Our next election was meant to be in the Fall of 2023. In 2007 Stephen Harper legislated the fixed-election day, ostensibly to prevent “snap elections for political gain”. Fixed-day elections protect the PM against the ire of Parliament but do not protect the Parliament against the the whims of the PM. At any time, the PM may kill the Peoples’ Parliament at will. And that is what Trudeau just did purely “for political gain”.
Trudeau uttered the usual platitudes about having experienced a revelation that Canada needs to renew the 2019 election, the new mandate to be given through a snap election, in mid-term, in the midst of the Pandemic. He will use the new mandate to lance St. George style the perilous dragon he senses approaching so as to save us and Canada. However, this is incredulous, which leaves it to us to unearth the motives that drove Trudeau to dissolve the Parliament and throw the nation into the election whirlpool. Guessing is easy for omens abound.
The overall cause of the election is that Trudeau’s herd of MPs was of an insufficient headcount to subjugate the MPs of the other Parties combined, thereby denying Trudeau a stranglehold on the Peoples’ Parliament. This situation, misnamed a “minority government”, relaxes the PM’s grip on the Parliament, compelling the PM to moderate his conduct and refrain from excesses. This Trudeau found discomforting and sought to alleviate it by staging an election.
The war on the Pandemic had necessitated loads of money dumped madly in all directions, the money appreciated by a populace in dire straights due to the Pandemic. But, as is usual in crisis situations, people have neither the predisposition to question the windfall nor the information to assess the handling of the emergency by the Government. This was the case at least until the exceptionally obscene WE Charity event that caused the sacrifice of Trudeau’s Minister of Finance to pave the way for the Governments’ own Ethics Absolution Apparatus to launder the PM. This fierce watchdog in 2018 fined Trudeau $100 – Yes Sir ...
The Parliament Trudeau dissolved had given no cause to be dismissed. Sure it was failing in its role to ensure the society was governed democratically, but so it has been with all previous parliaments. Yet, the PM was feeling constrained and yearning for the uninhibited power he feels entitled to. Additionally, he was fearing for his job and wanted the security he would have if “his” MPs were overwhelming the MPs of the other Parties.
After seeing several Premiers being comforted by doing snap Pandemic elections, Trudeau began salivating and eventually unabashedly followed in their footsteps to seek comfort for himself. He had the Electoral Officer declare that he could do a Covid19-free election, even for non-vaxxed voters, and Trudeau called the election.
The direct cost of the election is estimated at $610M. Since it is one half of an electoral period that Trudeau wastes, the cost of his frolic to the public purse is $305M. But that is not all. We know of the $500 bribe to pensioners, of the “Apologies-spitting out” work, and other “voter bribing” Trudeau has already done. Then there is the cost of the goodies the “leaders” promise conditional to us voting for them. Ditto too for the large sums the parties spent to fight each other, and so on. Surely these enormous election costs could be better spend on Canadians suffering the Pandemic.
What would this heap of Money buy? Trudeau is gambling public money, our money, to enhance his facility for political arrogance and to buy himself a couple of extra years of job security, in that $365,000 pa post plus the rich “extras”. The benefit/cost ratio to society is abysmally small, or rather, hugely negative. This election is an enormously ugly abuse of power.
In anticipation of the September 9 “Leaders Debate” the CBC issued a call for public input to the formulation of the questions the media should pose to the leaders. The invitation lists 12 issues ranging from “Affordable Housing to Veteran Affairs”. A 13 item in the list is billed “Other” and left for contributors to identify. They stipulate two choices per person, but the curious chap I am I suggest three, all in the “Other” category, to wit:
Please, Great Dear Leaders, tell us your:
#13 IQ (Intelligence Quotient );
#14 EQ (Ethics Quotient) ; and
#15 Publish your Curriculum Vitae (please highlight items that qualify you to run Canada and lead the 40M of us into the future).
Hopefully, these fundamental questions will migrate to “local candidate debates” of this and to future elections and result in something for us for enduring this election.