It's been five days now, so it's time to rant a little bit.
Like almost every Canadian I know, we're fiscally conservative and socially liberal. The "Conservative Values" that were talked about during the campaign are real - and I don't have a problem with them. What I take exception to is when those values trump everything else. Name a social program in this country that hasn't been affected by budget cuts - you can't.
Balanced budgets at all cost were the demise of the Conservatives (and the NDP). I think most people understand that there is intelligent use of debt. Investment in infrastructure is good debt. Seems to me the Conservatives did just this after the financial disaster of 2008. Most examples worldwide prove that austerity doesn't work.
This election wasn't an overwhelming vote of confidence for the Liberals. It was a spanking of the Conservatives. Mostly their leader, although I took great pleasure in seeing people like Joe Oliver (former Minister of Finance), Pierre Poilevre (former Minister of Employment), and Chris Alexander (former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), lose their seats.
Even where they won their seat, knuckle draggers like Rona Ambrose (former Minister of Health) cannot continue the damage they've done.
But the Liberals won with the same majority the Conservatives did in 2011. 39.5% of us wanted a Trudeau government, or voted strategically to get one (they didn't vote Green or NDP because they wanted Harper gone at all costs - this describes me).
In the final analysis I'm very pleased with the outcome - the Conservatives are decimated (sorry, Lynn) and are re-examining where they failed.
Trudeau has some big issues to tackle, but this whole "inexperience" thing - proffered by the Conservatives - is a red herring. I could run the country if surrounded by bright people.
The ability to be driven by fact, not by dogma, is all you need. This is where Harper failed.
2 comments:
Hope you read Kai Nagata's blog post yesterday~~the numbers are different as the increase in voters was way up. Thus the story is a bit different this time.
https://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/voter-turnout-defeated-Harper
Kai appeared on Power and Politics yesterday~~another busy Dogwood guy.
BTW, I have still not got over the fact that this is a new Canada!
I hope the "sorry Lynn" was about the word decimated. It looks like you are offering me sympathy that the Conservatives were ousted. I was so happy to wake up the morning after and thinking "I feel like I got my Canada back." Corny. But true.
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