An Interesting Four Years

Canada at another crossroad. The political scene has certainly undergone a massive shift. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will now be the relaxed, efficiently reliable administrator of the country's affairs that he is meant to be. He has four uninterrupted years to make his indelible mark on the governance of the country. Building upon the record he has thus far established for steady, reliable and honourable stewardship of Canadian values and traditions.

The initial getting-to-know-you period of minority governments appears to have satisfied the voters' uneasiness about a majority Conservative government. The Conservative-led government has acquitted itself exceedingly well on the home front and abroad. The naysayers keep referring to the 60% of the population that did not vote for the Conservatives, failing to note that a much greater proportion of the voting public opted not to vote for the opposition parties.

The public will now not be forced to live within the irritating suspense of never knowing when another election will be impulsively called by the grudging opposition seeking any opportunity to unseat the government. That represents a situation of greatly appreciated value. We can now permit the government to get on with the business of governing, as it has done up to now more than satisfactorily.

The Liberals have four years to lick their well-deserved, well-earned wounds. From which they will recover in too swiftly a time frame to ensure that they have indulged in a sufficiently-useful collective introspection. Without which it is doubtful they will ever be successful in finally overcoming the disconnect between it and the voting public. They must know that they require a leader with vision and integrity whose foremost interest is the well-being of Canada.

The Bloc Quebecois has finally been put to rest, and no one, certainly not the taxpayers of Canada who have been universally repulsed by its purpose and its spirit of grand entitlement, will miss them. Quebec voters can take the opportunity to self-analyse their collective hysteria in denying themselves representation where it counts; with the Conservatives, in favour of embracing the NDP.

The NDP and its leader, Jack Layton, should itself engage in some deep thought about what, in a free-wheeling spirit of accommodation, was promised recklessly to the Quebec electorate. Just as they should consider the quality of human material they are bringing into the House of Commons to sit as Parliamentarians. That someone of the calibre of Lawrence Cannon was unseated by an unknown neophyte should strike even them as absurd.

As the official opposition in Parliament the NDP has an obligation to the entire country, not merely to the cranky entitlement of one province which went voter-berserk to the point of electing anyone presenting in orange, regardless of residence, experience, age, commitment, communication capability, and intent. Munificent salary, prestige and perquisites aside.

That party too has been given four years to display their talent or lack of it as political professionals capable of tackling the tasks at hand. The initial round-up and details emanating from the campaign trail are not too encouraging.

Veteran Quebec NDPer Thomas Mulcair seems to have gone off the rails in mindless speculation resembling the stuff of conspiracies. There are questions regarding the legitimacy of candidate nomination, and the raw material that the NDP will be training as politicians may do them no favours.

What is emerging will represent, without doubt, an interesting four years.