You know I don’t particularly like wading into the political realm because I have called just about every election in the past 10 years the wrong way. Nevertheless, I am fascinating by the mechanics of the political process.
I wonder about the new Conservative strategy to hammer Ignatieff as just passing through. Will it get traction with Canadians?
I have said on this blog that I think Canada may be ready for a philosopher king as PM but just about every move Ignatieff has made since getting involved in politics has been based on cold, hard political calculation. It seems to me that Harper was positioned initially as a thinker – as a strategist – but when he became PM he got pragmatic.
Maybe it is inevitable in Canadian politics these days. Every decision made is done so through the cold, hard political lense. Instead of mapping a program that would drive Canada ahead in the 21st Century and address some of the festering issues going back generations, the politicians drop everything to the lowest political common demoninator and go straight for the “what will get me the most votes” calculation.
Western alienation, chronic economic stagnation in Atl. Canada, the Quebec nation, our aboriginal population, a 21st Century national economic development model – these are the things that should be part of a political platform (among others) but none of them fit into a pragmatic vote buying model of politics.
Take chronic economic stagnation in Atl. Canada. The politicians have figured out that in Atl Canada (increasingly NL is not in the mix) throwing a few scraps this way will guarantee at least a handful of seats (like topping up EI, funding a few tourism projects, etc.) and that fighting for the rest of the seats would be a waste of resources relative to other more populated provinces. The idea of sitting down and working on a new fed/prov 10 year economic development agreement that is tailored to New Brunswick – is an idea that is long past its due date.
No matter who wins any election (and I read this morning that the PM is ready to go to the polls over the Liberal EI demands), I don’t expect much of a change in Atl. Canada.
“…politicians drop everything to the lowest political common demoninator and go straight for the “what will get me the most votes” calculation.”
Exactly. The governing party we get is the one best at getting elected. There appears to be negligible overlap between this skill and actual governing.
There is a great deal more overlap between party fundraising and getting elected. There is also a great deal of overlap between parties good at fundraising and those with the greatest appeal to the corporate/wealthy class.
“I don’t expect much of a change in Atl. Canada.”
There never is.
You can’t make change without getting elected. Unfortunately, getting elected becomes an obsession, like a sport, to seasoned politicians.
There’s something unsavory about a government in power running attack ads on an opposition leader even though there’s no election on at the moment.