That's What She Said!

And so, friends, we come to a break in the proceedings. This dramatic tale of politics, power, betrayal, and, apparently, pants-wetting terror come to a close until January 26th (or so).

For now, let us hear the joyous sounds of Talking Points and Counter Points ring through the land this holiday season:

• We're not even two months removed from the last election, and a group of backroom politicians are going to pick who the Prime Minister is. Canadians didn't vote for this person. We don't even know who this person will be.

Actually, we do. He just won't be there longer than a few months when he'll get replaced with someone else. That's who we don't know.

• Not a single voter voted for a Liberal-NDP coalition. Certainly not a single voter voted for the Liberals to form a coalition with the separatists in the Bloc.

And yet 62% of the voters did vote against Stephen Harper, including those Canadians who voted for the Bloc. Though you do raise a good point: from now on, we should be allowed to choose coalitions on our ballots! Otherwise, how will they ever know to cooperate with each other and actually get things done when they're in Ottawa?

• This is what bothers me the most. The Conservatives won the election. The Opposition keeps saying that the Conservatives have to respect the will of the voters that this is a minority and so on.

Isn't stepping on their throats respect enough?

• …how about Liberals, NDP and Bloc respecting the will of the voters when they said "YOU LOSE".

How dare the opposition oppose the current government! How dare they?!

• And what's this going to do to the economy. I'm sorry, I don't care how desperate the Liberals are — giving socialists (Jack Layton) and separatists (Gilles Duceppe) a veto over every decision in government — that is a recipe for total economic disaster.

First, thanks for letting us know who you meant. I thought Elizabeth May was the separatist, and Ron Gray was the socialist. (Can you really blame me for the last one, though? Look what that other evangelical fanatic did to our nation.) Still, is 'socialist' still your big, scary boogieman? Really? Despite the financial record of left-wing leaderships compared to right-wing ones? Well, if you insist...

• But how more phony could these guys be?

Call me when you've got a leader who has a memory longer than four years old. And doesn't repeatedly proclaim that 'the people of Canada demand immediate action on the the economy' and then promptly run away for seven weeks to let ad men do his job for him.

• I mean, I follow the news, virtually every single day you have Harper or Flaherty out there telegraphing exactly what they plan to do with the economy. And not once did you hear the Liberals, NDP or separatists talking about toppling the government in response.

No, "you" don't - you're a list of talking points. Otherwise you may have noticed that talking about buying your son a car so he'll love you is not the same as actually buying him a car so he'll love you. Plus, when it was made clear that Haprer and Flaherty wanted to cripple their political opponents, attack unions, and stop women fro using the Human Rights Commission, then boy howdy! did you ever hear the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc talk about toppling the government! In fact, that's what this whole embroglio is about, remember?

• No — do you know what set this off. When Flaherty said he was going to take taxpayer-funded subsidies away from the opposition. Now there is a reason to try and overturn an election— because the Conservatives the audacity to say "Hey, it's a recession, maybe you should take your nose out of the trough."

Which explains taking away the right to strike and stopping women from using the Human Rights Commission to address workplace pay inequities. That'll save this nation some cash!

• And I wish the media would be more clear on this point — the opposition aren't being singled out by this fact the Conservatives stand to lose the most money of all. The only difference is that Canadians are voluntarily giving money the Conservatives, so they don't need taxpayer handouts. The only reason the opposition would be hurt more is because nobody wants to donate to them. They should be putting their efforts towards fixing that problem.

It is, of course, the media's fault. Just ask John Ziegler.

• I don't want another election. But what I want even less is a surprise backroom Prime Minister whom I never even had the opportunity to vote for or against. What an insult to democracy.

And no one wanted to piss away $300 million on the last election, either: still happened, though. Strange how Harper insisted on having one even when he knew ahead of time what the results would be. I suppose he knows something about sound fiscal management that we leftie types don't. Of course, acting like he had a majority when he didn't wasn't exaclty respectful of democracy, either.

Well, that's enough for now. If you'll excuse me, I now have a second reason to turn off the radio for the next several weeks...