brainylady

Well, what can I say?

I mean, you know what I'm thinking. I did indeed watch the election-results coverage at a campus bar with some lefty friends, and while the table of history students kept shouting "Four more years!" (what the hell?), we cheered every time the number of NDP seats went up. All in all, the results aren't as horrifying as they could have been. I'm pretty pleased with my home province of British Columbia for booting out five Conservative MPs and bringing in more NDPers. I'm not pleased about hearing over and over again how "westerners" are so happy to finally have a "westerner" at 24 Sussex Drive, as though "westerners" are some unified group, ignoring the fact that every single riding in Alberta is now represented by the Conservative Party while B.C. voted in ten -- count 'em, ten -- New Democrats (and that the difference between the two parties' share of the votes in B.C. was less than 10%). I worry that Stephen Harper will lay low over the next few years in order to seem moderate and win a majority in the next election, so that he can then start to dismantle everything that is good and progressive about this country. I like that Paul Martin's stepping-down speech seemed to get a lot more play in the news on election night and the next day than anything Stephen Harper said. I guess I'm choosing optimism. It will be OK-ish. (That's the best I can do. I wrote "OK," and then I realized that was too strong.) And just think of the political-humor possibilities to come! We have to laugh, right? (Stephen Harper, we're laughing at you, not with you.) A few weeks before the election, Rick Mercer blogged about the potential make-up of a Conservative cabinet, and it's only just begun.