Get Out and Vote!

We have finally reached the finish line on what has been, in many ways, a rather underwhelming campaign. The Conservatives, for all their talk, have run ridiculously dishonest campaign. They have denied that there are any economic woes, in spite of the fact that the Bank of Canada has been forced to pump 12 billion dollars into the banking sector (by the way, that money could have paid for a national, universal child-care system AND implemented the Kelowna Accord), and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced last week that another 25-billion dollar cash injection would be needed. All this from a government that has said our banking sector is doing just fine. 37 billion dollars doesn't sound like a clean bill of health to me. That's pretty close to the ENTIRE budget of the Government of BC.

We've heard some other lies, some innocent, and some malicious. I keep hearing Tories say that this parliament was the longest minority parliament in Canadian history. It wasn't. One of Pearson's minorities lasted longer, and depending on how you crunch the numbers, so did one of Mackenzie King's, but then again, anything a Liberal does simply doesn't count to the Tories. This is hardly a big deal, other than the fact that is shows that even on minor issues, the Tories are happy to look Canadians in the eye and lie to them.

The Tory smear campaign over the Liberal Green Shift plan represents yet another example where they are on the wrong side of the issue, so they have lied, obfuscated, and attacked. They have portrayed the Green Shift plan as risky, and a tax grab, in spite of the fact that economist after economist, including Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, have come out in favour of plans that follow the same overall framework. The Green Shift is not the mother of all tax hikes, as the Tories have suggested. It is, in fact, the mother of all tax cuts. Furthermore, Canadians won't be hit at the pump by this plan: gasoline is specifically exempted, since the Government already collects an excise tax on gasoline. That didn't stop Stephen Harper from lying about it.

Jack Layton is no better. I don't advocate a 2-party system in Canada, but there is a reality. Jack Layton is not going to become Prime Minister tonight. His votes killed the last Liberal government. His MP's threw around accusations about improprieties on the part of Liberals that they knew were untrue, but used for political gain. They can say what they want, but in the last election, the difference between a re-elected Liberal minority, and the Tory minority we got was decided by fewer than 15,000 votes in a handful of key ridings. The NDP swing vote in those ridings handed each of those seats to the Tories, putting Stephen Harper in power, killing Canada's commitment to a cleaner environment, social justice, healthcare for all, women's rights, the Kelowna Accord, national universal childcare, and a long list of other important social issues.

Here's the reality (and I'm going to brace myself for a deluge of angry comments): Jack Layton is not going to be Prime Minister, or at the very least, not this time around. The only person within striking distance of Stephen Harper is Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. If you are a progressive Canadian who wants a fairer, safer, greener Canada, there's only one way to accomplish that, and it starts with getting rid of Stephen Harper. In the 1990's the political right was divided, and Canadians ended up with a series of Liberal governments. Fortunately for mainstream Canada, that's where our values were anyhow. This time, the left is divded, and an extreme minority is being forced upon us because we are splitting our votes. The way to defeat the Conservatives is for progressive voters to unite behind Liberal candidates. It may not be politically correct to say this, but it's the cold, hard reality. A vote for Jack Layton is a vote for Stephen Harper.

If you want change this election, if you want to see the truth triumph over lies, hope triumph over fear, if you want a government that governs not just for the next poll and the next election, but for generations to come, if you want a government that believes in uniting us, and not dividing us, then the choice is clear: vote Liberal.