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2004 Canadian General Election

Canadians are not dummies. Faced with serious decision-making in the federal General Election of 2004, held on Thursday June 28, they proved pollsters, spin doctors, and other assorted odd sods and bods wrong in their projections.

Asked to choose between two main parties, the incumbent, scandal tarnished Liberal Party, and the newly minted, western-led Conservative Party, they gave neither one their wholehearted endorsement. Wisely they put each on notice.

The overall result is a Liberal minority government, not dependent on support from a separatist Québec party.

For that fact alone, Canadians can congratulate themselves.

"If for no other reason than preventing a party dedicated to the break-up of Canada from holding the balance of power in the next Parliament of Canada with a minority government in office, we should all participate in voting on election day."
(Canadian Vindicator. June 2002.)

But, and it is a big but, we did not all vote. In fact voter turnout was low, very low, the lowest in well over a century. Reasons for this are plumbed below.

For all intents and purposes, the balance of power will now be held by the New Democratic Party, energized by a new leader, but holding within its ranks a group of experienced parliamentarians, at least one of whom, a Manitoban, held a seat when the last minority Government (the Progressive Conservatives led by the Right Hon. Joe Clark) was in power. The new NDP leader would be wise to heed his counsel.

It is worth noting that, although he is no longer an M.P., Mr. Clark made a remarkably weighty contribution during the June election, quoting the age-old dictum contrasting "the devil you know" with "the devil you don't know."

When the new Parliament is convened, Canadians hope Members will concentrate on making this minority government as productive as those in the Pearson and Trudeau eras.

Proportional representation and elected Senators are attainable through a functioning democratic House of Commons. There is work to be done. Let's see if there is leadership with the will to do it.

Perception and politics

Why was there such a low turnout in the 2004 General Election? Take your pick from the many theories advanced by academics, political scientists, elitist pundits and commentators who have pontificated on television, radio, in the press, and over the web ever since the results became known.

Missing from them all is something so obvious that it has been overlooked.

Canadians, not "average Canadians", not "ordinary Canadians", were turned off by overexposure to politicians.

For months the antics of politicians in the House of Commons prior to the dropping of the writ were nauseous. The televised Question Period degenerated into a cacophony of catcalls, feigned indignation, synchronized outbursts of applause and standing ovations on the slenderest of excuses, the whole portraying a juvenile disrespect for the dignity of Parliament. Self-control and official control sank to a new low.

That low was obvious to television viewers. They did not like what they saw. If this was all their Members of Parliament were capable of, if this was what politics and politicians were all about, they didn't want any part of it.

Worse was the picture presented by MPs taking part in the committee proceedings inquiring into the Auditor General's report dealing with payment of taxpayers' money to certain advertising and public relation firms.

There was the unedifying spectacle of MPs slouching in their chairs, lolling backwards as they questioned witnesses, and of aides and hangers-on talking into cell phones, laughing and conversing with each other, uncaring that their behaviour was being seen by viewers across the country.

No sense of occasion. No thought for appearances. Smirking. Snippety. Supercilious.

The contrast with televised committee hearings in the United States was stark.

No wonder voters were turned off.

If politicians want Canadians to take them seriously, they must take Canadians seriously.

They can start by showing some sense of decorum as they treat with the affairs of Canadians. Canadians and their Parliament deserve better.

Election epitaph

The following nursery rhyme may be apt in explaining why voters were wise in withholding their wholehearted support for any one leader or party:

If I do not trust thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not trust thee, Doctor Fell.

Mercifully, Canadians can now relax for the summer, freed from the importuning of politicians. Their recently elected Parliament will not be summoned to meet until September 20.

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