So yeah, I’m here to rant about what I think about the election… The Canadian one, not the American one, although I’ve got opinions on that too… I just watched the English debate last night. I missed the French one… oh well… So I’m going to rant about the each leader and what I think of how they did and stuff.

Stephane Dion – I figured this was as good a place as any to start. This guy’s an idiot, plain and simple. The biggest obvious reason is the Green Shift idea, which would be the ruin of our country without a doubt. I’m glad he’s trailing in the polls, so other people can obviously see it too. The idea is to drop taxes on things like income, and tax pollution instead. Okay… So what does this mean? It can only mean two things. Either companies keep polluting and we lose whatever measly tax savings we get on new taxes that end up costing more than the savings add up to, or companies cut pollution to avoid the carbon tax, leaving the government with insufficient funds for a budget, creating a nasty deficit. Lovely. That’s about all I could understand from him anyway, that and randomly calling Stephen Harper a liar whenever he felt the need. Moving on…

Elizabeth May – Why was she even here? Public outcry? Give me a break. Take everything I said about Dion, minus the French accent, add a few snappy comments here and there, and there you’ve got it. She also seemed to want Canada to become Sweden for some reason. Remind me why she was there again? Oh well…

GIlles Duceppe – He really didn’t do much. His entire goal seemed to be to catch Stephen Harper in a lie and yell “Gotcha!”, although he didn’t do a very good job of it. He seemed pretty proud of himself though, especially when he pretty much told everyone but Harper that they were going to lose anyway. I’m not sure why he did that, but it was funny.

Jack Layton – He’s got charisma, I’ll give him that, but he totally has the wrong ideas on everything. He also loves to spin things way out of context when attacking Stephen Harper to further his own agenda. He’s very sneaky and you need to listen to exactly what he’s saying before you get fooled. Here are a few examples. He was really attacking the “$50 billion big business tax cut” in the Conservatives’ budget. He was very sly in not acknowledging that this was only a fraction of the tax cuts put forth, cuts that benefit everybody in the end, not just “big businesses”. In fact, Jack Layton would do nothing but raise taxes back to what they were before Harper became prime minister. Does anyone really want that? Deep down, do you really think that Jack Layton can manage your own money better than you can? Where does he want to put it? Lower income jobs that are on the way out anyway, no matter what anybody does about it? Yeah, it’s not fun for people in that position, but it’s life, and they’ll find something else. Oh wait, I might sound like an uncaring person if I say that. I also Jack Layton also has an uncanny resemblence to that Video Professor guy who sells CDs explaining to people how to use Windows ME. Oh well.

Stephen Harper – By now I’m sure you can tell who my favorite in this race is. Harper did a great job of fending off attacks from all angles. He was able to counter pretty much every point that was thrown up at him without faltering, and when you’re being attacked 4-on-1, that’s not always an easy thing to do. Saying he has George Bush policies just showed how low the other parties were willing to go, as Bush and Harper’s economic policies really can’t be compared by any reasonable individual. There’s just too much difference between American and Canadian systems of government to even bother going there. The only possible reason to do this is to make a cheap shot because Bush is on his way out and low in opinion polls. I was really impressed with what he said in response to Dion and especially Layton’s attacks on him. He came off as very professional, and the only person able to actually take on the job as prime minister sitting at that table.

In the end, I don’t think that the debate is going to change many minds. Most people either like Harper or they don’t. Best case scenario is that the NDP and Greens take just enough votes away from the Liberals to split the left and give the Conservatives a majority. Considering how incompetent Dion looks, it’s a pretty likely scenario. That’s what I’m keeping my fingers crossed for anyway. Oh yeah.

Tags: Canada, politics, rant

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