Contempt For Canadians

     Watched the Conservative government lose the confidence motion in Parliament this morning. It was a little exciting as one never knows how this will really go in the end and also to see our Parliamentary tradition in action, this is not America sha-la-la-la-la, as David Bowie once sang. For once, in the six times Prime Ministers have fallen to non-confidence motions, this was not over the budget but rather over  Contempt of Parliament, a first in our history. This was apparently something to celebrate as the Conservatives stood up to vote and a couple of them did a fist-bump! Right On! We collapsed the government for lying to Parliament, drinks all round!!!
     What really gets me is the notion, or the media driven notion, that Canadians don't want this election. Nobody asked me, probably because I don't have a land line anymore. I am always up for an election. Are you all too busy? It will be a Monday, it's not like it conflicts with American Idol, or are you too busy voting on Dancing With the Stars? Maybe that's the problem? I keep seeing people on TV saying "it's too expensive" and "we'll get the same result". It sounds expensive to you and me but nothing like the budget for the military, 6.3% of the total Budget, almost 19 Billion $ in 2009. So we can do stuff like help the Afghan women vote or enforce the No-Fly-Zone over Libya so one day they might get rid of Khadafi and hopefully vote too. Yet so many Canadians are so bored of elections, too busy, not interested. I sometimes wonder if Canadians have everything too easy? No strife, well fed, lazy and entitled, perhaps a little closer in attitudes to our American friends than we may like to think? Don't worry about it, your government was just ousted out of power for lying and over the last few years was very quietly giving tax breaks to corporations while shifting the tax burden onto you. I guess things have to get worse for Canadians to be less focused on Hockey and more focused on something that matters?
     You will likely hear a lot of talk about Coalition Government from the Conservatives, it's bad if oppositoin parties want one but was OK when they proposed one with the Bloc Quebecois a few years ago, go figure? I remember Calgarians actually protesting, outside, when a Coalition was proposed a couple of years ago by Stephane Dion. It seems some Canadians think we live in a Republic, with term limits and set election dates, I say you're all watching too much American TV! That's how Parliaments work darlings! England, Australia, almost all of Western Europe and Israel all have Coalition governments. Check out Belgium, they haven't had a government since June 2010! Deadlocked by Flemish separatists, the country still apparently runs by a sort of "Lame Duck" Prime minister who is still negotiating a deal! It makes our Quebec issues seem easy in comparison!
     I was reminded today that turnout in the last Federal election in Canada was around 40%, sad! We had an even lower turnout for our Civic elections until last year, all it took was a good candidate with good ideas, it really got people involved, so I won't write all you Canadians off just yet, the campaign is just about to begin!