Politics and the sides

I have been listening, reading and watching the news coming from all over regarding a Christmas election. The resonating chord coming from intelligent people is that they don't care because it doesn't matter whether it is now or later the result will be inconclusive. [See Rex Murphy on The National] The Liberals are whatever they are. I don't know if they are corrupt (at least more so than everybody else) or not, and really it doesn't matter that much to me. I didn't vote for them.

I did, however, vote for the NDP but only by association. The candidate I voted for is really nice, intelligent and knows what he wants to accomplish. I am fairly sure that I would've voted for him no matter what party he was associated with, even the Conservatives, though his ideas don't really align with theirs. The NDP seem to be suffering from a lack of direction and a less than sound understanding of negotiation. When you don't like what is being offered to you by the other party you need to rebut their offer with the things that you want. Then work with them in order to achieve as many of your goals as you can while compromising on other issues. That is the only way to achieve your goals when you are in negotiations. It does nothing for your goals to accept all or nothing. It's like in The Rebel Sell where the counterculture rebels will only accept getting the revolutionary and getting any half measure is equivalent to getting nothing at all.

I don't much care for the Conservatives because my ideals don't align with theirs, but I think one of their big problems is their leader. Lots of people say he scares them. This is likely just a lack of clear goals. If it was known what he wants then he might be a less scary in the eyes of the public. That being said, I don't really mind the MP I got from that party. He is not so bad because he was part of the old guard PCs rather than the Reform/Alliance.

Wouldn't it be much nicer if the Parliament could work rather than being held at a stop like it is now. There are more important issues than Gomery. The country can't grow or become more influential in the world if it can't manage to deal with its own petty problems. Ideological differences should not stop the government from moving forward. This parliament has been a big downer for all those who want proportional representation because the parties have shown us that they can't work together even when they agree. (for example the Liberal budget that the Conservatives supported then didn't support and now support again, and there was really not much change in the budget from the initial support to non-support.) Why can't MPs work together, as much as I don't want to say it, like American senators who can cross party lines to build consensus and even have elements of each party aligned to one another with the politicians representing the feelings and desires of their constituents.

In the end it doesn't much matter when the election happens because as Rick Mercer said the election will take you all of 24 minutes (25 in Quebec), 20 minutes to vote and one minute to slam the door in each candidate's face. And the other important thing he said was that during elections it is above all important to choose the better of two evils because you want the better since it will ruin your life less than the other evil.