The Sixth Estate

Quick: If the Harper Government™ loses this election, what will it be remembered for? I don’t mean this in a partisan way. Here’s another question: what is the singular most important achievement that we remember the Chretien government for? Any answers?

The current election isn’t the first time in Canadian politics that we have been mostly bereft of big ideas, where not just the daily grind of Parliament Hill but the collective sum of Canadian political culture seems preoccupied with minor and uninteresting questions like tweaks to corporate tax rates and the propriety of inter-party Parliamentary cooperation. But we are in a period where our nation is simultaneously far wealthier, more resourceful, and therefore more capable of reaching forward than ever before, yet is stunningly bereft of any vision of where we might reach to. For the moment, I like to think of some of the more important areas where vision is sadly lacking as the missing planks of the election campaign.

(more…)

I decided last week that the main purpose of this blog during the election period would be a review of the Harper Government™, which in my opinion has seriously endangered the future of Canadian democracy. But before going forward on that, I want to be clear on another point: Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, in its present form, is very unlikely to advance a fundamentally different alternative if they form a government. I wish I could say otherwise, because the course we are on is a very unhealthy one. But this was made clear Tuesday with the first major announcement by the Ignatieff campaign, the Canadian Learning Passport.

This was the first major announcement of the election campaign, and the start of the election campaign was not a surprise. So it is safe to assume that this announcement — and other “first planks” from the NDP and the Conservatives — were carefully planned out in advance as the right start to the campaign: impressive enough to draw attention, but not so huge that there is nothing to follow up with next week as voter attention starts to wander. Unfortunately, the Liberals have completely blown it with this one. It might have been okay, if Ignatieff hadn’t chosen to call it “revolutionary.” It isn’t. He is lying, plain and simple.

(more…)