Thursday, October 18, 2007

About that poll

According to my very scientific internet poll, half of you think Dion should have voted against the Throne Speech and put us full speed ahead into federal election mode. (Just half, not "more than half"; the 52% includes one American who, in his/her desperation to deep-six Georgie, voted Yes.)

I personally voted "FUCK no!" because in my opinion it would be suicidal for the Liberals to go into an election right now. The party is in disarray, their policies are almost as big a Question Mark as their leadership, and in the ten months since Dion took the helm he's failed to rally back the popular support the Liberals normally enjoy. An election right now would almost certainly result in a Conservative majority government -- a slim majority to be sure, but a majority nonetheless -- if for no other reason than the electorate hasn't seen Harper barbeque any kittens so they might figure the status quo isn't so bad.

But delaying the vote is likely just delaying the inevitable. From this point on, there will be lots of confidence votes -- if the opposition Liberals repeatedly vote confidence in the Conservative government, doesn't that make them, well, you know... Conservatives? It certainly dilutes whatever message they might be trying to put across to the voters. Those Cons, sneaky motherfuckers, have really derailed the Libs.

It's a quandary -- I wonder if there's any way the Liberals can turn this around, or if they'll have to let this one go, have a leadership review and give it a better try next time. Knowing that by the time "next time" arrives we might not recognize our country, let alone the Liberal party. HELP!