President Bush gives his opinion on the Canadian Election. Thumbs up and the smile that drives the liberals over the edge.
Posted on 01/29/2006 8:31:48 AM PST by Clive
This past Monday, enough Canadians came together to reconfigure our political map.
The contours of the new one are still fluid, but in time, with another election, the emergent shapes might acquire stability.
For now, the election results reveal a divide in the new Canada, and also a new hope for healing the old wounds of national unity.
The country is somewhat divided along urban-rural (or urban-suburban) lines. Residents of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver held back from voting for Conservatives, but could not entirely deny the pressures for change building in the nation's heartland.
It is as if the "sophisticates" in the cities, ever suspicious of the country "hicks" (the elitists' label, not mine) remained dismissive of Conservatives.
The "sophisticates" worried about such issues as revisiting same-sex marriage, the Kyoto protocol on climate change and the undermining of Canada's "values" -- as shaped and protected by Liberals in Ottawa.
They worried less about the odour of Liberal corruption that made the political atmosphere unbearable, and they were more readily persuaded by fearmongering on the part of a government that had lost its moral compass.
But the "hicks," having toiled and fought for their country, and being less reliant on what passes for wisdom as noise made by the "sophisticates," went ahead to vote for change.
The hicks lanced the boil. It was painful, but healing.
And as the accumulated filth of our political system gets drained -- a necessary exercise that must be done with some regularity -- health will likely be restored by the vigour of a new party bearing fresh ideas and energy.
Elections in a democracy can be therapeutic. The benefits of the therapy administered by the "hicks" this week are palpable.
Western alienation, which threatened to become a more pronounced disorder in our politics, was decisively punctured.
Canada has a Conservative government and a prime minister-elect from Alberta. Success and failure will now rest with this government's performance and not on blaming Central Canadians or Maritimers if it stumbles.
Quebec alienation, deepened by resentment against Liberal orthodoxy on the nature of Canadian federalism, had led Quebecers to increasingly flirt with sovereignty. This cast a gloom across the country and bred cynicism and mistrust.
But then the "hicks" voted and made Conservatives a viable federalist alternative to the corrupt Liberals in Quebec. All of a sudden the sovereignty movement looks like the bluff it had always been, an option that fed on resentment and can be drained of its vitality by negotiating a kind of federalism more appealing to Quebecers and the rest of Canada.
Eventually, perhaps Albertans and sufficient numbers of Quebecers can devise -- over the heads of Toronto "sophisticates" -- a new and durable majority.
Such a political realignment could be the start of the long-awaited shift in Canadian politics towards the West -- the Pacific basin -- where clearly the power and influence in world economy will be located with the expected rise of China and India.
We have seen over the past quarter-century a similar movement in American politics, consistent with the evolving global economy moving from the Atlantic basin to the Pacific.
In time, we might look back at this election as a watershed moment in our country's history -- when the "hicks" proved to be wiser than their city cousins.
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But the Libs still claim that the majority of people agree with them on issues and the tide has turned in their favor. Just like it has every election cycle for the past 14 years.
good article."Hicks" aka "flyover country".Same situation here.The liberal elites,special interest groups,etc hold power in the large cities,but the majority of the pop live in rural or suburban areas.Mostly(i assume)working class folks who politically and socially tend to be moderate to conservative.Majority rules:)
President Bush gives his opinion on the Canadian Election. Thumbs up and the smile that drives the liberals over the edge.
I had to ponder whether this is an ad or a business headline. ;^)
Pretty good outcome on Monday, eh?
Harper is impressing my dipper bride - that's a good sign. I see strong analogues to the Diefenbaker wins of '57 and '58. First, as head of a minority government, he disempowered the corrupt Liberals. When that was seen to be decisively done, he challenged Canadians to give him a mandate to govern, which they did.
Too bad that the The Chief then blew it. Harper is smarter than that, I think.
You have to admit..Bush is not the most influential public speaker in the world.
"Why do Liberals believe that people who vote against them are uneducated hicks?"
Because we are not as 'tolerant' as they are.
It's a smokescreen. The Democratic Party claims to be the Party for the underdog yet there is a direct correlation of where the wealth in America and support for the Democratic Party exists. Liberals apply the derogatory term "hick" to the very people they used to crow about supporting. The Democratic Party has evolved into a party blinded by their own elitism. Hillary would be wise to avoid pursuing her plantation analogy too far.
Muleteam1
I do, here is the most influential speaker in the world.
LOL - I LOVE that picture of President Bush displaying the smile and thumbs up!! Twist Liberals twist.
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