Anti-Abortion Funnies

Here's a lighter story to ever-so-slightly contrast the rampaging reduction in Woman's Reproductive Rights that's underway in the United States:

Here in Calgary the Kensington Clinic is beside a playground. That and assorted ordinances means that protesters must stay a certain distance away from the premises and they can't have more then four people protesting at one time. IANAL, so take my description of the legal rules with a grain of salt.

Anyway, there's a nation-wide anti-abortion protest going on right now (coinciding with Lent I think - and isn't sacrificing other people's rights for Lent kind of missing the point) so they've had protesters out in force. Seven protesters (four adults, three children) were out, which violates the rules.

So the clinic manager goes out to tell them to knock it off. The lead protester objects, saying "the children don't count, they're not people".



Anyway, just a story I heard third-hand that made me chuckle.

And So Begins the 41st Canadian Federal Election

The government has been defeated via a Contempt of Parliament vote. That's a first. So begins election season.

I have a coworker that teases me occasionally about how I think the Conservative party has a "hidden agenda". I usually respond by saying it's not that hidden. Have they enacted a lot of what I think they'd like? No, but that's the beauty of minority governments - it forces the leading party to actually listen to the other parties. It's a softening effect that had the downside of preventing wholesale changes in government from occurring while having the simultaneous upside of preventing wholesale changes in government from occurring.

For the record, I think the Conservative's agenda is pretty clear: They want Canada to be less socialist, more pro-business and more aligned with the United States than the rest of the world. In general this would mean things like:

• Farming those government services capable of making a profit out to corporations.
  
• Eliminating government services that can't make a profit.
  
• Lessening government oversight on business and deregulating anything that stands in the way of profits.
  
• Starve the CBC, StatCan, the arts, woman's advocacy and environmental protection of funding.

Will they campaign on this? Of course not, it just wouldn't fly (except in Alberta, where they're going to have landslide victories anyway even if they don't campaign here at all). But even a cursory glance at the leaders of the Conservative party make it clear that's the way they want to go. Too many members of the so-called Calgary School or the Frasier Institute. In short, the party is made up of Libertarians, Social Reactionaries and political opportunists. The American Republican party with most (but not all) of the Evangelical Dominionists removed.

Thankfully we haven't had to put up with much of this nonsense over the last five years because anything really bad would have triggered an election. If they did have a majority we'd be royally screwed right now because the economic crisis that clobbered the United States (and a bunch of other countries) would have hit us. Two generations of the sort of policies the Conservatives favour have pushed the United States to the brink of an economic collapse. Do we really want that for Canada?

The Liberal party were no saints, but I'm very thankful that Jean Chretien said no to joining the Americans in invading Iraq. I'm equally thankful that Paul Martin said no to the big Canadian banks when they asked to do all the things the US banks did. We weren't immune to the Great Recession, but it sure was a lot less dire here. Liberal polices (and the inability of the Conservative minority to rapidly change them) did that.

I guess what I'm saying is that Canada is a pretty nice place to live. I think it's better than the United States, so I'm not willing to vote for a party that wants to send us the wrong way. I'd rather vote for a party that says "Yeah, we're pretty cool, but how can we make things even better for all Canadians?". Sadly, there's a distinct lack of vision out of the Liberal party right now. Mostly there's a lot of "We're not the Conservatives", which is certainly a good thing, but not something that's going to get people fired up to go the polls.

The New Democrats are better (for the record I'm about midway between the Liberals and the New Democrats on the political spectrum), but are hampered by the fact that we're so close to the US that too many people think socialism is a dirty word.

Chances are the Bloc Québécois aren't going to be running any candidates in Calgary—Nose Hill. They'll probably take about 2/3 of the Quebec seats, which is about what they always take.

The Greens might get a seat or two, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that.

There are three likely outcomes. First, aside from shuffling around some MPs, we'll get another Conservative minority. That will suck.

Next most likely is a slight Conservative majority. This will suck worse, but has the advantage that an undiluted CPC will alienate a lot of people. I think it's the quickest way to a Liberal majority in 2016. Hopefully they won't do too much damage in the meantime.

Finally, a slight Liberal Majority. This is the least likely but is still within the realm of possibility. All it really requires is for the CPC wingnut brigade (Rob Anders, I'm looking at you) to open their big mouth in front of a camera. Conversely, they were very well muzzled last time - maybe Harper can do it again.

In both "slight majority" cases, the winning party had better have a whip that knows how to count. All it would take is one bad flu season to trigger an election.

What I'd like to see is a Liberal/New Democrat coalition. I think Ignatieff would make a good, run-of-the-mill Prime Minister. Jack Layton would be an epic Finance Minister though. Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Bay Street if that were to happen?