Election day

It’s election day in Canada and tonight I’ll be glued to the television and computer to keep track of what’s going on. I’ll be twittering as well, but I was reminded last night of the law in Canada against publishing information about results in one part of the country before polls close in other parts of the country. This includes bloggers and, apparently, even Twitter. Needless to say, that leaves me to wonder if I will be breaking Canadian law by posting that information on my blog or on Twitter before polls close in Alberta and BC. Hmmm….

It’s been an interesting and, at many points disheartening campaign, as we’ve watched some of the most negative and childish ads in living memory appear throughout the media. Worse, the Conservative Party’s ads mocking Stéphane Dion started appearing on television long before an election was called. We’ve also watched as Harper seriously underestimated Canadians’ concerns about culture, the economy, and even the environment. The Liberals, too, have failed to persuade anyone, I think, that they are ready to lead the country. The “we must stop Stephen Harper” rhetoric of all the other sides have not persuaded anyone. I can see why people go that route, but Canadians are smart enough to make their own decisions about these things. Although Jack Layton has been mocked a bit for his earnest but unrealistic claims about running to be Prime Minister, I have to say that, although I sometimes cringe a bit when I hear him say that, I admire him all the more for taking that stand. He’s told us why he should be PM and I think has persuaded more people of this than Dion.

We’ve heard lots of people talking about the election over the last 37 days, but I think the commentator who has proven himself to be most in tune with how Canadians have felt about this election is Roy MacGregor. His column today, as with many of them over the course of this campaign, was superb. You should read the whole thing, but here’s the part I liked best:

This has indeed been, as pollster Peter Donolo of the Strategic Counsel puts it, a campaign of “failure.” Failure to impress. Failure to convince. Failure to connect.

And yet today it demands, and will receive, a decision.

And if that decision is minority government, it may be the first and only good thing to come out of this irritating exercise.

[. . .] There is opportunity here.

The reason for the visit to Pearson – he sits benignly atop a knoll backing onto the Ottawa River cliffs, his relaxed gaze aimed directly at the back of a bronze John Diefenbaker, who scowls off toward the East Block – is to be reminded of what can be.

Pearson headed two minority governments, in 1963 and 1965, and they are generally held to be the most productive the country has ever known. They saw the coming of medicare and the Canada Pension Plan – both with no small thanks to the prodding of a co-operative New Democratic Party – as well as a new flag, a unified armed forces and the auto pact.

If you listed the 10 greatest accomplishments on Parliament Hill since Confederation, at least three would come from those minority years.

So it can be done – but so, perhaps, can much more.

MacGregor goes on to call for a new era of civility in Parliament and in Canadian politics. Having watched Question Period in person once a year for the last four years on our programs annual Ottawa trip, I have to agree with him. I’ve been saddened by the juvenile displays I’ve witnessed in QP, mainly from a few members of one party in particular. Perhaps being faced with a new–and potentially even more tenuous–minority government will force everyone to work together in a more civilized and productive manner. One has to hope….