Thursday, December 04, 2008

Grumpy

Before I decided to resurrect The Big Picture, I probably would have written a post about the American election. I have to say, it was the first time that I have been politically engaged. How exciting! Oh, small note, yes, I am Canadian, still living in Canada. And did you know that we had an election only 5 weeks (or so) before the big US election. Was I as engaged? Shamefully, no.
And my interest in American politics had me wondering. Did I rush home to read the latest on HuffPost, NY times, Buzzflash...why yes I did. Did I read with the same intensity about the Canadian situation...hell no. Its a bit of an embarrassment.

Feeling totally disenfranchised with the Canadian electoral system - I knew I needed to vote liberal to keep the conservatives from representing me. There were 4 parties running in my riding...Conservative, Liberal, New Democratic and Green. So three of the four parties leaned somewhat left of centre to varying degrees, but yet, the Conservatives won. Add the votes from the left leaning, and they resulted in about 75% of the total votes cast. Okay, I am no political analyst, but my interpretation is that three quarters of my riding, were voting for some sort social or environmental policy. Not an in-bed-with-the oil-sands party. But I digress. So so I continued my apathetic avoidance of all things politically Canadian...

So then this week, there are rumblings of a Federal coalition to be formed between the Liberals and NDP, with Bloc support (long weird story here)..and I was thinking "Wheeeeeeee". This could in effect be that sort of representation that I so badly hoped for. And today, the Prime Minister suspends parliament, to prevent a vote of non-confidence, and in effect prevent a coalition forming and taking over the government.

Urg. So grumpy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I SO hear you. I'm grumpy about it, too.

Thanks for following my blog!