Ad Libs

The first post in this series is here.


Above: a Liberal ready to retire from politics.

Liberals in Canada are nicknamed Grits, from their 19th-century slogan, "all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through." At the time, they were abrasive opponents of Sir John A MacDonald's corrupt Conservative Party. Recent Liberal governments have been quite different...

High-ranking Liberals are expert politicians. They give handouts to the right people to get re-elected. They are effective at solving problems which concern them, such as Canadian unity, low taxes, and a growing economy, but they pay lip service to other issues (child poverty, aboriginal land claims, health care) or ignore them entirely (American war crimes, media concentration, the global financial bubble). They also have an authoritarian streak; they ignore backbenchers, civil servants, and civil society in favour of backroom deals, and they coddle foreign dictators when it suits them (notably President Suharto). So they are similar to the new Conservatives except that they are better managers and they care more about Canadian sovereignty.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion is not very popular, even less so than Stephen Harper or Jack Layton. He's seen as awkward, academic, and "another Quebec candidate." Maybe he'll improve his image during the campaign.

The issue that concerns me the most is the environment, and this graph says it all:

(If you can't read it, it shows Canada's greenhouse gas emissions rising throughout the Liberals' 12-year term.) I could show similar graphs with respect to urban sprawl, pollution levels, deforestation, etc. They now claim to be the party of the environment, but I'm not impressed... did they think we weren't paying attention for the past 15 years? A Conservative government means disaster, but a Liberal government means the status quo, and neither option is acceptable to me.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Because of our electoral system, only the Liberals or Conservatives have ever controlled Parliament. Many people vote Liberal purely to keep the Conservatives out of power ("strategic voting") even though they dislike the Liberals. I can understand that sentiment, but I can't do it myself. The endless promises and betrayals remind me of an abusive relationship--"This time he'll change! I know he will!" We need to break the cycle or the Libs will end up like the US Democrats, who are distinguishable from the Republicans only during an election campaign.