Canada Topples Toward Polls - Another Excercise in Flaccid Tyrannical Shake-up

So, Canada topples toward another federal election, and what the hell is the electorate supposed to do?

Go to any of the Canadian political party Web sites and you'll read how each of them believes they are the Second Coming of the Messiah. From the rumblings in the media, I think most voters are like me: they just want to see the Liberals out of power. After a dozen years of arrogant, unresponsive rule, pretty much everyone who isn't part of the Liberal Party has had enough.

While I respond well to fiscal responsibility as preached by the Conservative Party, I'm concerned that they will do for Canada what premier Mike Harris did for Ontario. I realize the Conservative Party aren't PCs, but much of the same "common sense" rhetoric can be heard from them as from the Tories who ransacked Ontario ten years ago.

I'm all for responsible spending of tax dollars and ending waste. Who isn't. But the Mike Harris government approached this like piranha on PCP. When Harris took power Ontario was like an overweight person who had to shed a few pounds -- the excess weight being an analogy for excess spending. Rather than systematically cutting back, the Harris government achieved its fiscal weight loss by amputating the arms and legs from the patient. Yes, Ontario had shed those unwanted fiscal pounds, but was definitely the worse for it. This is what I fear the Conversatives will do.

Plus, the thought of a gaggle of born-again Christian ideologues leading this country gives me the anxiety-fueled screaming-meemies. The only thing worse than Liberal corruption would be the crisp, doily-edged righteousness of right-wingers.

The NDP seem intent on turning the keys to Canada over to the tide of immigrants it lusts to entice and embrace. My family came to Canada as immigrants, so I don't have a bad thing to say about that -- that is, about immigrants who arrive here seeking to contribute. But with the chronic outsourcing of good paying jobs, what exactly are these new Canadians going to do for a living? I fear that the NDP would have us all working for Wal-Mart for starvation wages. Then to turn up the "Tax Treadmill" to supersonic.

The Liberals? Not even an option.

Parti Quebecois? I'm more apt to vote for the Liberals.

Not vote at all? I'm more apt to vote PQ than do this.

So, the funnel of my own rhetoric narrows painfully. Who the hell to vote for?