Thoughts on the Canadian Election

I feel a little like Admiral Ackbar must have felt in Return of the Jedi when the rebel star fighter crashes into the big ultra star destroyer, bringing it down. You see, my friends, that poor pilot spinning wildly out of control towards a collision that is sure to take his life (or official party status), but also deal a huge blow to the empire, is the NDP. That ultra star destroyer is the Conservative chance of winning the election, and Admiral Ackbar is us NDP voters who made the jump to the Liberals to stop the Conservatives. Like Ackbar, I feel sad at the loss of one of us, and relief that the sacrifice wasn’t in vain. You can’t call the federal Liberals, a party lead by a millionaire banker, the rebels, so that’s where the metaphor ends, but you get the idea.

So, I’m doing my best to not get political in these blog posts, but I wanted to share a loose collection of thoughts, with the benefit of hindsight, on the recent Canadian federal election. This is all strictly my own opinion, so if you don’t agree, that’s fine. I’m a lefty and a musician. Maybe that gives you an idea of the particular stank that my political leanings will give off.

I’ve been an NDP voter my entire civic life, only diverting to the Libs when I felt I had to, in an effort to keep the Cons out of power (which is something that seems to happen way too often). I remember my first time voting, which was in the 2004 federal election. I voted for the NDP rep for Hamilton Centre, David Chrisopherson, and I felt a distinct sense of accomplishment when he won. I was a part of bringing a great person, representing a great party, into power. I’d periodically see him turn up at protests and environmental rallies, at which I was taking pictures at the time, and I got the sense that he did genuinely care about the issues.

These days, I live in the Con stronghold of Haldimand/Norfolk, so I wasn’t surprised to see our Con candidate was re-elected fairly quickly. That being said, it was a nice surprise to find out that the incumbent for this riding in the recent provincial election in Ontario, was an independent. She was re-elected, and although she is a fairly conservative person with whom I disagree on many things, I’m really happy this riding didn’t go to Ford’s Cons.

Having been constantly presented with the example of American politics for my entire life, I’ve always really loved that we don’t live in a strictly two-party system in Canada, even if it’s fairly inevitable that every federal election will go to either the Libs or the Cons. The other parties, mainly the NDP and the Bloc, have played very important roles and I think that our democracy is stronger because of it. The Greens have been notable, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem like they’ve moved the conversation much in any lasting way. I’m happy we have them though, and I think the collapse of the NDP could be an opportunity for them, if they’re smart.

And that very thing, the NDP’s collapse, is probably the biggest loss the Canadian people have suffered in any election in my memory. We all lose when there isn’t a strong social, pro-union party influencing the conversation in our politics. The things they accomplished under their coalition with the Libs is really amazing, and I’ve liked Jagmeet Singh for as long as he’s been on the scene. I wish more people felt the same, but it seems like Canadians in general are just over him at this point. I think we’re lucky to have had someone like him around for as long as we did, and it’s going to be truly fascinating to see what the NDP does next. I believe they still have a substantial part to play, with a Liberal party in power once again. There is space for a left leaning party to do amazing things right now, and I think that will be something we see emerge in the next few years, be it a reformed NDP, Greens, or maybe even something else. Who knows!

Overall, I am relieved by the way things turned out, but I’m really not surprised that the Conservatives made out as well as they did. That’s the way a lot of people have been leaning, and that fundamentally hasn’t changed. As we all know, a few key things influenced what happened, and even though a lot of lefties ditched the NDP in hopes of stopping the Cons, these Libs are more centre than they used to be, and they absolutely absorbed some of the Con vote by making that change. It’s something to be aware of, and holding the libs to account is now more important than ever.

It is truly awesome that Canada was able to buck the global trend of being pulled to the far right, and the things we’ve seen Carney do since taking over have been encouraging. I like particularly like that he’s at least keeping the environment and climate change as part of the conversation, with those issues having disgracefully taken a back seat in this election. Of course, it’s still a really weird time to be alive, and just thinking about what might happen next can be anxiety inducing.

Simply keeping climate change in the conversation is a low bar, and it needs to be a top priority for every party, all the time. Some of the things Trudeau put in place are ambitious and could make a real difference if we stick to them. The infrastructure investment these things require is huge, but we can make it happen. The current state of technology is truly amazing, and if the will is there, it can be used to solve many of the existential problems facing us. It makes me excited for what can be accomplished in the future, particularly with things like space exploration (the scientific kind, not the billionaire kind) and nuclear fusion. I keep coming back to the fact that our species is pushing and exploring in ways that we’ve never been able to before, and we can do it in a responsible way that benefits everyone. We have examples of this. It can be done.

So that’s about it. There’s lots I didn’t talk about, but that stuff is all over the news and you don’t need me regurgitating it back at you. I was planning on putting up a different bog post, but the election kind of took over everything the last month and a bit, so I wanted to get these thoughts out of me. Stay tuned for another blog post a little quicker this time.

And of course, I had to make a meme of the Admiral Ackbar metaphor I described at the start, so here you go. Low effort, high impact: