by David Herman
Well the election is over and regardless of your political preference, I do not think very many Canadians are happy with the way the campaigns were run.
I think that too much time and effort was expended by most parties, the two mainstream parties for sure, in mudslinging and character assassination and presenting ideals usually about the other party as facts when they were not. Everyone seemed to buy into Catherine McKenna’s theory that if you say something often enough and loud enough it will become a fact and be believed. I heard from many people that they wished the parties would talk about what they planned to do to improve life in Canada, instead of telling us the bad things that their opposition had planned for us if they formed the next government. The incumbent party had a record to defend, and it also was a target for their opponents to criticize. Most voters know what has been going on over the past 4 years and have already decided if they approve of the actions or not. So, this brings me back to the line of informing what you plan in the next four years if you receive the votes to form a government. That summarizes my thoughts on the campaign.
Now I want to briefly discuss our current situation with the Liberal party holding a strong Minority. They say that they have no plans to try and set up a formal coalition with some or any of the other parties. I think this is good. Here is where I differ from the current thinking of most political parties, in that I feel that once a politician is elected, their main loyalty should be to the people of Canada and not their party. Their party platform that they ran on defines basically their philosophy of how they feel the country should move forward, and that should guide the electorate in choosing their representative. Now that they are elected, they should be guided by their conscience and support, or not, legislation that is good for the country. The role of opposition should entail opposing bills based on their merit and not on who authored the particular legislation. It does not serve the country to have members of the house being told how to vote on anything. This would, I think, be similar to the legislature in the Northern Territories. This should lead to a productive parliament regardless of Minority or Majority government benches and should lead to better legislation, because none of the members are being forced to follow the autocratic lead of the PMO or party brass. I saw glimpses of this in the British parliament when even the ruling government voted against Boris Johnson when they did not agree with the course he was setting. With our new Minority Parliament, I am hoping we see all the members working for Canada and not just for their party.