Canadian Political Humour

Only in Canada would a federal political party have this sense of irony ... although the "official" declaration is not expected to be official for a few more days, it is pretty well pegged that Canadians will be going to the polls on October 14, 2008.

Yep, that's this October 14th. The minimum length of a federal election campaign is 36 days. Only in Canada, you say?

The reason I find this so ironic, you see, is that after listening to what has felt like a year long American election campaign, we in the Great White Up will commence our campaign some 10 months later than the Americans began their fun and games and still manage to complete it over three full weeks sooner than them. Although I must admit that short and sweet is more the way I prefer my elections ... I don't think I could handle in being invested in what feels like a year long campaign, the way many Americans seem to have been.

And I must confess that I am a little concerned that this just might give some Americans a complex, thinking particularly of those who have already noted that Canada Day comes before July 1st and how we celebrate our Thanksgiving before the Americans celebrate theirs. It's not easy playing 'mini-me', trust me.

Oh yeah, the other little piece of irony not to be lost in this story is this - in calling this election, Prime Minister Harper is actually ignoring his own "fixed election date" legislation. Legislation passed by his government shortly after taking power, touted as a necessary democratic reform in order to " ... stop leaders from trying to manipulate the calendar simply for partisan political advantage". Right. Got that. So pleased to see that there's none of that going on here.

Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on Harper. After all, the poor man does fees that he is in an ungovernable minority government situation. This despite the fact that the last session of Parliament was said to be "one of historic stability for a minority government that saw its legislation sail smoothly to passage."

Call me silly but I tend to see it this way ... We pay you (well) to do a job. The rest of us have to work so what makes you guys so special? Just sit down, be quiet and get to work, will you?