The Canadian federal campaign is full of so many follies among all parties that, ad seriatum, the advantage keeps changing. If you are following the U.S. campaign (as even the Canadians are doing) there is a kind of morbidly fascinating similarity in that respect. For political junkies I recommend a two-campaigns-at-once examination.
A couple of nights ago Prime Minister Stephen Harper--the "cool hand at the tiller," as he describes himself--was asked by Peter Mansbridge of the CBC what advice he would give Canadians disturbed about the stock market collapse. He smiled wryly and suggested that now was a good buying opportunity. Chuckle, chuckle.
The other party leaders immediately jumped on the gaffe. (What happened to, "When there is a panic, don't be the one to be panicked."?) No wonder the Conservatives have started descending in the polls. Their policies may be sound, but they seem to lack empathy for an electorate shivering in fear.
But the very next day, Liberal leader Stephane Dion was interviewed by the same Peters Mansbridge and asked if, in light of the economic times, he would delay the Liberal plan to impose a carbon tax as part of the party's response to global warming. Not at all! Dion was so excited that at certain points he lapsed into French, assuring Mansbridge that the proposed new tax was merely part of a green transformation of the Canadian economy that would wind up creating more jobs and opportunities. Unhappily for the peppy Mr. Dion, his party's other top leader, Michael Ignatieff, was saying in an interview that it would be wise to hold up for a while on a carbon tax right now.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081009.welxndion1009/BNStory/Front
Then there is the Green Party candidate, Elizabeth May, who practically sabotaged her own party's candidates yesterday by urging "strategic voting" to defeat Harper. So far as I can tell, that means that one only votes Green if there is no chance of the Liberal candidate in your riding (district) getting elected. To put it still another way, you only vote Green if you wish to waste your vote! At best, this uncertain trumpet seems likely to confuse the Green electorate (not to mention the Green Party candidates!) and was opposed at once by David Chernushenko, the candidate who lost out to May in the most recent Green Party leadership contest.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081009.wmaycomments1009/BNStory/politics/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
As one result of the Liberal and Green presentations, Conservative prospects may be brightening again. Tomorrow's Globe and Mail, the normally liberal-leaning national paper, is endorsing Harper. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081009.weelection2008/BNStory/politics/home?cid=al_gam_mostview
On the other hand, maybe the Dion-May entente will work somehow and the nine percent in the polls now favoring the Green ticket will switch en masse to the Liberals--thrilled by the expectation of the new carbon tax--and carry Mr. Dion's ticket to victory.
In the United States, meanwhile, Sen. Obama seems within striking distance of wrapping up the election. Polls showed a shift further in his direction after the most recent presidential debate. There were no gaffes by McCain, but none by Obama, either, and it was McCain who needed to give people clear reasons to vote against Obama and for himself. Instead, his boxing blows were glancing and almost worse than ineffectual. They appeared to be peevish.
So, advantage Obama, right? Yes, except that there is growing and deleterious information about Sen. Obama's past in Chicago that finally is coming to light. For months and maybe years it disappeared. The media failed to dig it up and in the primary campaign Hilary Clinton made only timid, McCain-like references to it. Either Obama offered himself in Chicago's South Side as a radical or he did not. At this time of economic turmoil, the truth, as opposed to the image, may matter.
The context is the economy and who can you trust in government to deal with it? Oddly, plenty of people seem to be in charge, but no one seems to be clear about what is going on. The grim sense arises that nobody really knows. Not in Canada and not in the U.S.
