Why are we fixated on right, center and left. Reducing parties down to the simplest of the simple of labels is a problem.
Here's what I see, a government that is totally opaque and unwilling to work within parliamentary rules and procedures. A government that is basically in a 24/7 continuous campaign mode. I think it's a big problem.
Do I think the Liberals or NDP are much better? I don't know but I think it's hard to be worse. I don't see real policy from this government, I see policy as a means to score cheap points (tough on crime), I don't see any vision for this country. I especially don't see any type of progressive economic or international policy that will position Canada in the next 30 years. Our big economic bet is to hope that oil development caries us through, even when there are big risks to that, not specifically that the world may just move on from oil and that climate change is actually a really big problem. Internationally, we're a nobody, and not positioned to really go out and develop the business and trade ties that can help us with an alternate economic vision. We have no partners outside of the U.S. We have no other solid leads. The one area that was our big advantage, immigration, we're now eroding by making it more difficult to get in. Where's the vision? Where's the progress?
We stayed afloat during this recession thanks almost entirely to the financial and fiscal framework developed by the Liberals of all people. I'm not holding that against the Conservatives but staying afloat is not something I want to keep doing, I want to see another step in that agenda. What the Conservatives have done is basically become the Liberals, with budgets that look identical to them. Well sure, but to say then that somehow the Conservatives are better fiscal managers because they copied from another party is just bewildering.
I see a guy who is doing whatever it takes to prop himself up and pin down the other guys. I don't want a wrestling ring for parliament, I want an actual government.
rant over
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