{"id":53042,"date":"2015-10-05T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=53042"},"modified":"2015-10-04T21:13:32","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T01:13:32","slug":"mutually-assured-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/10\/05\/mutually-assured-destruction\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Why this Canadian election is like no other"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservatives inflict their limbic system politics on voters who are somehow unable to see themselves as pawns in the hands of a gang of nativist demagogues, it seems to me there are two increasingly likely outcomes at the end of this miserable, hate-filled journey:<\/p>\n

One, the anyone-but-Harper vote rapidly de-camps from the collapsing\u00a0NDP and coalesces around Justin Trudeau\u2019s Liberals, producing a minority government.<\/p>\n

Two, the Liberals merely swap out a bunch of seats with the NDP while the Conservatives nail down their base and drain enough support from Team Mulcair to win a second majority, or at least a third minority.<\/p>\n

My guess: what\u2019s behind door number two.<\/p>\n

Imagine.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0when Harper embarks on his fourth and last term, I also predict he\u2019ll ram through an extremist agenda that will make his policies to date feel like a warm bath. Indeed, the campaign\u2019s hysterical, race-baiting tenor is strongly suggestive of what awaits. If he wins, Harper will have nothing to lose. He will go for broke. It’s legacy time.<\/p>\n

I have never in my life experienced a federal race where the antipathy, and the crushing sense of betrayal about what it presently\u00a0means to be Canadian, has run so high. Four years in, we clearly see not just the cumulative damage of Harper\u2019s incrementalist agenda on our national institutions, but also the shocking wounds inflicted on Canada\u2019s international reputation, and our\u00a0domestic\u00a0political and social culture.<\/p>\n

It appears Canada can now do hatred with the best of them. We have leaders who fixedly bully<\/a> a minority of a minority of a minority, and McCarthy-ite MPs who creepily call out<\/a> \u201cthe enemies of Israel.\u201d Dual citizenship, long a point of pride for a country defined by immigration and multiculturalism, turns out to be both provisional and revocable. Meanwhile, we are mocked<\/a> in the international media for twilight zone promises to weed out \u201cbarbaric cultural practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper and his\u00a0war room seem willing to say or do anything to win. Nothing, no matter how appalling, is off limits (except, it seems, the issues that really matter, like the economy and sustainable development). As Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, a good-humoured centrist not given to personal attacks, said over the weekend<\/a>, \u201cThis is disgusting and it is time for us to say, stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, it is. Yet if Harper wins a second majority, we\u2019ll all be implicated in an outcome so many Canadians purport to oppose. Look around you. Look in the mirror: it\u2019s your fault, too. Doesn\u2019t matter if you didn\u2019t vote for the guy.<\/p>\n

Why? Because Canadians on the centre-left failed to demand that the two opposition parties find common ground and present a consensus-based alternative to highly frustrated voters. By tolerating their rivalry through a decade of increasingly disturbing Conservative rule \u2013 through the census fiasco, the silencing of scientists, the flouting of election laws, the gutting of environmental regulation, the politically motivated foreign policy, the tactically fashioned attacks on refugees, the medieval criminal justices stances, the terrorist fear-mongering, and on and on \u2013 we have allowed the NDP and the Liberals to play into Harper\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

Consequently, hundreds\u00a0of thousands of disgusted voters find themselves in the closing innings of an election confronted by the folly of phoney choice and the\u00a0problem of the narcissism of small difference<\/a> writ large on our political structures.<\/p>\n

Yes, I am familiar with all the weary old partisan arguments from both camps on why such a merger isn\u2019t possible culturally, ideologically, or organizationally. I know all about the NDP\u2019s pieties and the Liberals\u2019 arrogance. I know who supported Bill C-51 and who didn’t. At this juncture, however, the wedges barely matter. Nostalgia for the heroic era of the CCF or the collaborative era of Broadbent and Trudeau is irrelevant, as are partisan appeals based on which of the two was responsible for this strand of our public policy or that controversy in our shared political history.<\/p>\n

All that back-story is now utterly besides the point for the simple reason that in this election, the Liberals tacked sharply left while the NDP tacked sharply right, proving that both parties were competing for the same voting block, i.e., that large mass of Canadians who\u2019ve had it up to here with Harper. The reality is that Mulcair\u2019s NDP, circa 2015, owes less to Tommy Douglas than it does to Paul Martin.<\/p>\n

While past ideological shadings may once have been determinative for voters, they are not useful in confronting our present political crisis. Over and over, I hear people fervently opposed to the Conservatives tell me they\u2019ll simply vote based on their best guess as to who\u2019s going to be in the lead a week out, or whomever is assured to win in their own riding.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not so much about strategic voting, but rather a broad expression of exasperation\u00a0and anger with the consequences of a bifurcated political left. We\u2019re like consumers who\u2019ve moved way beyond the power of brand. We want toothpaste, and it no longer matters to us whose logo is on the tube.<\/p>\n

The massive irony here is that Harper was the direct beneficiary of a concerted effort, led in the early 2000s by pundit David Frum and others, to unite the right. After Preston Manning\u2019s Reform Party demolished the pan-Canadian Tory coalition built by Brian Mulroney, the fragmentation on the right provided the structural conditions that allowed Jean Chretien to win three majorities in a row.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that the original actors in the unite-the-right movement came from outside the various party establishments. After all, parties are clannish, competitive, and programmed to gather power into themselves. Outsiders must cajole and shame the Liberals and the NDP into negotiating a viable alternative that has the critical mass and the programmatic appeal to counter a unified right.<\/p>\n

If Harper wins another majority by presiding over one of the most appalling election campaigns in Canadian history, we\u2019ll have the conditions in place for a long overdue structural reordering\u00a0of our political landscape. The two-thirds of voters outraged by such an outcome must insist the parties set aside their historic antagonisms and embark on a merger process.<\/p>\n

As this wretched election has amply demonstrated, the status quo is untenable.<\/p>\n

photo by Chris Yakimov<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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