Be careful what you wish for

Be careful what you wish for

Canadian Auto Worker's president Buzz Hargrove has been accompanying Liberal Leader Paul Martin around the country, striking fear into the hearts of Canadian voters with the spectre of the scary Albertans:

"His sense," said Hargrove about Harper, "is about Alberta, where the wealth in Alberta, everyone recognizes, is much greater than it is anywhere in Canada," he said.

"The principles that (Harper's) brought up with, and believes in coming out of there, don't sit well with the rest of Canada."

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald is afraid of a party whose leader is from Alberta:

Nova Scotians can’t trust Peter MacKay to look after their interests in a Conservative government, says Paul Martin, because scary right-wing Albertans will be running the show.

You think we're scary now? Just wait and see what happens if Ontario leads the Liberal party to victory. From M.K.Braaten:

...if central Canadians vote this Liberal government back into power, notwitsthanding their blatant corruption and abuse of power, not because of their disastrous campaign or lack of coherent policies, but because the baseless smears thought up by the Liberal campaign, then my faith in this country will be greatly diminished. Monday could turn out to be a divisive day for many Canadians, including myself.

And this from Colby Cosh:

Stephen Harper's recent career has been, among other things, a desperate act of faith in national politics on behalf of Albertans. The Buzz Hargroves of the world have spawned an incalculable amount of pub-stool separatism here. It would be the work of an afternoon to find ten men with eight- and nine-figure fortunes who were willing to back an earnest separatist movement with a dynamic leader. Unlike Quebeckers, who dream poetically of unmaking Confederation but perhaps recognize the impracticality of the final step, we are people who want to stay put but realize that all the logic and incentives are increasingly on the other side. We grow frustrated when we seek for the exact moment that our individualist, democratic, pro-enterprise principles became un-Canadian. We ignore an ever-growing tide of insults and caricatures. Those of us who still fly the Maple Leaf, or indulge in other gestures of love for country, try not to feel stupid for doing so.

Ontario, choose your Canada: either one with the Liberals in power or one with Alberta as a province. I'm confident that Ontarians will panic and flee to the bosom of the Liberal party, and that the Liberal sweep of Ontario will give the Liberals a majority government.

If not, then the Conservatives will form the next government of Canada. Either way, Albertans will be engaged in the process of nation-building; which nation is built is now up to Ontario.

Update: more from seanblog, Waking Up on Planet X, Catprint in the Mash, and (holy cow!) from Calgary Grit.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Canada