Canadians will make their way to the polls on Monday to shape an outcome we suggest today is as unpredictable as the weather.
The last time an uncertain political feeling came over us in a larger electoral contest was when Bob Rae’s NDP snuffed out the David Peterson Liberals in 1990. While the prospect of an NDP government is very remote, we have picked up a tone of interest in throwing a vote to Layton that is a little disconcerting. The Ontario experience certainly would suggest that is not a wise course of action.
While few commentators picked up on it, we think voters connected with the comments Layton made during the candidates debate when Michael Ignatieff suggested only the Liberals could form a majority government.
The phrase Layton used went something like, there you go again, letting on like the voters only have a choice between Liberals or voting Conservative. Understandably, voters never like feeling taken for granted. That line resonated, obviously.
Since that event, and a surge in the polls for the NDP over the Bloc, old Quebec sores have been poked and picked. Layton now suggests he will open up the Constitution again and give Quebec some winning options. That pandering might get some votes now, but the cost will be heavy.
We see the remaining days of this campaign as an important time for the country.
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On to brighter notes. We were pretty happy to see our twins start to engage in politics at school. The student vote across the country has been a great exercise for young people to understand the importance of voting and getting involved.
Their teacher, an old Eramosa boy, suggested the following quote from former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, from the Canadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960 would make a good quote for the paper. It read, “I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.”
What a great sentiment. Listening to both girls talk about the candidates and parties, it became clear the difficulty many people are finding in choosing a representative.
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The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
One thing certain in politics is there are many truths. Running through letters to the editor in any given week, sitting through candidate nights or even glancing at blogs posted on-line by various experts, the truth can be a scarce commodity.
We were presented with a couple of scenarios this past week – one from the Perth-Wellington riding and the other from Wellington-Halton Hills.
NDP candidate Ellen Pappenburg, a very good person and, we would say, a friend of many years, stated NDP governments never ran a deficit. That, of course, might be true in certain parts of the west, but it was not the experience in Ontario.
With the state of Ottawa’s finances and the promises undertaken by Jack Layton’s team, which has since admitted its numbers are likely off, a deficit is an automatic.
The second item drawn to our attention by our reporter was a volley from our present Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong (also considered a friend).
He jumped on Liberal candidate Barry Peters for using municipal resources for political purposes when he worked as assistant to Case Ootes in Toronto. The first was election material printed for a councillor in Toronto, for whom Peters was campaign manager, and second was reprinting Newspaper articles for his own bid as the Liberal nominee for Wellington Halton-Hills.
That was a response to Peters harping on Chong’s integrity with respect to the confidence vote that caused this election.
The groans from the crowd that resulted from the exchange had to do with the night descending into mud-slinging, which most Canadians will agree is not in the country’s best interest nor congruent with Chong’s push in the house for more civil debate.
