I went to bed with a smile on my face. In the morning I woke up with the sinking feeling it was all just a dream. It must have been; I mean come on, John Reynolds didn't get elected? How dream world is that?
Alas, in the cruel morning light it appears John held on to his seat by just over 1,600 votes. For those unaware (apparently that's most, judging by the apathetic voter turnout), John Reynolds is our re-elected federal representative with the balls of steel you can only get from being in politics since 1972. He's gone from party to party and yet has remained untouchable. His confidence this round came from his ideological chant of "Tax cuts! Axe all of our services and give us tax cuts!" Sure, we think that's idiotic but we're lucky enough to share a riding with Canada's richest community, West Vancouver. I suppose when one earns enough to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, paying for health care almost makes sense.
Locally you might remember him from the last time he spoke down to us saying he was actively trying to stop a million federal dollars from coming to Squamish's Adventure Centre - oh, and gays shouldn't marry. Yeah, he's funny like that.
This year Reynolds arrogantly spent nearly half the election in the east as a front man for the party. He's a head honcho under the militant right wing's latest label: Conservative. It used to be Reform, Alliance... they keep changing their face every time one of their members utters crazy religious dogma about gays or abortions. Not to mention plans of getting around our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A perfect example of this mentality can be found in George W. Bush. While most of the world revolts against him, the Conservative party desperately emulates that truly historic leader.
This, I believe, is a big reason why many held their noses and voted Liberal this election. As Rick Mercer pointed out "the lesser of three evils is pretty important when you're running a country."
Truth be told, I can't stand Paul Martin either, from his mega-million-dollar steamship line he conveniently didn't pay taxes on, to his blind obsession with selling us hook, line and sinker to the U.S.
In the end, though, I think the election went well. Canadians sent a clear message. We're mad at the Liberals but we're not about to let the Conservatives run loose. And I feel better knowing they need the NDP's vote to get anything done.
So now, on Canada's birthday weekend we can truly celebrate a victory for our people and our country. Plus, locally, it's the anniversary of the Squamish Yankee beat-down. Let's not have a repeat of last year's incident. If you are out and, heaven forbid, some arrogant fool starts spouting how their country is better then yours, just relax and laugh it off knowing at least we didn't let a right-wing religious nut job run our country.
