. O'Rourke's All The Trouble In The World dealing with the Nicaraguan elections of 1990, which ends with O'Rourke passing Bianca Jagger in a hotel lobby, where Jagger is sobbing brokenly over he defeat of the FSLN at the polls.