Here’s an intriguing outside-in article decrying the decline of “good government” in Canada from Slate.com and got me thinking about the upcoming Canadian election.

Yes, amazingly a US-media outlet deemed it necessary to comment on the rather fractitous state of Canadian politics especially when they have this oxygen draining Presidential poll still going down Nov 4.  Here’s the best (and most sensationalistic line from the article)

Canada is quietly becoming a political basket case, and this latest election may make things even worse.

The essential thesis is that Stephen Harper and his social conservatives are ruining Canada and that the Liberals, NDP, Greens and everyone else on “the left” helping them to it be being too pre-occupied fighting each other.

Well my folks will probably take issue with the whole ‘Harper is ruining Canada’ thesis – they always had a hate-on for the Liberals – but that was always more grounded in the Liberals’ arrogance, abuse of power and lack of fiscal restraint that came from Liberals’s prolonged bouts in power.  Even the Democratic party in the US suffered from this type malaise leading up to Newt Gingrinch’s Republican Revolution in the 90’s but I digress.

From its social liberalism and fiscal conservatism, Canada has traditionally bounced back and forth between the socially and fiscally liberal Liberals and fiscally and socially conservative Conservatives. 

The Conservatives are betting the snap election will yield them at minimum another minority government and majority as being a not-so-improbably possibility if they play their cards right.

Thus far, I think the minority government has done a relatively good job of keeping social-conservatism of the Conservatives in check.  No where did the Conservatives try for a repealing abortion rights or gutting Canadian health care.  And I give points to the Conservatives for:

  • not spending Canada’s new wealth from the current commodities boom like drunken sailors
  • paying down the national debt
  • defending Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic
  • and holding the line in Afghanistan – the real front on the war on terror – while the US went on their adventurist diversion in Iraq.

From afar, though it has been more fractious and turned Canada into a more interesting country, I’m not yet convinced a Conservative majority would be in the best interests of Canada – or for now the Conservatives for that matter. 

The problem is that Canadian’s don’t fully trust the Conservatives to leave them to their own devices.  As evidenced by their website, The Conservatives have sensibly decided to run on tactical issues of sound economic policy, tackling crime and important incremental improvements in better government operation in healthcare (and lip service to global warming.)  I think what is spooking the majority of Canadians is what the Conservatives are not saying and what they would do if granted the unfettered power of a majority government.  Where exactly do they stand on abortion and same-sex rights?  Healthcare funding?  What about the devolution of power to the provinces?  What exactly is the Conservative vision for the future of Canada?  What the Canadians don’t know scares them. 

And here’s the rub – the Conservatives don’t need a majority government to achieve their incremental gains they are proposing to accomplish following this election.   In order to get a mandate of a majority government you have specify what IS the mandate you are looking for.  The Conservatives would be better off doing some soul searching and specifying what a Conservative Canada would and would not look like to give voters some comfort in exactly what they are getting.  This also precludes them of being in the rather interesting position should the ever secure a majority, of leaving them open to the temptation to give into their more base socially conservative instincts.

To sum up, until they can elaborate what exactly they stand for, the Conservatives deserve every minority government they get and are cheating Canadians of any majority government they may eke out.  Here’s to another year of gridlock in Canada?