The Canadian election

It is with some trepidation that I see that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is poised to lose Monday's election in a big way. Not that Martin deserves to win or anything. His government, as it turns out, is thoroughly corrupt. No, it's not for Martin's sake that I dread the election result, it's because of who's going to win in his place: Reform Canadian Alliance Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper.

Harper's of the ideological stripe that holds that government itself is just a bad idea. (How anyone can believe this for five minutes after observing what happens when government is not present or does not function is beyond me. Quick list of examples of situations involving a lack of government intervention: the initial response to Hurricane Katrina; the American meat-packing industry, pre-FDA; Somalia.) So he objects to the government going about in meddlesome fashion making people's lives better by providing them with healthcare and higher education; under a Harper government, we can expect these activites to be curtailed. Like most conservatives, however, he does admit that there is one useful function that government can perform: punishing people for having sex, or, at least, all sex that isn't heterosexual sex performed for the purpose of procreation. So if Harper wins we can expect to see Canada's historic and progressive recognition of gay marriages reversed, and, if he thinks for a minute he can get away with it, new laws restricting abortion in a country that has had none for many years.

Harper would have you believe that this is not so: that he's mellowed out since the heady days of the Reform party, and will deliver basically the same center-right policies that Canada had under Martin, except without all the corruption. But I'm skeptical. I think he really does look at what's happened to the USA over the past five years and thinks, "If only this could happen here!"

Now there is the argument to be made that if Harper starts governing like Bush North, he will quickly lose the support of the people and be turfed out of office at the next opportunity. But we all thought that about Bush South, who as you may have noticed is still firmly ensconced in the halls of power and grabbing more of it every day. You can fool some of the people some of the time, and that is, probably, tragically, sufficient.

Again, none of this is meant to imply to my Canadian readers (both of you) that you ought to vote for Martin. The guy's a crook, after all. I'm just afraid that who you get instead will be no improvement.