Sunday, December 03, 2006

Sweet Relief!

The hand-picked NDP candidate in my riding placed fourth in a field of seven. She was beaten by, in order, the Liberal candidate, the Green candidate, and the CRAP candidate (cue Nelson Muntz-ish "Ha ha!").

On top of that, Stephane Dion (no relation, I hope?) got voted in as the new Liberal party leader, beating out the odious (pro-Bush, pro-torture, pro-war) Michael Ignatieff, and the equally odious Bob Rae, who, having changed his party affiliation (probably for the exact reasons I mentioned in my last post, namely that the federal NDP has been buried), decided he wanted to make a mess of the entirety of Canada, not just Ontario.

I think Dion is a good candidate. Not perfect, but good. He's a PhD, a professor, and an academic. We probably differ substantially on matters of economics, but at this point, I've kind of given up hope on finding a Canadian politician who doesn't think our carefully micromanaged, fiscal-conservative-wetdream economy is not only normal but desireable. I note he's been in the US doing think-tank wonkery, but at least he was at Brookings and not the AEI or Heritage. He's also a Quebec federalist, which should go a long way towards making him electable.

He's also got a nice, bespectacled, academic mien that will look good on tv. Some people say his English isn't very good, but they said that about Jean Chretien, too, and he was Prime Minister for ten years.

So. Not great, but good. At least now I don't have to lie awake sweating, wondering if I can deal with voting Liberal when I might be pushing that vile warmonger Ignatieff or that colossal upwards failure Bob Rae into 24 Sussex Drive.

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