What You're Doing Is Boring ... Now Keep Doing It

Canadians prefer months of uninspiring political drudgery to another uninspiring election.

It’s no wonder that a new poll shows Canadians would prefer the current Conservative minority government to a Liberal-NDP coalition, writes Sun Media’s Peter Worthington, because “Canadians are realistic enough to know they’d be nuts to vote him out of office when his present government has a handle on things.” The prime minister has successfully guided Canada through tough economic times, says Worthington, and as such an election anytime soon is unnecessary. That’s a fair point, but The Mark Newsroom takes issue with Worthington’s statement that recently released “Tory attack ads … seem to focus more on Jack Layton and the NDP than on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.” What is he talking about? Four of the five ads have “Ignatieff” in the title! Someone teach this man how to use Youtube.

The Montreal Gazette’s editorial board says Canadians are right not to want to go to the polls anytime soon. “There is no contentious issue of such import that it begs to be settled by an election,” says the Gazette, noting that corporate tax cuts, the wedge issue du jour, has been on the Conservatives’ agenda for the past three years and was approved by Canadians at the last election. Furthermore, polls show that an election would likely result in roughly the same results as the last one, so the Gazette suggests that with politicians should stop sabre-rattling, “get down to [work] and keep at it for a good while yet.”

The National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin says that an election would be worth it, both for Harper and for the country, if the Conservatives could win a majority, but if not it’s not worth the $300-million expense. As no party appears to be gaining momentum, voters can expect “another election-free season of bluffing and blustering.” Sounds fun.

We in the Newsroom can think of one valid reason to call an election: it would likely result in the replacement of the losing parties' leaders, and if the Conservatives fail to win a majority, Harper himself. Canadian politics has stagnated miserably, and it would be nice if we had leaders capable of presenting ideas the majority of the country could get behind.