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Pony: A new president
1.24.2006
Sly as a fox...
According to Fox News, Canada has a new president (thanks to the Dude for the link).
That is so awesome. (nota bene: chris barry pointed out that they may have in fact been using the word "presidency" in its proper sense "to preside", let's just pretend that they think Canada has a president).
After a tirelessly mean campaign of shameless fear-mongering and vision-less sloganeering, the election is over. And we have a Conservative minority gov't. Only slightly more depressing than the thought of another smug, mediocre Liberal gov't (it was never the scandal that galled me but the lack of a genuine competitive, multi-party system).
Check out the great CBC Canada Votes site
I am not fan of the Conservatives, as you can probably guess. Harper is not just lacking in charisma ('though on second thought, we all know from looking to the south of us where empty charisma can get you), but his face - it does not emote anything remotely close to compassion or warmth. I am sure that more serious pundits would scoff at my observation as a chick thing. But that expressionless face scares me in a leader.
If Harper had been in power over the last couple of terms, we would have fought in Iraq, joined US missile programs, and there would still be no same-sex marriage. For now we have a minority gov't that will supposedly keep certain Tory proclivities in check.
My biggest fear right now is for four/five years from now: people tend to vote in the incumbent. And any of us who lived through the long reign of Mike Harris' Ontario (his former ministers of finance and health are both newly-minted Tory MP's) know how a Tory majority handles social programs and dissent.
But on the bright side, we have two great female NDP MP's voted into Toronto. Olivia Chow ran a tight race and defeated Tony Ianno. Peggy Nash defeated incumbent Sam Bulte. Here is to strong, progressive women in Parliament!
