Sunday, March 27, 2011

Another federal election coming

We in Canada are heading to the polls May 2 for yet another federal election. I'm not impressed. Honestly, can't these politicians just make things work?

Even before the events leading up to the election the Conservative party was airing ads against the Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader because he went to the US and liked it there. It would be one thing if there were multiple ads saying different things but we've been seeing these exact same ads for months now. So not only am I annoyed, but I'm bored. Personally, I don't like the idea of making or showing derogatory ads against the other party. Putting down the other party doesn't make the one party look any better; it makes it look like they're trying to deflect attention from their own faults.

And those faults are many for the Conservative party. The government was brought down after a non-confidence vote called after they were found in Contempt of Parliament (in an historic decision, I might add) because the party failed to produce documents supporting their legislation. Historic events abound here in Canada, it seems.

There was a second contempt of parliament process going on at the same time as the one that brought down the government. Bev Oda, a conservative party cabinet minister who altered a funding approval document by inserting a "not" into the text, was found in contempt of parliament by the Speaker of the House but Parliament was dissolved before a vote could be taken on whether she was actually in contempt or not.

I have no faith in the Conservative party or Stephen Harper. Remember how, in 2008, he prorogued Parliament rather than face a non-confidence vote? And now he's had these contempt rulings against him? And of course there's a ton of other, little things - Peter MacKay's conflict of interest and the Conservative party's party-labeled government cheques (not illegal but unethical), for example - that together paint the members of the party as playing fast and loose with the rules.

I hope that the Conservative party doesn't end up the minority leader again. I don't want to go to the polls yet again but I hope that Canadians use this opportunity to effect a change in our government. We deserve better than to be led by people who are unethical.

No comments: