Conservative victory a victory for Canada

The Conservative victory in Canada last night is more than the regular shuffling of governments that we expect in a parliamentary democracy; it was Canadians finally waking up and refusing to support what had become a corrupt political regime guilty of corruption en masse and promoting, in one of my favourite media phrases from 2005, a "culture of entitlement". I think a fair number of my friends would be surprised to know I was supporting a conservative victory, as I am liberal with respect to social issues, and the Conservative Party of Canada has its own fair share of bible-bashing gun-toting morons like, say, the Republican Party in the US. And I think we all know how I feel about Bush and his election/re-election.

But the Canadian electoral race was different. Unfortunately, Canada's parliamentary democracy lacks a separation of executive and legislative powers, which I feel was probably one of the main reasons the Liberal party felt they could (and did) steal money from Canadians for over a decade. There are times to vote according to your belief in the social and economic platform of a party, and there are times when a government getting away with ridiculousness needs to be brought to account. That's what happened last night.

On a global scale, the victory is more ominous. The conservative shift is happening everywhere; not just in Western-style democracies but also in places like Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood) and Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). Obviously this does not bode well for the state of world affairs; polarization and isolation are the most likely outcome.