Steve and Jack's Wonderful Adventure

The federal election is driving me so crazy that I’m starting to hallucinate. This morning I was having my coffee when suddenly I had a vision of Stephen Harper and Jack Layton together in government. Harper got another minority and invited Jack and a couple of his pals into the cabinet to help the Conservatives stay in power. Imagine, Attila the Harper and Comrade Layton working together!

Crazily impossible, yes, but my hallucination led me to think about possible positives. If my hallucination became reality, these politicians would have to listen to what the other was saying, and adopt stances that were best for the people instead of themselves and their parties.

Stevie might uncoil a bit, Jackie might stop with the unrealistic promises. Stevie would adopt some NDP ideas that might help everyone (remember Tommy Douglas and Medicare?); Jackie would learn that governing is the art of excellent compromise.

Best of all we would see changes in the political party system, which former prominent politicians, interviewed by a company called Samara, say is ruining our system of government. Ideas from the left and ideas from the right coming together in the centre, which is where this country really wants to be.

The Samara report said the 65 former MPs interviewed felt that “it is often the way political parties manage themselves, their members and their work that really drives the contemporary dysfunction facing Canadian politics."

“Time after time the MPs articulated how decisions from their parties’ leadership were often viewed as opaque, arbitrary and even unprofessional, and how their parties’ demands often ran counter to the MPs’ desires to practice politics in a constructive way.” 

Scarey, eh?