Happy New Year everybody!!
So another year has gone by and I decided to review some of the politics we saw in Canada in the last year or so.
Most overrated politician: It's a tie. Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff.
Stephen Harper because he has bookended the year with two prorogations of Parliament for the only purpose of escaping two self-inflicted political traps. Anybody who really believes this will not come back to haunt him and the Conservatives sometime in the future is dreaming. Both traps could have been avoided if Mr. Harper would have been more strategic and less ideological. I still cannot believe people in this country think this guy is a political genius.
Michael Ignatieff because he has not been the saviour for the Liberal Party his supporters believed him to be. Under his leadership the Party's standing with the public is no different than it was in 2008. As well, he has been utterly incapable of taking advantage of Mr. Harper's many political mistakes in 2009. By God, Mr. Harper just Prorogued Parliament for the second time in just over a year, for extreme partisan purposes, and where is Mr. Ignatieff and the Liberals? They should be shouting about Mr. Harper's attacks on Canadian democracy from the roof tops but instead the silence is deafening.
Most underrated politician Stephane Dion.
His reaction to the November 2008 economic statement and the actions that grew out of it knocked the Conservatives on their collective butts, a position they did not recover from until September of 2009.
Smartest political move The Sudbury Declaration by Mr. Ignatieff. That declaration caused panic in both the Conservative and NDP camps. It forced the Conservatives to definitively state that they did not want an election just when they were ramping up the government funded advertizing for their Action Plan to increase their polling numbers. Now the advertizing is done and the Conservative polling numbers are slowly but surely sinking again.
Dumbest political move Letting the Afghan detainee issue morph from being about torture to being about the credibility of the Conservatives. The Conservatives forgot an axiom in politics; it is not the crime that will get you it is the coverup. This issue is going to haunt them for awhile.
Most overrated political move Stephen Harper channeling the Beatles at the NAC. The reaction of the chattering classes to it demonstrates just how stupid Canadian politics have become.
Most underrated political move Michael Ignatieff's non-confidence speech in September. That speech set out an election theme, something that has been missing from the Liberals for over a decade. It gave me hope that Mr. Ignatieff would be different but so far I have not seen any follow through on that speech so maybe I am mistaken.
Most unreasonable expectations The idea the Olympics will give the Conservatives a boost. They will be forgotten long before any Canadian marks their X on a ballot and any attempt by the Conservatives to somehow take credit for the efforts of our athletes will be greeted with contempt and scorn.
Least unreasonable expectations A spring election, although I believe it will be closer to the end of May beginning of June than mid-April.
Sleeper issue to watch for in 2010 The deterioration of the economy this year as the stimulus spending of Fiscal Year 2009/10 stops in the new FY and all of the unrepaired structural problems that lead to the last recession, but were masked by the trillions of dollars in stimulus spending around the world, reassert themselves.
There you have. Just one man's opinion of the year just past.
