Terahertz

There’s likely a good reason Elizabeth May’s editor adviser her against the title of “Canada: Banana Republic without Benefit of Fruit” (and not least of all because of our thriving institution of gay marriage) and opted instead for “Losing Confidence: Power, politics, and the crisis in Canadian democracy.”

The book is a well written insight into what plagues Canadian parliamentary democracy as we approach the prospect of the fifth election in four years with no clear end to minority-rule in site (which May doesn’t think is the worst possible outcome).

She stands up for electoral reform, public party financing (over corporate/union financing), coalition governments, abolishing the mass-media conglomerations and a host of reforms to the PMO and bureaucrats who run the government behind the scenes.

May stands up for herself and sets the record straight her position on “strategic voting” in the 2008 elections:

Media coverage int he 2008 election posited that I supported strategic voting, which in fact I never have. I was responsible for some of this confusion. I was (and am) unwilling to criticize citizens who are making a deeply personal and important choice about how they cast their vote… My refusal to condemn those who felt compelled to voe strategically led to my position being misreported…

I do not support any call to “vote strategically” because it encourages voting from fear and distrust. It calls on people to vote out of negativity. And, tragically, it leads voters to make the wrong choices, because it is impossible to know which vote is the “strategic vote.”

The book is a good read, and my only complaint (and I say this not being a Green party supporter), is that Elizabeth May should not have had the time to write this, as she should be a sitting MP, representing the 1 million voters who want her not in the House of Commons gallery looking down, but on the floor standing up to Stephen Harper.