Liberal — Page 2

to our own Federal general election tonight, as I watched the English language debate between the leaders of the 5 major parties. I was quite disappointed in the whole thing, although frankly I didn’t expect much.

Dan Rather, following all the US debates, was loathe to call them debates at all, suggesting that rather than debate it was really an opportunity for the two leaders to talk about their platform only – the other guy just happened to be in the room. Our debate here was the opposite – it was all acrimonious bickering and no annunciation of coherent platforms. None at all.

Alexa McDonough, leader of the ever-smaller federal NDP, came off the best by far, in my opinion. My own MP, Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois, was actually pretty good – except the idea that overwhelms everything else he stands for is diametrically opposed to my view of things. Joe Clark, the once and current leader of the Progressive Conservative party was OK, but it’s clear that although he’s a decent guy, his time has passed.

Which leaves Jean Chretien and Stockwell Day. Chretien, the leader of the Liberal party (and current PM, if you’re not from around here) was basically in an impossible situation. He didn’t meet it very well. Day came off like a motivational speaker – a lying, duplicitous motivational speaker. He and his Canadian Alliance cronies are probably the scariest thing to happen to Canadian politics in years. Which is enough said about him.

The new Mike’s Message from Michael Moore is a great open letter to Al Gore. I still think I’d vote for Gore (if I could vote), but at the same time I have the same general feeling as Moore and would ask some of the same questions as Moore poses.

It’s funny – my attitude to the NDP in Canada is practically the opposite of my feelings about the Democratic Party in the US. Dems have moved, as has our Liberal Party, to the right – due to changing circumstances, a changing electorate, a new world that we live in. In doing so, parties like those represent me even less than they ever did – which was never that much. At the same time though, the NDP here hasn’t seemingly changed at all to face the different sort of world we live in now. And so they too don’t represent me – and in fact seem openly hostile to people in a situation such as mine. So if anything I’m even more screwed here than I would be in the US.