It almost got lost, with the US election and banking crisis and all the other stirring news events, but Canada's due for an election.
And in the spirit of an interested voter I tuned in to the Candidates Debate on the radio. We're nowhere near as big as the US, and our politics are comparatively quite boring, and there's no doubt that results of the US election will have a far greater impact on our lives than the Canadian counterpart, still, it's our election, our little bit of control over our government, and it's important to hear what the Candidates have to say.
Now I should note that I'm somewhat prejudiced, I'm not, nor likely ever will be, a "Conservative". That said, I'm not entirely convinced that, despite their abundant protestations, that the NDP, the Liberals, the Green Party, could or would do a better job. Not that I wouldn't like them to, but this election is the greyest of any within memory. And so I'm listening, and what do I hear but our 4 aspiring leaders doing nothing but tearing apart Mr. Stephen Harper? And I began to feel bad for him, at first, this isn't fair, this isn't why they're here. . .
And then I began to get angry. None of them were offering reasonable alternatives or solutions to the accusations they were heaping upon them. Not one of them, interviewer included, at any point stepped in to refocus the group on discussing their own solutions or plans for government, rather instead hoping that by tearing down Mr. Harper and the Conservatives, by implication their own parties would look better.
And again, not one of them stepped forward to take the heat off of Mr. Harper. It was not an intelligent debate, it was not even a debate, it was a debacle, an absurdist attack on Democracy. And in good conscience now I'm stricken, because not one of the candidates had enough class or intelligence to realize that by the sole gesture of focusing the debate on the matters at hand they would have won. They were unprofessional, incompetent, and displayed nothing by way of leadership. Nothing. Cheap and impassioned attacks on Mr. Harper, without proposed alternatives, without clear and concrete strategies to bring to government, hoping to win votes by kicking at the underdog.
Not mine, in any event. They've had a fair chance, they've blown it, there will be in all likelihood a Conservative majority. But what has happened, I wonder, to our democracy, when we choose the likes of Stéphane Dion, Ms. Elizabeth May, and Jack Layton, to represent us in our reasonable alternatives? It's as if we are being asked to choose between death by hanging, firing squad, or electrocution, when none of us wanted to die, what kind of choice is this? It's not just our government that needs change. . .