The more things change the more they stay the same. Another Liberal majority buoyed by Ontario and Quebec has taught us all a very good lesson. Regardless of small-town rhetoric, an agenda of gun-toting, tax-cutting, exclusionary intolerant clamoring won’t win hearts or minds outside the wild, wild West.
A 104-seat deficit, no Ontario breakthrough and an inability to increase Albertan representation has sent a clear message that, regardless of their leader’s speech, the Canadian Alliance is in no way a “federal alternative.”
Say what you will about their policies (and I have), this argument is pure logistics. The West can elect the official opposition as often as it wants but it will simply have to accept being ignored in return. Mark my words, all we’ll be hearing for the next three to five years is a barrage of right-wing bitching about Liberal power politics.
And why is it that Liberal power politics exist?
Simply because they have the power. Stock the Jock and his trigger-happy, socially conservative cronies made only modest gains in the popular vote and garnered two of a possible 210 seats east of Manitoba.
This is our “federal alternative?”
Please. Don’t insult my intelligence. The Reform Party was western, extreme and powerless. The Alliance only has a newer logo and a physically Žtter, scientifically suspect leader. Besides that, they are indifferentiable.
Stockwell Day spoke in grandiose, delusional terms from his Okanagan safe-haven on Monday. He spoke of support from “coast to coast”–now would that be the eastern coast of Lake Winnipeg or Lake Bonavista?
He claimed that as official opposition, his party would “move the government to act.”
Last time I checked, 170 votes always prevails in a 301-seat parliament.
You should be angry–angry your little experiment failed, angry you wasted your vote, angry you have no real voice. The Canadian Alliance is a national lightweight that will never form the government. If you want representation in Ottawa, hold your nose and vote Liberal or try something new. The Alliance is a dying horse and I’ve flogged it quite soundly. Its time has come to be put down–just make sure you register that gun first.