Pondering The Imponderables

 

H/t Greg Perry

I am one of those people capable of holding two opposing notions in my head. I think the federal election is an unnecessary expense and risk during this pandemic, and blame Trudeau for it. I also, however, sympathize with his having to contend with the rabble intent on following him around to disrupt his campaign and threaten him.

In this post I shall only deal with the first notion.

My immediate thought when the election was called was that Trudeau would be facing a cranky electorate, and the polls are bearing that out. Although I probably follow politics more than the average person, I'm sure I'm not alone in seeing this early election as a reassertion of traditional Liberal arrogance. As Canada's 'natural governing party', it was time to right the wrong of 2019 by returning with a majority government was the likely thinking.

My objections to this mentality are many, but here are just two:

That Trudeau would call an election in the midst of a fourth Covid wave suggests prioritizing political power over people's health and lives, surely a perception that undermines his claim that he "has our backs."

All of the spending and new-program announcements preceding the election call were pretty transparent attempts at manipulating the electorate. That we as citizens are reduced to an impersonal group to be messaged and massaged offends me deeply. To be so deeply disrespected is not consistent with a healthy democracy.

What do others think? Rosie DiManno offers some observations:

… there was nothing of urgency on the Liberal agenda they couldn’t have achieved anyway with the support of the NDP in a minority government... we are in the midst of a pandemic fourth wave that is expected to worsen when students go back to school next week. 

There was only a craven grasp for power, majority muscle, mounted on a global plague that the Liberals clearly expected to exploit on their vaccine distribution record, benevolent billions dispersed to those who lost their jobs, their businesses, and Trudeau’s bracing steadiness at the helm. 

Perhaps Trudeau's greatest liability, according to DiManno,  is the same perceived by many.

… I don’t need pollsters to tell me that Trudeau hasn’t made a cogent case for himself and his party’s apparent God-given right to govern with majority chops. 

It didn't have to be this way. Had he not dissolved Parliament, Trudeau could have continued with his agenda, supported by willing opposition members.  And if he had fallen on a non-confidence motion? Then an election would have ensued, of course, but the miasma of negativity and cynicism permeating today's march to the ballot box would likely have been minimized.

September 20 is barely three weeks away. The die has been cast, and we await the results.