My first piece of election analysis is "phew!" I was really getting worried about Prime Minister Layton for a little while there.
It's fair to say I was a little disenchanted with Stephen Harper. I didn't volunteer on any local campaign. In fact this was the first election I remember in 20 years that I watched the results come in from home. Usually I was at a 'victory party' after scrutineering and watching the results come in with other volunteers from the campaign.
I'm still uncomfortable with the way pro-life MPs have been gagged during the course of his leadership, and I just don't get the agriculture policy. Spending so much energy attacking the Canadian Wheat Board and apparent hostility to proposals from Ontario farmers hasn't really made sense. (I guess you need to be an Ag minister from Western Canada to understand.)
Still, when faced with the prospect of old time socialism and aggressive pro-euthanasia elements in the NDP, I had to return to the fold.
Today I'm optimistic. The new majority means decisions can be made within the Conservative caucus. That means Conservative MPs have a real responsibility to bring innovative ideas forward. I'm hopeful that the many pro-life MPs will be able to move the yardstick forward on key issues. I'm also hopeful that Ontario MPs will be able to reassert the province's importance to the economy, particularly on agriculture since Ontario has the largest agricultural production of any province. Someone pointed out an interesting statistic . . . there are 72 Conservative MPs from Manitoba and West, there are 73 from Ontario.
Caucus meetings should be interesting!
