Aftermath of the 40th Canadian Federal Election

Jonathan Kay has the most brilliant take of all, asking why the 4 left of centre parties refuse to bond together for a common purpose. Here are the killer parts of his piece:

With a few notable exceptions, Stephen Harper’s opponents agree on just about everything. The NDP, the Bloc Québécois and the Liberals (in their leftist Dionista variant, at least) are all pro-Kyoto, down-the-line socially liberal, anti-American, weak on crime, culturally nationalistic, and fiscally redistributionist.

There are differences, too, of course. The Bloc wants to break up the country. The Liberals want to impose a carbon tax, while the NDP would achieve the same customer-soaking effect though carbon cap-and-trade. Dippers are explicitly anti-corporate in their tax platform, while Liberals at least talk the language of the free market (except when it comes to oil companies). But putting aside the Bloc’s separatist pipe dream, the vision all these parties have -- and which they could be expected to act upon as part of a coalition -- is more or less the same: a left-wing, hyper-environmentalist, multilateral, culture-subsidizing, prisoner-coddling, Ameriphobic welfare state.

Scary stuff. And here’s the scariest part: About two-thirds of Canadians voted for this vision on Tuesday.

David Frum and Mark Steyn also offer their thoughts. As does the National Post, in this editorial.



If you want to see some real sour grapes, visiting the comments section of this CBC story.