NOW Toronto: Quebec tried, but the rest of Canada couldn’t pull it out of the hat.

[marmar]

NDP win is no consolation
Citizens kicked up a storm of change but couldn’t stop Harper without help from the leaders

By Alice Klein


Quebec tried, but the rest of Canada couldn’t pull it out of the hat.

As delighted as many of us are to be sending a historic number of NDPers to Ottawa, the fact is that this election was largely a referendum on Stephen Harper’s rights-defying prison-and-punishment agenda, and he won. The Official Opposition will exercise precious little real power.

Of course, many of us disagree strongly with right-wing Tea Party politics. But resistance to the Conservatives went much deeper. Harper took so many liberties with the basic tenets of democracy and respect for Parliament that even the country’s leading constitutional expert became an advocate of strategic voting (and projectdemocracy.ca) to defeat him.

“This is the most important federal election in my lifetime,” said Peter Russell in a statement endorsing the site. “What is at stake is nothing less than parliamentary democracy.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=180564