The Morning After

I have to admit I only watched brief snippets of the debate last night. I found the whole thing rather unsettling. What I saw reminded me of how bad the Tories are and how Steve “just doesn’t get it”. I think that he is either a sociopath without any feelings or so hardened by his early life that he can’t bear to deal with any emotions, not sadness or regret certainly, but also a complete lack of joy. He looked like a pasty-faced student who had been sent to the front of the class to read his report and was told to ignore any questions or “bickering” and not to look anybody but the teacher in the eye. I don’t feel sorry for him, he has no problems lying with a straight face, but I had a few moments of despair when I thought about him possibly winning a majority.

I liked Jack Layton and his debating style. He was fun to watch and he had some great one-liners. He put forward many of the questions that I would have liked to ask Steve myself. Michael Ignatieff was better than I thought but he was nervous and still lacks the common touch. Gilles Duceppe was the most pointed questioner but is not a factor in English Canada and was and looked irrelevant most of the time. He will get his turn tonite during the French debate.

But what bothered me most about the debate were two things.

First of all that Elizabeth May was not on the podium. The four white middle-aged men missed not only May’s wit and her ability to bring something new to the table, but the lack of a woman in the debate hurt all of us, men and women. The puffed up egos and testosterone was more than a little off-putting and to not have at least one representative of half of the population at the table is a disgrace. I blame the other political parties for keeping Elizabeth May out of the debate for their own self-serving interests. A party that got nearly a million votes in the last election has earned their place at the microphone and people can hide behind the “broadcasting consortium” all they want. It was a mistake and we must make sure that never happens again, to any political party or leader.

Secondly that the media, starting with the CBC panel last night, are congratulating Steve for his calm under attack and that he won the debate by not losing it. It raises an important question for all fair-minded Canadians to consider. Why are so very few in the national media afraid to challenge him on his contempt for democracy, his dismissal of a legitimate, legal, and constitutional measure like a coalition, or the mounting scandals that are enveloping his Government? Maybe they are afraid that they won’t get one of the four questions that he allows daily. Whatever the reason they are starting to become, if they haven’t already, complicit in Harper’s dumbing down and eventual destruction of our democracy.

There is still time to do to prevent Steve and his gang from completely taking over Canada. The debate just reminded me of how much work we have to do.