Wednesday, May 19, 2004
What about the reserve cord?
Regular readers of this space, bless your twisted little hearts, are no doubt aware of the severe journalistic hard-on I have for Paul Wells (yes, I just used the term "hard-on" on my blog - I shudder to think of how that's going to affect my referrer reports), but he's completely out to lunch on the parachute candidate issue. So, for that matter, is Marc Dumouchel, another of the net's more lucid commentators on Canadian politics. But most out to lunch of all is The Brampton Guardian, which, in a fine piece of apostrophe, asks "At what point, Mr. Martin, will the voters in Brampton--Springdale be allowed to actually decide for themselves who would be the best person to represent them in the House of Commons?"
Uh, June 28, probably.
Let's be very clear on this: ordinary non-partisan citizens should not particularily give a shit how parties decide to select their candidates. If you're a member of the Liberal Party in Brampton-Springdale, *then* you're welcome to be pissed off about this, because you were disenfranchised (though you'd do well to remember that the Liberal Party grassroots could eliminate parachuting if they so chose). But an ordinary voter has no cause for complaint. Why? Because nothing happened that affected her/his choices in the upcoming election.
Sure, Paul Martin decided which candidate would have the abbreviation "Lib" after her name. But he didn't decide that either of the two "good local candidates" to whom the Guardian alludes *wouldn't* be allowed to run. Hell, if either got elected, he/she could probably sit as a member of the Liberal caucus, too, and show the same slavish devotion to Team Martin as would have been expected of her/him if he/she had been elected as the official Liberal candidate. Both have decided not to seek election, and to instead support the Martin choice. That is unfortunate, but any anger over that should be directed at the two non-candidates in question, not towards Paul Martin. Realistically, they probably decided not to run because they knew that no independent candidate would have a chance - an assessment in which they were undoubtedly correct, but blame for that certainly doesn't fall to Martin, being better directed towards Bramptonians themselves.
Yes, democracy in Canada is broken, but it's the *voters* - you and I, though I'd like it noted that I voted P.C. last time, making this pretty much all your fault - who haven't been taking good care of it, and who have been allowing parties to abuse it. And here's a prediction: most of the local Liberals upset about Martin parachuting Dr. Dhalla in will wind up voting for her anyway.
This is what democracy looks like. This is your government. You deserve it.
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Regular readers of this space, bless your twisted little hearts, are no doubt aware of the severe journalistic hard-on I have for Paul Wells (yes, I just used the term "hard-on" on my blog - I shudder to think of how that's going to affect my referrer reports), but he's completely out to lunch on the parachute candidate issue. So, for that matter, is Marc Dumouchel, another of the net's more lucid commentators on Canadian politics. But most out to lunch of all is The Brampton Guardian, which, in a fine piece of apostrophe, asks "At what point, Mr. Martin, will the voters in Brampton--Springdale be allowed to actually decide for themselves who would be the best person to represent them in the House of Commons?"
Uh, June 28, probably.
Let's be very clear on this: ordinary non-partisan citizens should not particularily give a shit how parties decide to select their candidates. If you're a member of the Liberal Party in Brampton-Springdale, *then* you're welcome to be pissed off about this, because you were disenfranchised (though you'd do well to remember that the Liberal Party grassroots could eliminate parachuting if they so chose). But an ordinary voter has no cause for complaint. Why? Because nothing happened that affected her/his choices in the upcoming election.
Sure, Paul Martin decided which candidate would have the abbreviation "Lib" after her name. But he didn't decide that either of the two "good local candidates" to whom the Guardian alludes *wouldn't* be allowed to run. Hell, if either got elected, he/she could probably sit as a member of the Liberal caucus, too, and show the same slavish devotion to Team Martin as would have been expected of her/him if he/she had been elected as the official Liberal candidate. Both have decided not to seek election, and to instead support the Martin choice. That is unfortunate, but any anger over that should be directed at the two non-candidates in question, not towards Paul Martin. Realistically, they probably decided not to run because they knew that no independent candidate would have a chance - an assessment in which they were undoubtedly correct, but blame for that certainly doesn't fall to Martin, being better directed towards Bramptonians themselves.
Yes, democracy in Canada is broken, but it's the *voters* - you and I, though I'd like it noted that I voted P.C. last time, making this pretty much all your fault - who haven't been taking good care of it, and who have been allowing parties to abuse it. And here's a prediction: most of the local Liberals upset about Martin parachuting Dr. Dhalla in will wind up voting for her anyway.
This is what democracy looks like. This is your government. You deserve it.
