Stephen Harper is one scary, scary dude. His continued presence in the prime minister’s chair threatens our very Canuck-ness.
We know this, because we’ve seen it several times in advertisements that have filled our flatscreens every evening since the election was triggered.
And don’t get us started on that Michael Ignatieff guy. Plenty of commercials have let us know the man is barely even Canadian. He’s going to sell us down the river for sure. Frightening. (For those not feeling the tone of the above, insert sarcasm emoticon here).
In reality, our prospective leaders are not quite as chilling as the lengths their parties will go to in their predictable bids to gain power by throwing heaping handfuls of mud at the other guy.
As usual, the federal election campaign is taking the low road, launching an offensive blitz aimed at exploiting the Canadian public’s emotional hot buttons and pandering to our lowest common denominators.
And that is why it was a pleasant change of pace to watch the five men chasing the provincial NDP leadership in action in Ladysmith Wednesday. Their lack of rancour was stunning.
This should not be construed as any indication the NDP hopefuls are different. We’ve seen Horgan and Dix carve up the Campbell Liberals before.
What it does indicate is civility and co-operation is possibile among even the most ambitious souls when those souls have similar goals.
We’d like to believe even Ignatieff and Harper (and Layton and Duceppe and May) share a goal of a strong and healthy Canada.
Next month, we could have yet another minority government.
Wouldn’t our country be better served by individuals who have shown the ability, or at least the desire, to get along?
Cowichan NewsLeader