Fear the Pendulum

Barfy slogans and pithy platitudes bombarded Manitobans without pause or purpose this last month.

Good Jobs, Steady Growth (downwards?)

Imagine Better.

For a Better Manitoba.

<insert Gag Tag>

10 times the spoiled ballot count was the response... oh, and a Manitoba Party that, despite the shambles, damned near hit the Green party numbers in ridings they ran candidates in.

Seems like, in Manitoba's provincial elections, we are promised the change we already know. Let that logic sink in a bit.

One leader ran (beautifully) on 'hey, if you don't like him, vote for me!' Another tried 'if you don't like anyone, vote for me, ('cause I am unlike anyone else you have ever seen...)'

So, despite the biggest say nothing (intelligible) electoral platforms in recent Manitoba election history, we got the pendulum swing results this Hegelian keystone meat grinder reliably spits out. Hard left, hard right, hard left... and back to hard right.

The middle, normally the turf cut of the Liberals, got lost in the absolute gong show that was the Bokhari and friends campaign. Despite fielding an impressive line-up of candidates (for the most part), and despite attracting some truly nifty new volunteers, nothing and no-one could overcome Rana's... being Rana.

Not even the energy inspired by Justin could mask the bizarre sideshow that Rana put on for us. The Liberal leader displayed the qualities that caused a great whack of her party to run for the hills after less than three months of her leadership. Liberal support in Fort Rouge followed soon after.

Now Manitobans face another 4 years of pendulum politics which, if left unchecked, allows corruption, waste, lack of vision, incompetence, and the absence of public service to thrive (albeit with new bestest friends benefitting.) Instead of putting Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in power, we put the folks who had nothing better to do than wait it out.

We have a party that lies without conscience leading the opposition now. We have a Liberal leader who cannot understand her own policies, let alone the sitting governments. These are the voices the Province must rely on to keep the mega-PC government in check.

Bloody wonderful.

Sadly, despite having some gifted, intelligent media persons in our midst, the biggest headlines were not about the failures of the parties to enunciate the end of pendulum politics through better governance frameworks. Oh no. The headlines were predominantly inspired by twitter. And twits who tweeted twoubling untwuths. Straight up Fudd-like.

So while the lowest common denominator shrank to 140 characters, the real stories concerning Manitobans were left off the headlines, and out of print. Nothing left now but to remind editors that tweets are character limited for a reason.

Folks, there is public corruption in our midst. Big corruption. It is rampant, it is fairly obvious, and it is knowable. The stories don't fit on a smartphone screen, perhaps. Yet there was a time that journalists and editors coveted the shaggy-dog, multi-layer stories that made a difference.

There was a time when Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition knew their job, and did it fairly well. Please tell me one scandal the PC's brought into the sunlight during their long tenure as the official opposition. Just one, I challenge you.

Give me one example of the Liberal Leader digging into a story and coming up with a problem, let alone a solution, that didn't get reduced to some stupid agist remark. (What is with the hate-on at the MLP for anyone over 50? Daddy issues much?)

Please, please tell me one story that shows either the PC's or Liberals actually did their jobs in opposition. Show me that they understand the details and issues at the bottom of any scandal or underperforming department whatsoever.

Please show me that they actually deserved to govern, or remain in opposition. So I can sleep at night a wee bit better. Because right now, the Westminster model has been replaced with a vicious, uncaring, ineffective pendulum.

And it is swinging over our heads once again.

Ciao, Bellas.