Monday, February 13, 2012

Federal politics are so uninspiring

I can not get excited by anyone.   Harper is OK at best and that really is only because there are no viable alternatives.  Harper is governing in such a way to make me almost think the arrogant and draconian steamroller that was Jean Chretien was a good government.

I honestly have no idea what the federal Liberal party is about these days and I have no idea if anyone is seriously interested in being the leader of the party.   I am not certain how they would be dramatically different than a Stephen Harper government other than back away from the issue of human rights internationally.  I would become a member of the federal Liberals if they exposed classic liberal economics, sought to have a smaller federal government and took a hard line on human rights globally.

The federal Conservatives have been a disappointment.   They are governing as if they were the Paul Martin wing of the federal Liberals but had the political skills and approach of Jean Chretien.   We have a slightly less arrogant centre right government that does not seem to actually want to make the changes to confederation that is needed to allow all of Canada to thrive.  

I had a dream of a secret hidden libertarian agenda from Stephen Harper.   I have no hope of anything like that coming.

I had hoped that some aspects of the Reform party would hold over into the Conservatives, specifically on democratic reform.   The dominance of the old PC powers within the Conservative party has completed destroyed any hope of change.

None of the NDP leadership candidates inspire me, but I do think that Brian Topp and Thomas Mulcair are much better suited to be leaders of the official opposition than Jack Layton was.   I honestly not sure how either one would govern.

My hope is that the future federal NDP government will be willing to work on democratic reform and return more power to the provinces.   Let me dream that the NDP might approach federalism from the view of reducing centralization and not increasing it.

It is all utterly uninspiring to me.

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