Not because of any idea they have in particular although they generally have some pretty good ones. My choice is based on a really, really bad idea the Liberals had. I will absolutely not be rewarding this kind of selfish, irresponsible behaviour with my vote in September.
Saying that, by the way, makes me a little sad. The Liberals have done a very good job of steering us through what is hopefully a once in a lifetime set of circumstances. They haven’t always been perfect, but no one could have been. The important thing is that they’ve tended to get more right than they’ve gotten wrong, and had they not decided to take us down unnecessary election road just now I likely would have been content giving them the nod in 2023. But calling an election now for reasons that serve no one’s interests aside from those of the Liberal Party has pissed away a lot of the good will they had built up with me, not to mention any credibility they had left after years of broken promises and sketchy ethics. You can’t repeatedly tell me that the health, safety and stability of the people are of paramount importance to your government and then expect me to keep taking you seriously when you decide to force those people to wait in long lines while we’re quite clearly still in the midst of fighting an extremely contagious disease.
Am I personally concerned about voting? Not really. I’m vaccinated. Chances are I’ll be fine. But that doesn’t mean I want to vote right now. No one does. No one I can find, at least. Parliament was functioning fine enough for most of us. Trudeau can say whatever he wants about us needing our say on post pandemic recovery and the work that will need to be done, but there’s still work to be done now, and by forcing this vote he’s shirking those responsibilities and costing us millions of dollars that could be put to much better use.
From the podium outside of Rideau Hall this morning, Trudeau pushed back against his critics, saying Canadians deserve a chance to decide who should guide the country out of the pandemic.
“In this pivotal, consequential moment, who wouldn’t want a say? Who wouldn’t want their chance to help decide where our country goes from here?” he said.“So to the other parties, please explain why you don’t think Canadians should get a choice, why you don’t think that this is a pivotal moment. I’m focused on our real plan. I’m focused on the path forward.”