Thoughts on Election Day

I haven't been posting much lately partly because there's an election campaign going on and basically I am tired of hearing stupid people giving their stupid opinions on things and so other than reading Le Devoir every weekend, I have basically put a self-imposed media blackout on myself if only so that I don't find myself shouting at the radio/the internet/random passers-by. That said, some observations and thoughts:

-I'm probably alone among the "progressives" (how I loathe that meaningless word) I know in not getting swept up in the apparently dramatic rise of the NDP. I'm more and more convinced that the NDP's appeal is primarily to a certain sort of nostalgia for old-time Canadian democratic socialism. Layton made this connection himself in the leaders' debates when he talked about how the NDP introduced universal healthcare to Canada. No, they didn't. The CCF did. And though the CCF later became the NDP, the two aren't one and the same and the NDP of today is essentially a centre-left party, the Liberals without the baggage. Now the NPD concern themselves with how the middle-classes are being pushed out of the housing market. With manufacturing and industry dying in this country, and aspirationalism having replaced class solidarity, the NDP's reinvention of themselves as a party for the middle classes isn't necessarily a stupid idea, but let's be honest about what it is and not pretend that they're holding onto this noble socialist tradition.

-I've posted plenty on this blog about the way that the Tories are poisoning the democratic culture in this country, but the NDP has been guilty of this in the election campaign in the way that Jack Layton has been running the NDP's campaign as if it was a presidential race. Here's a screenshot of the NDP's website today:


Do I need to mention that Canada is a parliamentary democracy and that unless you live in the Toronto-Danforth riding, you don't actually have the option to vote for Jack Layton? I suppose I do, actually.

I wouldn't mind the Jack Layton personality cult so much if it didn't overshadow everything else. My riding, Laurier-Sainte Marie, is traditionally one of the safest ridings in the country with the incumbent Gilles Duceppe regularly getting well over 50% of the vote. Polls suggest that in this election, Duceppe and the NPD candidate, Hélène Laverdière, are pretty much neck and neck, with Duceppe probably winning by a slim margin (in reality, students don't actually vote so Duceppe will probably take more votes than is predicted). The problem is that nobody seems to actually know much about Laverdière. There's her biography on the NDP's website, and really, that's about all there is. I haven't been impressed by Duceppe's campaign--though I generally like him and vote for him and think that he does good things for this community--and it wouldn't have taken much for me to vote for the NDP candidate had she actually made an effort. If I had even recieved a leaflet in the mail saying who she is and what she stands for I could have been swayed. But if the NDP wants to go on about how great of a Prime Minister Jack Layton will be while completely ignoring doing real work in the ridings--sending out leaflets, knocking on doors, talking to people, engaging with their concerns and their hopes--then they can't count on my vote.

-This said, voting is only a partially rational process.

-Social media is shit and facilitates the dumbing down of politics. It at least allows you to view how stupid your friends are, so you don't merely have to assume it.

-A merger between the NDP and the Liberal Party would be the best thing for this country right now. It would be unsatisfying for pretty much everyone, but it would very nearly guarantee that the Conservatives would never have power again.