Canadian Election Post-Mortem

Am I pissed?

Well, not exactly. On one hand, the all-or-nothing hardcore NDP supporter side of me is pissed whenever the NDP doesn't form the government or at least the opposition. However, since that would lead to me being perpetually angry, I'm not all that irked.

The fact of the matter is that this parliament is going to be funnier than Chrétien...well, every time he opened his mouth frankly. The Tories have 123, The Grits have 102, The Bloc has 50, and the NDP has 31 (and lord knows that will change come morning). Things will grind to a halt, because The Bloc, The Grits, and the NDP will be riding Harper like the glory hole pig bottom that he is.

As for the Paul Martin question, I honestly don't know. I certainly would like to see a total house cleaning, but Martin could function quite well as a leader of the opposition. I think he was too obsessed with just getting power and revenge that he didn't know what to do with it; however this might be the kick in the pants he needs to actually prove himself to be more than a flash-in-the-pan. (I'm avoiding Bush comparisions, but his grasp for power is slightly similar I have to say. There was a brief moment of elation on my part when I saw that he was trailing in his own riding initially.)

Now, a quick note on the CBC's election coverage. Why can't we have it like this South of the border? I mean it. It was light, informal, jovial and not so irritatingly self-important. Peter Mansbridge cracked jokes often without taking away the fact that this was democracy at work. He was accompanied by a roundtable of senators and politicos, as well in-studio reporters giving the results a regional perspective. It wasn't at all like the 2004 election or even the 2002 midterms in the US where you had anchors looking like they were about to have their veins pop at any given second from stress and cocaine. These people did not flip out if a riding went a different way than they thought.

It's worth pondering, considering that we've got midterms this year.

In closing, I just want to say one thing: Bernard Lord scares me. He's like the Canadian John Roberts, with a plastic smile and mannerisms akin to audio-animatron from a Disney theme park. Please tell me this man has peaked as Premier of New Brunswick.