I watched the Canadian Leaders’ Debates in English last night and was thoroughly depressed by the whole thing. Reuters Canada says that Paul Martin came under fierce sustained attack from opposition party leaders, which is only partially true. The attacks were there, certainly, but they really missed the mark, and don’t seem to have been very impactful.
More interesting was the overall confusion that reigns at the moment. Gilles Duceppe, my MP and the leader of the separatist BQ, was actually pretty good in the debate. The problem is he has one clear ally on one prop of his party (provincial rights) and another ally that corresponds to the BQ’s other concerns (social welfare). The two are anathema to one another, however.
Meanwhile, the NDP has managed to convince itself that they stand a chance to win the most seats in Parliament and so last night the leader, Jack Layton, was railing at both Liberal and Conservative leaders to quit being so arrogant – all the while coming off as the most arrogant, personally, of all of them.
Harper, for his part, is clearly a bald-faced, homophobic, gynophobic, prostrate-before-America liar.
Paul Martin? Poor Paul Martin. Clearly he has been and continues to be very poorly advised. But I’m not going to cry a river for a super-rich second-generation politician who, above all, has allowed bad advice to plague his camp due to an overarching sense of entitlement he has to the office of Prime Minister.
Screw them all, I’m voting Green.
Michael says
Jack Layton is a very good speaker, I should add, by far the best of that bunch in both French and English. He kind of creeps me out though. His picture is beside the word “avuncular” in the dictionary, but you know he’s the uncle who’s going to hit on his 22-year-old nephew’s girlfriend.
M-J says
Yeah, I gotta agree with you. (Paul Wells agrees with us, too, on his blog.) I watched the first 15 minutes before turning off to watch reality telly on NBC. (Seriously: Last Comic Standing is a really good, funny, show. Best joke of the series: The stand-up comic wonders about the Arnold-Maria Shriver pairing and asks: “What? They trying to breed a bullet-proof Kennedy?”) Anyhoo: I don’t get paid enough to lose two hours of my life. (I don’t now and I didn’t before.)
Michael says
I watched the whole thing – well I missed the first ten minutes – but I had to force myself.
BTW thanks for the hookup. Only problem is that web-based email is blocked at work. Doesn’t mean it won’t be super-useful though.
selfdefining says
Hmm…if you vote for the green party, that’s one less vote for the liberals who need our support! I’m concerned that the lefties have too many options whereas the right will most definitely vote for Harper. If the lefties start to spread out their votes it only increases the chances for Harper, which is a very terrifying thought indeed!
Michael says
You’re right, to an extent, but I think that you’re ascribing altogether too much “left” to Martin and the Liberals.
Look at one social issue. Tom Wappel – a Liberal on the ascendence, is one of the most anti-gay-marriage parliamentarians there is. Puts most “Conservatives” to shame he’s so far right-wing. Paul Martin has been THE most influential voice calling for more free votes and such – the very rhetoric Harper is using new. Martin has never said he supports gay marriage, and in fact has said he does NOT support this important matter of human rights. So who’s the conservative?
I now believe that Paul Martin is more similar to Harper than different. He signed Wappel’s nomination papers – why?
Also you must remember, I live in Gilles Duceppe’s riding, where the Liberal has no chance of winning. So my vote is a strategic vote for change, for differentiation. I would have voted for the NDPer, but I have reason to believe he’s anti-Semitic and public about it.