Good Riddance and Old Quandaries
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- Published on Sunday, 25 October 2015 23:15
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1178 .... October 26, 2015
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Good Riddance and Old Quandaries:
Two Views from Quebec on the Canadian Federal Election
The recent Canadian federal election results have taken most commentators and social activists by surprise. If the anti-Harper sentiment amongst two-thirds of the population had been clear enough for more than a year, very few had on their radar a Liberal majority outcome (even given the notoriety of the electoral distortions of the single-member plurality electoral system in Canada). The collapse of the social democratic NDP back to traditional base support levels in terms of the popular vote was equally unexpected.
Not surprisingly, post-election commentary has focused on how much the Liberals will depart from the core neoliberal framework of the Conservative government, although a huge number of small and symbolic... gestures will be a breath of fresh air even if their meaning is not so certain. The ambiguities of Liberal governance are already manifest: Canadian bombing runs in Syria are to end while troop commitments on the ground are to be maintained and possibly increased; a highly public letter from PM-elect Justin Trudeau insisted on new relations with government workers, even while a small army of privatizers and consultants begins to huddle in Ottawa (having gained ample credentials under the Ontario Liberal governments at Queen's Park); and Parliament will apparently be hurried back to pass a tax cut and a modest increase in the intake of Syrian refugees.