In Canada the Mushy Middle runs the show

Have you ever wondered how poll after poll shows Canada’s Liberals and Conservatives each with somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35% of decided voters?

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These numbers have been dogging both major political parties since the days of Paul Martin and you’d think that sooner or later one side or the other would gain the advantage. Well, a recent Nanos Poll may provide some answers to the question of why nothing is likely to change any time soon. I have long held the belief that regardless of who happens to be living at 24 Sussex, there is very little difference in the kinds of legislation that governments in Canada produce. Whether it’s a Liberal or a Conservative government doesn’t appear to make a whole lot of difference. For proof one needs merely look at the last budget brought down by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who increased government spending by the largest percentage in this country’s history, despite some selective tax credits and a two percent cut in the GST. The government and her majesty’s loyal opposition are for all intents and purposes interchangeable. When the Liberals are in power the Conservatives take pot shots at government policies and when the tables are turned, the policies seem to remain the same, except that now the Liberals are taking pot shots at policies that they themselves had once advocated. A shining example of this is the Liberals’ opposition to Canadian troops fighting in Afghanistan. No one seems to remember that the Liberals put those troops there in the first place. There do not appear to be any real philosophical differences between the left and the right in Canada, so consequently there is a vast squishy, mushy middle that seems to habituate ennui like a wart on a toad. Interestingly, the Nanos poll showcased this in their survey of traditional Liberal supporters, most of who seem to stem from Ontario and Quebec, and Conservative supporters, most of who stem from western Canada. One in five Liberal voters said they voted Liberal because traditionally they had always voted that way. Another 20% claimed they voted Liberal because they were clearly “the best choice”, while nearly another fifth claimed to vote Liberal because of their policies. The implications of this are that close to 60% of Liberal supporters can’t offer a logical reason for their choice. As one pundit wrote in one of the weekend papers, “masses of Canadians don’t care about Dion’s disastrous leadership; they would vote for the Liberal party led by a fencepost.” Things don’t look that much better among Conservative supporters of whom 27% claim their support the Tories is because of their policies. While these policies were actually mentioned by some and include things like fighting crime, lower taxes and support of Canada’s military, there were a lot of generalization about good policies, honesty and trust. Apparently leadership did not figure large among either Liberal or Conservative voters, which may explain why the Conservatives are led by a control ‘droid and the Libs by a Monty Python snooty French waiter parody. It’s as enlightening to realize that Canadians don’t seem to think much about the implications of the decisions made by those whom they elect to lead them, as it is dispiriting. It also explains why things in Canada never seem to change.