Thursday, October 16, 2008

Why The Election Mattered

I've heard it said repeatedly that this election was a waste of time and money. One of my favourite commenters has even said it repeatedly. Well nonsense. In the spring session of parliament the Bloc, NDP, and Liberals threatened to defeat every government bill. Stephen Harper responded by making every vote a confidence motion, and the opposition parties would eventually give up and allow the bill to pass. It was workable enough, in fact it wasn't substantially different than the earlier sessions when the tactics were similar.

The big difference this time was the volume of the oppostition. Based on their bravado, the opposition parties would almost certainly defeated the government this fall. The election was a matter of when not if.

Critics will say that the result is still the same, nothing has changed. Again that's simply not true. Stephen Harper gained a strengthen minority government. While they're rebuilding, the opposition Liberals will have to ensure the Conservatives can push forward they're agenda, so we're guaranteed to have an effective government for at least a couple years.

The leaders that matter are sounding pretty conciliatory right now, and I believe Stephen Harper can be either cooperative or ruthless, so it's going to be up to the Liberals to set the tone. Either way the Conservative agenda will go through.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding me. There is a lot of tit for tat in politics. His arrogance and policy of keeping his ministers quiet unless spoken too or given some kind of blessing (so long as he writes the speech for them and they don't add their own editorial) contributes significantly to how the public and as a result the opposition parties view and treat our "leader". Have you heard any minister speak since the election? I guess Steven hasn't created the message yet. When will he feel that it is necessary to break his election law again? Based on the track record.....in about 18 months. By that time he will have gained enough support in Quebec to possibly win a majority only to falter when he opens up his mouth with another caveman type comment or policy that shows his true colours. I am conservative by nature but I cannot support this prime minister or his politics.