The Harper Era Is Over

So first of all: Canada is back. There is reason to celebrate which outweighs all that remains problematic.

I'm not a big fan of the Liberals. At the moment, I consider them to be a properly conservative party - a party which is as far to the political right as reality allows sane people to be in the 21st century. They have a long way to go to win my support. Delivering on their promises will take them some distance. Priority one is proportional representation, so the nightmare of the last decade is unlikely ever to recur. Reversing the worst of what Harper wrought - repealing the human rights violation that is C-51, and the other humans rights violation that is C-24, and the other human rights violation that is the absurdly Orwellian "Fair Elections Act" - will bring them most of the rest of the way. But they've still got a lot to learn about some vital issues - climate change and environmental protection and conservation foremost among them (though I do at least trust them to un-gag Canadian scientists, and that is the all-important first step toward more informed governance).

Nonetheless, there is more than enough reason to celebrate. Stephen Harper, you deserve to know, after the harm you have done, that you have been the worst prime minister in modern Canadian history. The worst for Canada's economy. The worst for Canada's environment. The worst for Canada's international reputation. The worst for Canadian democracy. We will soon see that your project to transform Canada - to remake a beautiful nation in your own, twisted image - has been an abject failure. And it is as an abject failure that you will be remembered by history. You deserve to know this, and anyone who is considering taking up your cause - anyone who thinks that there will once again be the potential for political gain in Canada through what is mean, bigoted, selfish, greedy, destructive, ignorant, secretive, or genuinely evil (because subverting democracy is evil, and the citizens of a democracy require the courage to say that plainly) - needs to know this.

In all honesty, the CPC should probably be disbanded. It has become a horribly disfigured phantasm of its former self. But for now, I hope the Conservatives can at least realize that they must find something else to be - something other than what they have been for the last dozen years.