Six months from today, Canadian voters will go to the polls in the 43rd Canadian general election, to elect 338 Members of Parliament to Ottawa. As is the case in every election, our democracy and most cherished values will be very much on the line in the late evening of Monday, October 21st.
On this Easter Sunday, when according to the Christian faith God raised Jesus from the dead after his crucifixion, in a Sunday morning resurrection, the 43rd Canadian general election, too, is very much about resurrection.
Will Andrew Scheer’s right-of-centre Conservative party be resurrected, once again allowing the Conservatives to come to life as the governing party of Canada? Will Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party, having suffered the poor misfortunes of the Jody Wilson-Raybound ‘scandal’ be resurrected in time for the October 21st general election, and find themselves given new life after having suffered an unrelenting death spiral these past months?
Will Jagmeet Singh resurrect the federal New Democratic Party from their 42-seat position in Parliament, and bring the party a renewed vibrancy and new life? And what of Elizabeth May, Canada’s one-seat Green Party of Canada leader — with the advent of a Peter Bevan-Baker led PEI Green party government possibly in the offing this upcoming Tuesday evening, and given a vibrant and effective Green Party caucus in Victoria and a poll topping Green Party contingent in Vancouver civic government, on the evening of October 21st will Ms. May be joined by a half dozen or more of her Green Party colleagues, resurrecting grassroots democracy in Canada?
Over the course of the next six months, VanRamblings will delve into the issues that will help determine the 43rd Parliament of Canada, and whither our democracy — although, truth to tell, we also intend to write about our civic and provincial governance, as well as provide idiosyncratic coverage of the arts, the stories of our life, and during the course of the year our cancer journey, and how we find ourselves once again present and accounted for.
VanRamblings’ plan is to write daily through the end of June, addressing any number of topics that interest us, while cutting back our publishing scheduled somewhat during July and August, while once again ramping up our federal election coverage following Monday, September 2nd Labour Day.
We hope to see you back here often. We’ll be looking for you tomorrow.
