Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A Positive Post? Perish the Thought

Well that prediction didn't go well, did it.  On the bright side, I was correct that Harper didn't try to provoke a constitutional crisis to remain in power.  I was just a teensy bit wrong about why he didn't.

Watching Twitter last night, I noticed that the grumbling has already started among progressives that a Liberal majority is a disaster in the making -- neoliberal, not sufficiently opposed to Harperite authoritarianism, and so on.  My advice is to enjoy the moment.  There will be many battles ahead and we will probably lose a lot of them.  In the meantime, there is never a reason to regret removing a government that has displayed naked contempt for the rule of law, that has attempted to revoke citizenships and disenfranchise citizens, left citizens stranded abroad as the political prisoners of authoritarian regimes, found in contempt of Parliament, and convicted in court of electoral fraud.

Even if you think the new government is going to do some bad things.  Even if it might do the same things.  In fact, even if you know it will do the same things.  Parties that abuse the country in this manner must be removed from power, even if their replacements are worrisome in their own right.  Hopefully Doug Ford runs for Conservative Party leadership as he has promised to do, the Conservatives will self-destruct in spectacular fashion.

There are some very solid NDP politicians who are now out of a job and we will miss them.  There's no way to skate over that.

But I like knowing that Julian Fantino is gone from the people's house forever, and he isn't the only one of Harper's Cabinet.  That Joe Oliver is gone.  That corrupt creationist Gary Goodyear is gone.  That Chris Alexander, whose rampant partisan buffoonery is an eternal embarrassment to the integrity of public servants, is gone.  Bernard Valcourt is gone.  Peter MacKay will no longer be using our military assets as his personal vacation taxis. Aglukkaq is gone.  Shea is gone. Findley is gone. Rickford is gone.  Rob Moore is gone.  Bal Gosal is gone.  Ed Holder is gone.

The only party in history to be found in contempt of Parliament and the only party in history to be convicted of electoral fraud has been removed from power by the people. I feel okay with that result. The rest of it is a fight for another day.

In the tradition of Sixth Estate, this blog is devoted to holding the government accountable, and that means it is now devoted to critiquing the Liberals.  I think happily I will not have many opportunities to talk about the Conservative Party again in the future (although their leadership campaign promises some tantalizing opportunities).  I feel okay with that too.

I'm Sixth Estate, and we'll talk again tomorrow.  Stephen Harper, however, will not be talking with us again tomorrow. Or the day after that.

1 comment:

  1. I've noticed for some time my leading blog tags have included "Harper" and "Conservatives". I'm pleased that will fade with time to be replaced with "Trudeau" and "Liberals" instead.

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