That seems to be the choice today. You can write about the election or the wedding. Since we are at a low level with drivel these days, the wedding loses. Mind you, we read in the notoriously monarchist Toronto Star that only 39 per cent of Canadians are even thinking of viewing the spectacle.
The wife had the idea that we could record the wedding and watch it the next day when we were awake. This was discouraged when it was explained to her that seven hours of high definition blather might not be easily accommodated on our personal video recorder. There is also no guarantee that, even on fast forward, we would be able to stay awake through the event.
That left us with the election. That is bad news too. We can only hope that the pollsters are proved so wrong afterwards that they are banished for all time from forecasting any level of elections.
The promised fall of the Liberals at this time, we know, is premature. The rise of the NDP to power is even more unlikely.
Our bets are based on Ontario. The bets all revolve around the Liberals getting better than 30 per cent of the vote in the province with more than a third of the seats in parliament. That spells minority for Harper.
What guarantees the minority is that Harper’s hopes have all but crashed in Quebec. The news media have probably stampeded some Liberal votes to the NDP in the Atlantic. That part of the country is always a bit behind the curve. And Harper is going to get the majority of the votes in the Prairies. While the Prairies are still part of Canada, that just makes them look narrow minded and mean spirited.
And then there is B.C. We have absolutely no idea what the voters are going to do in Lotusland. Neither do the voters.
When younger and less empathetic, we used to say that the damn silly voters get the government they deserve. That is a cruel statement today. Frankly, there seems to be a difference of opinion about whether Harper is a mean, red-neck or not. Maybe we are just too vehement in trying to keep him from being declared emperor. We should always remember that even Napoleon started with the best of intentions.
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