Time for a change

Like James Bow, Andrew Spicer, and Greg of Sinister Thoughts, I'm hoping that the upcoming election will bring us a new Prime Minsister named Stephen Harper.

No, my blog hasn't been hijacked by trolls. Hear me out.

The folks who have been wailing about how the world will end if the Conservatives form the next government need to take a step back and look at the reality of the situation we're in. Anybody who's been paying attention to Canadian federal politics for the past few years has got to realize that no matter what happens in January, we'll almost certainly be replacing one mostly non-functional minority government with another. For those of us on the left, this means one of the two following scenarios:

1) We will reelect an arrogant centrist party made up mostly of old white men resting on their long-withered laurels. With the help of the NDP, who will feel forced into propping up what amounts to the same minority government they helped to unseat (since the Liberals' sense of entitlement means that they would never deign to actually share power in any sort of formal coalition), they will get down to work. They will manage to concoct tolerable compromises half the time, do something we actually support once in a blue moon, and the rest of the time, they'll make us want to fly to Ottawa en masse and strangle them all. They will get the message that there's really no need to clean house after the sponsorship scandal, and that they have every right to feel that their rightful place is on the government side of the House of Commons, because Canadian voters will support them no matter what they do. It will last a year, year and a half tops, and then it's lather, rinse, repeat.

2) We will elect a bumbling centre-right party made up partly of young guys who we wish weren't sitting in Ottawa because they're too conservative for our tastes, and partly of young guys who we wish weren't sitting in Ottawa because they're Right Scary Bastards. It won't matter which of those two groups they choose their cabinet ministers from, though, because a minority government that none of the opposition parties can stand won't be able to get anything done, anyway. The new government will get all red in the face about the gun registry and same-sex marriage, and the opposition will vote down bill after bill, and we on the left will stand on the sidelines and point and giggle. In the few areas where they'll be able to find the occasional ally in the NDP, such as government/electoral reform, there will actually be movement after years of stagnation, and we will rejoice. Mostly, though, it will accomplish nothing other than making the Conservatives look ineffectual and silly, and being superb fodder for Rick Mercer and company. It will last a year at most. In the meantime, the Liberals will be forced to ditch Martin and anyone else who might smack of sponsorship taint, and take a chance on a few bright new faces.

Neither of these situations is ideal, of course. But no matter what happens, the left simply isn't going to get "ideal" this time around. And if people force their knees to stop jerking and really think about which scenario would be better for progressive politics in this country in the long run--and better for the country as a whole, for that matter--it sure seems like a no-brainer.

My first vote as a Canadian will be going to Linda Duncan, international environmental law consultant and NDP candidate for Edmonton-Strathcona. But my short-term hopes lie with Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.