the audacity of individuality

Are you sick of politics yet? If you are located anywhere in North America I am sure you are, but I believe Canadians suffer the most from the onslaught of political hype. This election season was saturated with not only our own election, but the two-year process of American candidate selecting and eventually the Presidential race.

Without commenting too much on partisanship, I just want to make some casual observations.

2008 seems like the year that Canadians took voter apathy to a whole new level. Only 59.1% of Canadians bothered to vote. Frankly, it is sort of disgusting, but when the party who took the election uses juvenile advertising tactics (a puffin pooping on the shoulder of the opposition leader?), what can really be said about the state of Canadian politics? The general consensus appears to be that "my vote doesn't matter" actually holds more weight in our first-past-the-post electoral system than in others. This has, I believe, become even more apparent since the unification of right of center parties on the federal level: there is now one true conservative party (Conservative) with one "moderate" (Liberal) and three left of center parties (NDP, Green, Bloc Quebecois). There is less talk among the general public about the actual platforms and more talk about whether you are an ABC (anybody but conservative) strategic voter or a "principles" voter. So Canadian politics stick to the status quo, in more ways than one, making it drab and dreary like a typical October day throughout our nation.

And then there is our southern neighbours. Watching American politics, for a Canadian, can at time be sickening and yet addictive (I once heard that the Japanese were so fascinated with the American electoral system that they made a game about it, sold only in Japan). This election was certainly unique. During the cadidate campaigns, both Obama and McCain were presenting themselves differently than those in past candidate races. Normally, candidates attempt to secure their base, towards the fringe and then target the middle during the general election. 2008 was the opposite. Obama and McCain started from a moderate stance a progressive worked their way leftward or rightward, respectively. Obama became more open about government-funded healthcare and social services, while McCain appointed Governor Palin as a running mate (another story in itself). But the biggest difference in this campaign was the message of hope and a different way of politics. This was presented by both parties at the start of the campaign, and it wasn't until the Republican Convention that it appeared McCain lost complete control of his campaign. You can keep saying its a Maverick, but you gotta back it up and recruiting a pretty-faced version of George Bush isn't the way to do it.

A quick note about Palin. She was put on the ticket for several obvious reasons, but I believe a big part of it was the perception that she could get the evangelical voting bloc out to the polls - something the McCain crew couldn't do with his voting record (many right-wing evangelicals hung up their hats when Huckabee dropped out the race). The problem is, for one, evangelicals are not a uniform bloc, nor do they want to consistently be perceived as redneck Americana. While the obvious choice was someone like Huckabee, having a McCain-Huckabee ticket with those two stuffy men wouldn't look too good against Obama, no matter who he selected (especially if it had been Clinton).

Anyway, feel free to give me your thoughts on the last couple months (or years) of the political season - if you can stand it any longer (I just wonder who here is actually going to go bother to vote in our upcoming municipal elections).

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.