May 3, 2011
“Bitter sweet. Won the battle, lost the war”, Corky Evans, former NDP Kootenay MLA commented to a reporter when asked his opinion on the great showing of the federal NDP party.
My initial observations are as follows:
1)-Conservatives: a strong majority government with no parliamentary impediment to invoking their political will except a strong official opposition and an engaged and vocal Canadian public.
2)-NDP: a strong official opposition. After years of apprenticing, time for the NDP to show what it is made of, keeping in mind that it’s not too late to make a better world….especially a better Canada.
3)-Sixty per cent of popular vote not in favor of Conservatives. Leaves the Conservatives speaking for Canadians but Conservatives don’t represent the majority of Canadian voters of which 61.4 per cent approximately turned out to vote this election.
Conservatives have the majority of the seats but are in minority of the vote.
4)-Demise of the Liberal and Bloc parties. Old guard and leadership in each of those parties had too much of the past; were unable to read the present and had no vision of the future of Canada. Out of touch, period. Did not really seek to understand the concerns and issues of grass root Canadians and make the proper adjustments in their respective ideologies to enable them to engage voters. Big disconnect ended up giving them big loss.
5)-Rebirth of the idea of the Liberals merging with the NDP. More on that another time.
6)-Party controlled democracy was the winner: very unpopular leader becomes Prime Minister because he happens to be the leader of the party in power; a party that led him to the Prime Minister’s chair, and not the other way around.
7)-Failure of a Conservative minority government with a strong opposition controlling the fate of parliament and Harper scare tactics. It left voters wanting a breather from the next federal election and nothing more. Stable government??? Not a chance.
8)-Last but not least: “Have courage my friends”, echoing the words of Tommy Douglas.
Unless Stephan Harper can change his political stripes, leadership style and truly become a Canadian leader for the ages, expect more of the same from him, his party. Undemocratic leadership and policies that demonstrate: no transparency; continuation of being supportive of the privileged and elitist; a Prime Minister and party leader that is arrogant, telling and narrow in his decisions instead of being inclusive, listening and focused on the needs and concerns of grass root, common Canadians, in his decision making.
Stay in touch for more……..until then…..take care
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 