Guide to the Canadian Federal Election

On April 28th Canadians ( those who wish to and have not already done so in advance polls) will vote for the party of their choice in a federal election.

The national  political landscape in Canada is like that in the U.S. in that we have two major political parties one or the other of which always forms the government. We also have our own  Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Stein and Alexandra Cortez equivalents but here they are an entire political  party: the New Democratic Party.

The NDP has been around for six decades and used to be a serious social democratic party platforming workers rights and social programmes for average and disadvantaged persons.  It fought  for universal health care which  today, along with harsh winters, defines Canada. In the election of 2011 it even came in second    to become Canada’s Official Opposition for four  years.

Now, however, it holds only 7% of the seats in the House of Commons, none in any  of the four Atlantic provinces and only one  in Quebec.

We also have our own Kamala Harris in the form of the leader of the Liberal Party, Mark Carney ( even if he is not married to  a man  who got his daughter’s nanny pregnant.)

These similarities were on full display during the French language leaders debate held  on April 16.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, almost out of nowhere, felt compelled to say that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

This comment demonstrates not only that Singh does not know how to use a dictionary but, more importantly, that  the NDP has joined the overall lunaticization common among today’s social democratic, green  and socialist parties.

The moderator, to his credit, asked Carney if he thought  that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Carney had the opportunity to pound his lectern and say “Of course it isn’t. Israel is defending itself from  a terrorist regime. It has no intention of destroying an ethnic or national group.”

But instead of saying that, Carney evaded  the question by saying that “genocide” is too politicized a word.

In doing so he was taking a page out of the strategy book of Kamala Harris. Heckled during a college-in- a-swing state campaign rally by a protestor shouting “What about the genocide in Gaza”, she should have yelled back:  “No genocide is taking place in Gaza.” But instead she said answered : “I respect your right to speak but I’m speaking now…Listen, what he’s talking about it’s real.”

Both Carney and Harris graduated from  university in the era when basic English literacy was a requirement of admission. Both knew that Israel was not committing genocide in Gaza. But both were so intent on attracting  votes of the  anti-Israel, pro terrorist  loony  left that they spinelessly refused to speak what they knew to be true.

We see where this   expedience-over-substance pragmatism got Harris. While she won the  coastal states, she, with two exceptions,  lost everything in between: all the states that   the east and west coast virtue signalling elitists dismiss as the ( inconsequential) flyover states.

Canada, however is not the U.S. Canadians veer  less to  extremes and stick to middle of the road. The Conservative leader, Pierre Polievre, is very clear on where he stands on all issues and on that of the Israel/Hamas conflict he is unequivocally  and unapologetically pro Israel.

We are about to find out how this will play out.