Monday, October 13, 2008

Prediction: No Fun Party wins Election 2008

Finally, the most important and least exciting election in Canadian history (until the next one) ends Tuesday.
Whatever happened to fun and frolic on the campaign trail? Remember Conservative Robert Stanfield's famous football fumble caught on film from 1974 or Grit John Turner patting posteriors of Liberal ladies in 1984?
Today’s campaigns are too stage-managed, but there were moments of levity in 2008.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (yes, he does wear make-up to work every day) tried to show his casual side by taking off his Tory tie and feeding a baby at the Huang family residence in Richmond. It all looked semi-genuine until Harper walked up to the podium. Who keeps a podium in their backyard?
Liberal Stephane Dion's campaign took off and immediately went south in a 29-year-old gas-guzzling Boeing 737 leased from Air Inuit. So much for the Green Shift.
NDP leader Jack Layton promoted a new kind of strong, but weakness in candidate screening quickly became apparent. Two quit for smokin' doob on YouTube and another "kneedipper" was exposed as a skinnydipper. Oh, the humanity!
Then there's Green Party leader Elizabeth May. She ensured Sunday that she wouldn't become Ms. October when she put down the green flag and picked up a white one. The proponent of the single transferrable voting system urged Canadians to transfer their Tuesday vote to any candidate likely to beat a Tory.
Coalition-building on the eve of an election is bound to fail, just like last-minute shopping for Christmas presents at 7-Eleven.

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