This is not an opinion piece about the recent, but not forgotten, truckers/Political/Covid/Freedom/Anarchist Protest across Canada, ending in Ottawa.
More can be said about that but it all seems rather moot compared with the situation in Ukraine. The situation is too polite, too politically correct, too diplomatic: try the atrocity, war crimes, inhumanity, barbarianism, and apocalyptic events fostered by Russia.
Okay, Putin. This is about the NDP.
The New Democratic Party has had a good run. It was their effort that brought us much of our social safety net, forcing by their presence on the ballot, the Liberal Party to offer up, and even follow-through, with things like better health care and now the enhancements for pills, powders, and potions that we sometimes need at the corner pharmacy. They had a kinship with the labour unions and encouraged better wages and benefits which rewarded all of us indirectly.
While Jagmeet and his advisors will likely deny it, I now see the NDP as little more than Liberal Lite. Sort of an orangey-red party. I admit to voting most often Liberal throughout my life but there were times when I felt obliged to do a ‘protest’ vote; either to the NDP or even on a couple of occasions, to the Conservatives. I always shied away from being a true New Democrat because I had an accountant’s suspicion that if the Party ever got in office, they would not be fiscally responsible.
Bob Rae confirmed that for me when he had control for a short time in Ontario.
The provincial NDP did fare a little better, but not much, in BC and Saskatchewan but I think we all escaped a bullet when they did not win office in Ottawa two elections ago. Although, at the time, I thought Tom Mulcair was the best man to be Prime Minister. Come to think of it, listening to his views as a panelist, he would still be my first choice. Nonetheless, I have voted for the NDP as a protest when the political climate demanded it.
With Jag and Jussie already maneuvering for position in 2025, is it too soon for us to be thinking about election reform or how we should be thinking about our next leader?
A problem for me at election time is the system of choosing the Prime Minister based on the party that wins the most seats. I would rather elect our representatives and then have them, after the election, vote in a Prime Minister. Let them pick the best man or woman for the leader of the country, with a recall option if they don’t keep the confidence of the House.
Anyway, this is why I did a protest vote when the Libs ran with Ignatieff, and last fall, when Justin ran again. Iggy seemed to have no practical idea of what was involved in leading a public office, and young Trudeau is not an Honourable man. In my humble opinion.
So, with the demise, as I see it, of the Orange party, where can one park a protest vote in the next election? I fear the Conservatives have too many Trumpists in their ranks for me and the Greens with their noble ideas, simply are not viable. Perhaps it is time for the rise of the Independents. Candidates with no traditional party allegiance, but espousing liberalism or conservatism, or even socialism, could form a cohort of representatives of the people, and from the ranks of all MPs, select an Independent Prime Minister.
Do not worry about the novelty of this system of selecting a Prime Minister because other countries have such a system. See Australia for an example. This would require us to do some Election Reform work, something that Justin promised two elections ago but had no intention of doing it.
As I am writing this, I have a sneaky back-of-the-neck feeling that I may have this all wrong. Perhaps it is the demise of the Liberal party that is happening as the NDP are taking, subtly, control of the government in Ottawa. The spending and debt patterns are suspiciously New Democrat. Oh dear, what will the neighbours (to the South) think?
I guess my wish for this Utopian world is too late for the upcoming Ontario election. Unless, unless our Liberal and our NDP candidate would run as one under the reddish/orange banner: their combined support for their now similar policies, following the Federal example, might give Vic and Doug a run. It will matter little to us in the hinterland in any case, as the GTA will elect who they want.
Look what they did the last time. Oh, well.
