Jarvis: ‘It was five wasted weeks’

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Was this choice worth it?

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Five weeks of campaigning, instead of governing, amid a public health crisis. More than $ 600 million spent when billions are still needed to manage this pandemic.

And the House of Commons is pretty much the same.

Liberals led or were elected in 158 districts on Tuesday, three more than before the election. They will form another minority government. The Conservatives have the same number of seats, 119. The NDP leads or is elected in 25 districts, one more than before the elections. They remain the fourth party, after the Bloc Quebecois, and will prop up the government, as they did before the elections.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau called it a “clear mandate,” though he won just 32 percent of the popular vote, less than a third, less than in 2019, less than the Conservatives, and 12 fewer seats than was needed for a majority. . Government. Trudeau called the elections saying that he could not govern with a minority, which was causing difficulties and delays in the approval of the legislation. Now, he says he can rule with a minority.

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“Our government is ready,” he said Monday night. It has a “clear mandate,” he said.

What will you do with your “clear mandate”? He says he will do what he promised during the campaign, which is what his party was already doing before the elections. He had already signed agreements with seven provinces for the care of children worth $ 10 a day. It had already committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and raising the price of carbon to $ 170 a ton to meet the target. It had already invested in the transition to a green economy, contributing $ 295 million to remodel Ford’s Oakville assembly plant to produce electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, the only differences now seem to be the cynicism and division that the elections caused.

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The cynicism, more than the usual cynicism, that is, it grew as expected by calling elections more than two years in advance, when it was not necessary, the people did not want it and Trudeau said he would not do it during the pandemic. However, with the fourth wave of COVID-19 on the rise, it did. It was about what was best for the party, or at least what he thought would be best for him when he led the polls earlier and Conservative leader Erin O’Toole was struggling. Obviously, it was not the best for Canada.

Trudeau said Monday night that he sees no division.

“I see Canadians standing together,” he said.

He was literally struck by division when a protester at one of the horrible profanity-filled protests that dogged him across the country, forcing him to cancel at least one campaign stop, threw gravel at him.

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Liberals, in particular, used the COVID-19 vaccine for political gain, driving a wedge between themselves and their opponents and fueling the rise of the far-right People’s Party of Canada, which opposes mandatory vaccination. PPC got 1.6 percent of the vote in 2019. It got 10.5 percent of the vote in Windsor-Tecumseh on Monday, 10 percent in Essex and 8.6 percent in Windsor West. That is more than 16,500 votes.

All of this followed a pandemic that showed us that the role of government is vital. It followed a pandemic that largely brought us together. The election undid both lessons.

When the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced earlier this month that the staff of all health care organizations that accept Medicare or Medicaid payments must be fully vaccinated, a local health worker emailed me. : “If we were NOT in a federal election, we could do the same … PUAJ.”

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Trudeau promised that his party would order vaccination for all federal workers and domestic travelers on planes and trains, which are regulated by the government. I could have, instead of promising for five weeks. Every day is important when trying to control the spread of a highly communicable and potentially deadly pathogen.

There were other losses as well when Parliament was dissolved for the elections. A bill to ban an ugly and hurtful quackery called conversion therapy, which attempts to turn a lesbian, gay, or bisexual person into a heterosexual person or change a person’s gender identity to match their assigned sex at birth, he died for the second time.

The only “clear mandate” in this election is that the voters do not want another election. They want the government to do the job they were elected to do. Most minority governments last around two years.

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But, said Windsor’s Inside Pulse co-host Daniel Ableser, “you have to imagine that this government will probably spend more than two years before an election is called.”

The liberals got the message. It cost them a majority government. And if the Conservatives or the NDP force an early election, they will use it.

“This has the potential to be a more stable government than the normal minority government,” Ableser said. “It gives this government a longer track to implement its programs.”

But was it worth it?

“It was five wasted weeks,” said former Windsor MPP and Ontario Cabinet Minister Dave Cooke.

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