As the final days of an unwanted federal election wind down, some interesting truths have become clear. I thought I’d share with you my take on what I’ve learned.
There is only one truly national party. The Conservatives are likely to win seats in every province and region of the country. Even in the two regions where the Conservatives are not winning outright, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, the Party will likely elect 10 seats in each. This is in stark contrast to the Liberals and New Democrats who have, with their policies and rhetoric, written off virtually all of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The federal Liberals and New Democrats are anti-Alberta. Both Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton have consistently used fear-mongering and misinformation about Alberta’s oil sands to try and win left-wing votes in Quebec and Ontario. Both want a carbon cap-and-trade system, which would transfer billions of dollars out of Alberta households into expensive vote-buying schemes in Quebec and Ontario, and both propose a moratorium on oil tanker traffic off the west coast despite the critical need for our province to diversify our energy markets to Asia. Even the provincial New Democrats and Liberals have been shy about openly supporting their federal cousins during this election; they know these policies would be exceptionally harmful to Albertans. In my opinion, Ignatieff and Layton are unfit to lead this country based solely on the fact that they’ve once again tried to pit one region of the country against another for political gain.
The Bloc Québécois is a joke. I still do not understand why Canadian taxpayers have to continuously foot the bill for these separatist clowns.
One would think that in order to sit as a federal MP, one should swear allegiance to this nation as a whole. If Quebecers want to elect separatists to their so-called National Assembly or have a referendum on leaving the country, that is their right; but don’t waste the time and money of Canadians or their Parliament with those committed to breaking up the country.
The fact we fund any national political party, let alone a separatist one, is also ridiculous. I hope Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first order of business once elected is to get rid of public funding for political parties. If a party can’t get people excited enough to donate to their cause, don’t ask the rest of us to.
We need a stable Conservative majority. I give full marks to Prime Minister Harper for navigating through almost five years of minority government; it’s not easy having to compromise with separatists and socialists on every budget and bill. However, I think Albertans are tired of the big spending and deficits, the partial acquiescence to environmental and anti-oilsands extremists, the lack of democratic reforms and MP independence, unfair equalization, a lax criminal justice system, and a host of other Liberal-inspired ideas such as the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly and long gun registry. Another two or three years of big spending and other left-leaning compromises is going to be very difficult for Albertans to swallow.
The biggest difference between the federal Conservatives and the provincial Progressive Conservatives is that Harper’s party can’t govern conservatively because they don’t have a majority mandate from the people to do so. Ed Stelmach’s party doesn’t govern conservatively because they don’t believe in conservative principles - they just know having the word conservative in the party name helps them win votes. This is why I think Albertans will paint the province Conservative-blue on May 2nd, and Wildrose-green at the next provincial election. Albertans want small-c conservative federal and provincial governments; let’s hope this upcoming federal election gets us half way there.
