Ultimately I was very happy with the results of the federal election. We can avoid another election until 2015 and Jack Layton is not the prime minister of Canada.
The latter prospect is the stuff of full-blown nightmares for anybody over the age of 30 and beyond the clutches of standard-issue socialist doctrine delivered in the idealistic bubble of secondary and post-secondary education.
You can fight the power and learn how to inhale alcohol at an alarming rate in university. Along the way you will begin to believe that a stint in university will provide a keen insight into a broader world.
News flash here: it doesn’t — and the doctrine of your professors does not always follow a parallel pattern with reality.
But somehow Layton managed to convince over 100 ridings that his way was the right path for Canada. Most of his success came in Quebec, where the Bloc Quebecois were annihilated by an orange torpedo of socialism and a new promised land for Quebecers.
The smug arrogance of an uncommitted separatist like Gilles Duceppe will be lost in Parliament, presumably forever with any luck at all. A golden — make that platinum — handshake pension from a generous country that he despises should dry the tears for Gilly.
So now Layton can parachute in a herd of new socialists into Parliament, as soon as many of them discover which riding they actually represent on a political map.
The jury would definitely be out on whether Jack has brought the best and brightest to Ottawa because placeholders in an election generally suggest a drastically different conclusion.
One of the things that really bothered me about this election (and the last two) was the open contempt displayed by major media political analysts toward Stephen Harper. Don Martin comes to mind when I recall his weekly Harper attacks as a political columnist.
Martin now hosts a political TV show, so his criticism is less obvious in his new role as an “impartial host.”
But he did include Craig Oliver in his reindeer games so Oliver could deliver a regular dose of bitter attacks against Harper.
Oliver even picked an NDP victory in what appeared to be a somewhere-over-the-rainbow view of the election. He is far removed from a fair and balanced analysis of Canadian politics at this point in his game and would be more accurately described as an “opinionist.”
Maybe it is time for Craig to hang ’em up before he gets labeled as a cranky old man with nothing new to say.
One of the more troubling aspects of the election was the behaviour of CBC’s Terry Melewski on election night as he attempted to bully Jason Kenney into a premature assessment of a minority government when a majority Conservative government was clearly in the cards.
It was bad journalism at its finest as Melewski attempted to pick a weird and incredibly unwarranted fight with Kenney.
The veterans who carried the day were Lloyd Robertson and Peter Mansbridge. They stayed between the lines of good journalism and refused to steer into a personal agenda.
When it comes to very good analysis in Canadian politics, there is only one real source in my opinion: Chantelle Hebert. The woman is insightful and articulates her points very well in print and on TV.
Chantelle Hebert should teach seminars on the lost art of fair and unbalanced analysis to most of her colleagues. They are in desperate need of the concept.
Jim Sutherland is a local freelance columnist. He can be reached at mystarcollectorcar.com.