Groundhog Day

As Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff duke it out to prove themselves the legitimate alternative to Stephen Harper, one must wonder who they're really trying to serve. The NDP and the Liberals both claim they are the only party to stop Harper. They also both claim to be the only party working for the Canadian people. The truth is, if they really cared about the former, these parties would stop quibbling about the latter and join forces.

We're caught in an electoral groundhog day: The same parties are spouting the same lines as they have the last two elections, and they're bound to get the same results unless someone shakes up some serious change. The Liberals and the NDP either have to fight to the death, or form an amicable union.To continue this charade of both being viable options to stop the Conservatives is a sham, and these pained efforts to promise they won't form a coalition is ridiculous. It's the only way out of this mess, guys. Unite the left, and the country will finally be able to move beyond this stalemate and have a reasonable debate about the issues, instead of this tussle for class president (or is it class clown? It's hard to tell sometimes.)

Parliament Hill has been in gridlock for years, with too many parties clogging up the 308-seat House and churning up the airwaves during election campaigns. The Conservatives saw the writing on the wall years ago and merged the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance to create the Conservative Party of Canada. The left needs to do this too.

Unless it is ruled ineligible for federal party status due to a lack of national candidates, the Bloc Quebecois will always be the third, spoiler party of this two-party-based system. The Liberals and the NDP must sort out their differences and create a working, co-operative union of the left, just as Harper did on the right. That co-operation could then - gasp! - be carried into the House to create something other than this blocked, grasping, dysfuntional set-up with which we've been belaboured for the last five years. Only then can the House clean up the current messy state of denial that is hurting democracy and robbing Canadians of a viable, functioning government.

(NOTE: I can't vote, so don't have a stake in this. I also don't have a party loyalty. I just can't stand this ridiculous pounding of our collective heads against the same wall. Get your acts together, politicians!!!)