It's been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. If that's true, what does that say about this federal election?The "election about nothing", which limps to a close on Tuesday (Oct. 14), is almost certainly going to give us exactly the same result as our last trip to the polls nearly three years ago - a minority Conservative government, with no other party looking much like a potential government-in-waiting opposite them.The verdict from the electorate in 2006 was that the Liberals no longer deserved power, but that Canadians clearly did not trust the Conservatives either. To see the same result again, as we strongly suspect we will, is a expression of Canadians' lack of confidence in all our political parties - a discouraging and depressing result for all concerned. In short, the winner will benobody.Sadly, our political leaders will take this verdict and each will declare victory. The Conservatives will proclaim themselves vindicated, with a mandate to govern with more or less exactly the same number of MPs as before; the Liberals will declare victory for stopping a Harper majority, even as they likely lose seats (and re-starting the backroom back-stabbing almost immediately); the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will trumpet victory for maintaining or growing their own little fiefdoms, and the Greens, whether they elect anyone or (more likely) not, will call their increased vote share a moral victory.In our own local race, we have a bit of a microcosm of the federal scene. Monday's all-candidates' forum in Squamish was notable for two things: a surprisingly large turnout and a surprisingly quiet crowd, with few bothering to cheer or jeer the assembled candidates. There was some energy directed against Conservative candidate John Weston, but it was sporadic and muted. By the same token, none of his opponents managed to rally the crowd's support. While there will be a winner, it seems that person - be it Weston, Liberal Ian Sutherland or Green Blair Wilson (apologies to the NDP's Bill Forst, who has run a solid campaign, but we can't seriously speculate that he can win this riding) - will simply be the least disliked or distrusted of the three.In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt challenged a nation on its knees to stand firm and resist falling into chaos, saying: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."We face the same kind of potential chaos in our world today. The difference this time is that the enemy is not fear, but cynicism. The mandate of our next Parliament will be to fight that cynicism by working together with the interests of the country, not their party's fortunes, at heart, and to re-earn the trust of Canadians. We hope our next MP, whoever he may be, is ready to do that.
