Still angry!

I'm usually slow to anger and fast to recover, but not this time. As soon as I was able to think about the implications of the election results, I got extremely angry and I'm still angry; angry enough to stay away from people because I'm likely to explode (figuratively, of course). So far the anger hasn't abated (which is bad because Mother's Day lunch is coming up soon and I have to decide what to do).

I'm angry because this election, more than previous ones, demonstrates the ignorance and stupidity (they're not the same) of a good 90% of Canada's voters, as well as the laziness (coupled with stupidity/ignorance) of the 39% of potential voters who couldn't be bothered to vote. That 39% proves, by the way, that there was no "ground swell" of interest in the election, because the turn-out was only a bit more than 2 % higher than in 2008. That's not a shining example of interest in democracy..

Then there's extreme disappointment in the quality of election result analysis both by commentators, political scientists, and politicians. Hardly anyone interpreted the implication of the results correctly, whether it was analysis of the disappearance of the Bloc, the shift of Quebec voters to the NDP or the extremely poor showing of the Liberals. CTV, as usual, was shilling for Harper, so sober commentary couldn't originate from there. At the CBC, trying to report objectively (for which they were hounded several times by Tories during the campaign - itself a sign of Harper's degree of commitment to democratic principles), I don't remember hearing, during the broadcast itself, a correct analysis of the implications of what was happening. It wasn't till Tuesday afternoon that things started to improve there, but the implications were obvious on Monday night and should have been discussed.

That's not a good sign for the future of political analysis in this country.