Election Date Set

By on March 26, 2011 in News, Uncategorized

Canadians will vote on May 2. Are you excited?

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Stephen Whitworth is a life-long fan of newspapers and alternative media who got his start in the student press a hundred years ago. He moved to Regina in the fall of 1998 and Prairie Dog recklessly hired him nine months later. It was a terrible mistake and the publication deeply regrets its inability to get rid of him. When Whitworth’s not adding typos to the hard work of Prairie Dog’s many terrific writers, writing hilarious (to him) headlines and finding inventive new ways to make the paper late for its bi-weekly press deadline, he enjoys reading magazines, newspapers and alternative comics, listening to music, playing board games, and drinking and eating. He has a cat and seven pet snakes.
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12 Responses to Election Date Set

  1. Pro-Manny, Anti-Sportscaster March 26, 2011 at 11:31 am #

    Hells no. And I love politics and elections. This woulda played waaay better in 2012. The electorate are doomed to hand a majority to Harper, even tho they know he’s a total loser. It’s just a stability thing. Sad. Bad call.

  2. Emmet Matheson March 26, 2011 at 11:50 am #

    Stability? You mean 2 or 3 more years of Harper circumventing Parliamentary process? More chances for Harper’s cabinet to bleed MPs marred by ethics scandals (which could cost him whatever slim majority he may or may not get out of this election)? The fact that Harper is trying to make this about a coalition so early could backfire on him as Canadians realize how intrinsically Canadian such a government would be, built on co-operation and shared values. Harper may be leading the polls now, but he has so little room to grow and so much ground to lose.

  3. Greg Roch March 26, 2011 at 4:19 pm #

    It’s a monday! Nobody likes mondays.

  4. Barb Saylor March 26, 2011 at 6:23 pm #

    Coalition governments are more the European than the Canadian way – hardly intrinsic to us – and there’s a lot more short-term goals, self-interest, trolling for pet portfolios, and very tough bargaining than there is co-operation and shared values.

  5. Emmet Matheson March 26, 2011 at 6:30 pm #

    You misread me again, Barb. Check my non-restrictive clause.

  6. Barb Saylor March 27, 2011 at 2:20 pm #

    With all due respect, Emmet, I don’t think the problem is my reading.
    If you want a really depressing look at coalition governments, read William Shirer’s “The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940″.

  7. Moon Daddy March 27, 2011 at 3:27 pm #

    I think what Emmet meant was that a coalition government is more intrinsically Canadian because it would represent a broader swatch of the voting public, and not that we intrinsically have a tendancy to support a coalition.

  8. Barb Saylor March 27, 2011 at 7:49 pm #

    Even with that interpretation, Moon Daddy, a coalition is still not intrinsically Canadian. Ask the French, Italians, Israelis or Australians.

  9. Emmet Matheson March 27, 2011 at 8:17 pm #

    Come on, Barb, now you’re deliberately misreading. I did not say that a coalition itself would be intrinsically Canadian. Perhaps I should have more precisely said “could” instead of “would”, but I doubt that would have scanned any better for you.
    But if you want to talk about “short-term goals, self-interest, trolling for pet portfolios, and very tough bargaining”, let’s get down to it. Where do we begin? There’s the two-time Prorogation of Parliament, the jettisoning of Harper’s own fixed election date in 2008, Bruce Carson, Bev Oda, in-and-out election financing, the attempted bribery of Chuck Cadman, the $18-30 billion fighter jets, or half a decade of ineffectual Parliament.
    I don’t see how a coalition gov’t that actually enters into an agreement to work with elected Members of Parliament to do the business of the nation could possibly be any more unstable the last five years of Harper and his gang of goofs.

  10. Barb Saylor March 28, 2011 at 9:20 am #

    Clarity, Emmet: it’s still lacking, and ascribing motive to me doesn’t help the problem. (Did you have any argument with Moon Daddy’s reinterpretation?)
    A reading of history should make anyone cautious about coalition governments. An awareness of Canadian history and of the intentions of the Bloc Quebecois should make anyone leery of trusting them as a coalition partner.
    The centre-right parties united successfully; the centre-left, it seems, cannot, and the separatists remain a stumbling block(no pun intended). It seems that the current government’s track record hasn’t been bad enough to push the centre-left together; their coalition represents failure, and is a poor hook on which to hang your “anybody but the Conservatives” hat.

  11. Barb Saylor March 28, 2011 at 10:47 am #

    Passion for your position may be clouding your perception and judgement, Emmet. I think it’s wise that we don’t debate, as your anger will not allow for reasonable discussion.
    If the centre-left could unite, that would make for a real contest.

  12. anonymous March 29, 2011 at 2:32 pm #

    I used to love elections, now I dread them, as I expect to be disappointed in my fellow voters lately. I still vote and still expect to immerse myself in electoral maps and statistical results though.

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