2006 Election and the Environment

According to the pollster hordes, the Conservatives will take this election. If so, they will have won based on the fact that they're not as corrupt as the other guys and not as left-leaning as the NDP. That GST tax cut looks pretty good too, as do all the other spending promises that have been thrown about.

In fact, this election has really been about seeing what each party is willing to promise to buy voties. We've been told for the last ten years that sacrifices were needed to deal with the debt, to get the country on track. Healthcare sacrifices. Taxes. It would be more expensive for a lot of us, but in the end things would be better. We bought the story, made some sacrifices, and watched healthcare and social programs suffer as a result. Now, every party is out there promising anything they can to get us to vote for them and screw the cost. I'm not just disillusioned. I'm fucking angry.

It's not just the fact that all these promises simply throw back in our faces the sacrifices that were made in the past. After all, anyone with a brain cell realizes that there's a very real risk of spending our way back into the same problems we started with, all for the benifit of a self-serving party to get in power. What really pisses me off is the fact that people are buying this shit. The Conservatives are winning votes at least partially because of GST reductions and a nice cheque they'll give to help out with that child care business (God forbid we actually create a social program to deal with the problem). The Liberals are trying their best to keep up with the spending promises. Is that really all they have to offer? And is the populace really so stupid to forget that this is their tax money that is being spent? Oh yes, that's right ... it grows off the govenment's special money tree. How could I forget?

In case you're interested in keeping tally of the promises and spending, take a look at this analysis: http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/realitycheck/spendingtallies.html The numbers are significantly different from advertised.

If it was just fiscal imbalances that are at stake, I might not get my knickers in a knot. Its the selfishness and greed that really bothers me. So we've decided to place our vote based upon how much money we save or recieve in the next few years? Oh yes, that's a fantastic idea. After all, Canada is such a poor nation with a populace greatly in need of economic relief. Forget the slums of Calcutta or the AIDS crisis in Africa. We need help in Toronto and Vancouver to just get by. That mocha cappuccino every morning adds up.

What about debt relief for developing nations? What about doing something about CO2 emissions -- widely held amongst the scientific community to be the greatest crisis facing the world today. Hmph. What do scientists know? We need a reduction on the GST so I can buy my new XBox.

If we're that stupid, we deserve what's coming to us. The fellow borrowing the brain cell from the collective intellect will return it evenually ... but I fear it will be too late to do much more than regret.

In case you actually care about the policies of the various parties out there, take a look at the following links:
http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2006/static/issues/environment.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/leadersparties/issues.html

Or you could always just close your eyes and point like the rest of us lemmings racing for the cliff.