Everybody calm down!

Democracy is alive and well in Canada. Despite what much of what my Facebook and Twitter feed seems to have to say, Canada has not gone off the deep end, we are not entering the dark ages, and our country has not become USA Part Deux.

What's that you say? "John, you just wrote a big long post about why you voted NDP. Surely, you must be devastated at the Conservative majority government!" The answer is: no, not really. Yes, there are some things I'm concerned about, which I will get to, but the main thing I think people need to get is that there are no real extremes in Canadian politics. Harper is really just a boring economist from Calgary. He's a bit creepy, for sure. But he's no devil. To be fair, all of the leaders are kind of creepy. Even Elizabeth May. She creeps me out, man. Good for her for winning a seat finally.

The other thing that needs to be remembered is that just because you don't agree with someone, does not make them wrong or evil. Democracy has not been crushed because there a bunch of people in Ontario who are more concerned about their mortgage payments than about how long a drug dealer has to stay in prison, or whether a poor aboriginal girl can get an abortion. Stephen Heighton was right when he called these people "gutless," but the point of democracy is that those people have a right to make that choice. A little ironic for a leftist crowd to be decrying their choice, I'd say.

Sure, there is plenty wrong with our system, and I bet a lot of those people would be happy to have another set of voting options. The Liberal party used to be that option, but they've screwed the pooch fairly royally since Jean Chrétien left. I know how they can fix it though. Two words: Justin Trudeau. I don't know much about the guy. I've heard he's a douche. I don't know. I'll get to know him in the next four years, as he's my MP. What the Liberals need to do is choose him as their leader, which they can do with confidence now. They have at least four years to the next election, and they are down to the third party in the House. Plenty of room for JT to learn the ropes. Like it or not, politics is about likability, and he is a cutie. The so-called soccer moms will love this guy. The other advantage of having a Trudeau at the helm, other than the history factor, is that the Liberals tend to do well with a francophone Quebecer as their leader. Yes, there are plenty who despise the Trudeau name, but for sure it will be enough to bring back this province, which is key for the Liberals to come back.

The NDP are the official opposition and they are plenty green. Lots of new faces are ok though. Politicians have to get their start somewhere, and, but for the unfortunate Vegas-vacationing lady, this would probably be seen as a really good thing for Jack's crew. I voted for them this time (though it didn't matter because Trudeau won in my riding), but I will be watching to see if they can show in opposition the chops to maintain or move up to government status. I doubt that will happen, but hey, until I wrote my last blog, no one thought the NDP would finish second. I'm pretty sure most of Quebec read my blog and made their decision based on that...right? Right!

There are some good things about these election results. The first is stability. No more elections until 2015. The second is that the NDP will be the official opposition, which means that family and social issues will get plenty of airing. The Conservatives can pretty much do as they please, but they will have to deal with the NDP's bleating over it. Here's hoping the bleating is effective and not annoying.  Another good thing: Elizabeth May got elected. I know I said she was creepy, but hey, good for her. Again, not much power to make laws, but at least she will be a voice with a platform now, instead of being on the outside looking in. One hopes that the other parties take a cue from the Greens and make the environment more of a priority. Yeah, right.

Ok, trying to stay positive, another good thing is the the Bloc are gone. Don't get me wrong, Gilles is dreamy, but he was getting old. Actually, I am quite pleased about this. Quebec has decided, it seems, that they want to participate in Canada, rather than try to break it apart. Of course there will still be idiots who will never be happy unless they get their own country. They will now be on the outside looking in. I hope the NDP will stand up for the right things in Quebec, and keep Quebecers happy on that front. By the right things, I mean, I hope that the MPs of constituencies in this province do what they can for their constituents, just like any MPs in any other province would. I don't believe Quebec needs or deserves any special treatment, but they deserve representation in Parliament. And now they have it.

Fourth good thing, and this one will surprise you. I'm quite involved in amateur sport and it's always nice when government steps up and supports health and active lifestyles. Well, based on this article from Andrew Maloney at TNFNorth, a track and field website, the Conservatives seem to at least have an Arts and Culture strategy now, which includes sport. It didn't exist before. The tax credit they created will be increased (but only when, if ever, the budget is balanced). Not sure how this will play out, but at least it is something. Ok, I'm really grasping at straws for good things now...

Bad things: I guess there are a lot of them. But do people honestly think Harper will re-open the abortion debate? He'll get killed on that. Canadians don't want to talk about that anymore. It's old news. As for gay marriage, again, Canadians are on-board, mostly. Harper is a politician, and even with a majority, he won't rock the boat. The social issues are safe.

My big concern, as I have said elsewhere, is with the Conservative Party's treatment of the Criminal Code, specifically mandatory minimums and time-served rules. If I learned anything from the reading I did in law school (cue cries of liberal bias in law school, blah blah blah), it's that crime is not caused by evil people. It is caused by putting people in bad circumstances. I suppose that sounds like an "it's society's fault" defence of all serial killers and rapists. It's not. What does need to be looked at though, in the often knee-jerk discussion of "crime and punishment" is that the majority of crimes are related to either substance abuse or mental illness. Yes, there are people out there who are just evil. They are the exception, not the rule. Most people break the law because they can't help it: they steal or assault someone to get drugs or money for drugs or because they are high on drugs. These are not excuses. If you do the crime, you should do the time, BUT. It is completely foolish to then release these people back into the world thinking that a few months, or even a few years, in jail is going to prevent them from committing the crime again. What will keep Canadians safe is a remodel of the justice system that takes these issues into account. Drug courts (and I recognize that the link is to the Government of Canada--notice that the backgrounder was published in 2005, however) and mental health courts are the way to go. There needs to be collaboration between the Federal and Provincial governments on these initiatives. It's a complicated process, but it needs to be. Building bigger prisons and extending the stays of small-time criminals just makes small-time criminals into career criminals.

So anyway, if you are going to worry about something, worry about that, rather than whether or not the CBC will continue to be able to air marginal programming. I say that with the utmost respect for all the arts and culture we get from the public broadcaster. I'm mostly just kidding, really. But here's the thing with arts and culture: artists won't be kept down. Writers will write, and painters will paint. The internet will allow their projects to be disseminated across Canada and across the world. I'm not worried for the artists for a second. I'm worried for drug addicts and poor people though.

That's my little recap. NDP: I'm watching, you better do good. Liberals: start the education of Justin Trudeau. I'll check back in four years.