Hard choices on election day

Page 4

Many of you don't vote in Canadian elections because it would violate the ideas expressed in the Iroquoian Two Row Wampum - they stay in their boat and we'll stay in ours.

But many of you do vote, and we know the question of who forms the next government will matter a lot.

Considering the mess that would result from the election of a Canadian Alliance government, we wish we could be the second media outlet to declare the Liberals elected. CBC's This Hour has 22 Minutes beat us to the punch on that one a few days after the election was called.

Please understand we're not endorsing "the little guy from Shawinigan" and his gang. We just don't see the re-election of the Liberals as a sure thing. Remember Mulroney?

We think the current prime minister has surpassed the arrogance that led to the destruction of the Progressive Conservative party and we won't be overly shocked if the same fate befalls this government.

As much as the prime minister deserves this kind of ballot box justice, we don't even want to think about Prime Minister Stockwell Day.

Here are some of the things we despise about the Chretien Liberals:

1) Their refusal to comply with the demands of the information commissioner.

2) That game they played to avoid facing the music from the auditor general over the HRDC fiasco and the message it sends about how much they really value accountability as a cornerstone of the Canadian system.

3) The HRDC fiasco itself, graphic proof that Liberal patronage is the only thing that matters in Ottawa these days.

4) The Prime Minister's violent, menacing treatment of reporters and/or demonstrators. Whether it's bullying reporters on the steps outside his office or pepper-spraying protesters in B.C. or man-handling another protester in Quebec, it's not the kind of thing a man of the people would do.

5) Chretien's continual and embarrassing episodes of foot in mouth disease, at home and abroad.

6) Chretien asking Brian Tobin to break a solemn promise to his supporters that he would finish his term as Premier of Newfoundland, for a rather flimsy reason involving internal Liberal party rivalries.

7) All of the breaches of Canada's fiduciary obligation to Indigenous peoples that we cover on a regular basis, especially the political manipulation we saw in Burnt Church in the last two Octobers.

We find each of these examples to be tragic and pathetic examples of just how out of touch Canada's elected leaders have become. As much as we had our differences with the late lamented Pierre Elliot Trudeau, we don't recall ever having had occasion to use the word "pathetic" in any description of his method of governing. That's how far the Liberals have fallen.

Now, here's the worst part. As far as all of the above may be from our ideal of how leaders should act in a liberal democracy, and as far as the Liberals' behavior may fall short of what we believe are the basic Canadian democratic values, this gang of ne'er do wells is still the best choice by far.

Isn't that a revoltin' development?