Suddenly I'm not as enthusiastic about the Blue Jays beating the Royals, and this coming on the same night they notch a win behind Marcus Stroman, the sausage king of Toronto. Just when I think you've got it right, Canada!
But it would be a mistake to think that Liberals and Conservatives in Canada are the same as liberals and conservatives in the U.S. A very rough approximation? OK, maybe. But you have to understand that the political center is much further to the left in Canada than it is here, although I continue to believe we're sadly catching up. The conservatives had three terms that lasted seven years, but people get restless, and boy, did they ever last night:
Liberal candidates have secured 184 seats -- or "ridings," the Canadian term for federal electoral districts -- putting them over the line for forming a majority government. A total of 170 seats are needed for a majority.
Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, as Harper's Conservatives will now officially be designated, have 99 seats.
As the crowd chanted his name, Trudeau said the Liberals won because "we listened."
"We beat fear with hope, we beat cynicism with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together," he said.
"Most of all we defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less, and that better isn't possible. My friends, this is Canada, where better is always possible."
I did not pay a lot of attention to this campaign, so I'm not going to sit here and pretend I can give you really insightful analysis. But I had a sense the Conservatives were in trouble when I heard a radio commercial featuring Stephen Harper himself over the weekend. Even as he rhetorically assailed "big government programs," Harper made a point of telling the audience that under the Conservative plan, "you will keep receiving your child care checks," whereas under the Liberal plan, "this and other benefits will be lost."
Uh oh. Conservatives are always in trouble when they let the contest become about who can keep the benefits flowing, or better yet, who can give you even more. When those are the terms of the debate, the left will win every time. And you pick that up from Trudeau's quote above, where he rejects the idea of anyone being "satisfied with less." If that refers to less in the form of goodies from the government, and that's what the electorate decided it was after this time around, then sure. The Liberals were going to win and win big.
The biggest of Canada's big government programs, of course, is socialist medicine. There, the Conservatives actually made some small moves in the direction of fiscal sanity. To whatever extent the Liberals ran on reversing those reforms, it's as much an indication of Canada's political culture as it is our who ran well and who didn't.
But I do think there's a cautionary tale here for U.S. Republicans. They've simply assumed since Reagan that the United States is a center-right country, and that rhetoric against tax increases, big government and so forth is always a winner. I'm not convinced that's really where the nation is, if only because it's been a long time since they saw Republicans govern effectively. If you want to win with a conservative message, you have to do more than just speak the language. You also have to make the case, and you can't assume that the voters are already there with you. If you don't do that, it just comes down to a contest of who can offer the most goodies, and you know who will win that fight.
It seems that after seven years of governing, the Conservatives could no longer make the case for themselves. Mostly like the time will come in Canada when the Liberals have gone too far with their socialist agenda and they'll likewise face a backlash, putting the Conservatives back in power for the purpose of slowing that train down. But it's been a long time since anyone really reversed it, there or here.
Suddenly I'm not as enthusiastic about the Blue Jays beating the Royals, and this coming on the same night they notch a win behind Marcus Stroman, the sausage king of Toronto. Just when I think you've got it right, Canada!
But it would be a mistake to think that Liberals and Conservatives in Canada are the same as liberals and conservatives in the U.S. A very rough approximation? OK, maybe. But you have to understand that the political center is much further to the left in Canada than it is here, although I continue to believe we're sadly catching up. The conservatives had three terms that lasted seven years, but people get restless, and boy, did they ever last night:
