Here's Canadian Politics right now:
Harper (for non-Canadians, he's the Prime Minister & head-honcho, leader of the right-wing Conservatives, and according to my tags he eats babies) says he's going to take the budget of the opposition parties.
Everybody agrees: ( Dick Move )

There's a lot of fail on all sides, people crying "Why can't you all just get allllonnnng?", and a great deal of mudslinging and cries of being "Undemocratic", and lots of panic and amusing headlines.

From an article I pulled out of BBC History ("The Playboy and the General"): When [Chang Hsueh-Liang (leader of Manchuria in the late 1920s)] found two of his generals plotting with the Japanese, he invited them to play Mah-jong and gunned them down over the tiles. This won him massive popularity. Chang Hsueh-Liang is apparently a badass.

Now that I'm on the subject of history, clearly Harper doesn't study it. Or else he'd know that taking laissez-faire view of a financial crisis didn't win William Lyon Mackenzie King the election in the thirties. And considering how much they liked him, people liked WLMK a lot better (although admittedly the situation was a lot worse, with the whole Depression thing).

So I was reading this article (an editorial, btw) in the newspaper today (which I've taken to actually reading past the front page and entertainment section for want of a better world view) which raised some good points about Harper and Dion.

Interesting enough, if there's anything the recent debates have given me is a more appreciative view of Dion. Which is odd, since I never trust or like politicians more than I can throw them. But I certainly trust Dion a lot more than I trust Harper.

I'm slightly frustrated because I want my vote to matter, but I'm in a riding where the Conservative candidate is just not going to win. So right now I'm kinda torn between the Green and Liberal parties. So I think I might just decide based on the individual candidates.

And I'm a little amazed at the amount I'm paying attention to politics this election. Probably because this time I'm actually able to vote.

I've been making an effort at being more world-savvy, reading more of the newspaper each morning and finding out what's going on, not only in Canada but everywhere else in the world (though I don't have to make much effort to know what's going on in the States :/ ).

So I have this to say.

We can't give Harper a majority government.

I know Dion's boring, but I'd rather have an indecisive leader who can be influenced by parliament than a leader who wants to make the country into an image that he likes, and screw everybody else.

Harper's trying to emulate the States, meanwhile, the States wants a change. We're a liberal country, peoples. I don't know who I want to be in charge of the government, I just don't want Harper. (This has in fact been my Dad's view of voting for years: Vote for the Liberals so the Conservatives don't win.)

But I get the distinct feeling that unless Harper messes up big-time, we won't be able to get rid of him. And I fear that if he gets behind the reins again, he'll slowly make us go backward.
I don't know who I want to vote for (now that I can), but I do know who I don't want to vote for. But that's part of the problem.

Hey Val, you've got a famous counterpart who also eats babies, apparently.

Who?

Our own "beloved" Prime Minister.

Harper Eats Babies