To the polls?

According to the Conservatives, it's time to collapse the Liberal Government in Ottawa.

This would land Canadians at the polls sometime in June.

Frankly, at the moment, I'm thinking it's time to start a party called "None of the Above". Right now, we have a dysfunctional parliament, nominally headed up by the Liberals - whose inner/upper circles appear about as rotten as any I've seen; an opposition fractured across three parties all of which have significant problems - and none of which strike me as "ready" to govern.

Duceppe - well - he's got one thing in mind, and I don't like it. The one piece of good news is that BQ couldn't get a seat outside of Quebec if it tried.

Layton - sigh - he showed so much promise before the last election, but the William-Shatneresque overtones of his campaign speeches didn't exactly make people comfortable with him - and there's still the long standing issue of the NDP getting past the old McArthy-era "better dead than red" associations that still echo in this country.

Harper - just makes me queasy. He's not a particularly compelling speaker, and he hasn't yet managed to convince many that the radical factions that were always the fatal weakness of the Reform/Alliance parties are actually moderated after the merger. (In fact, there's a good deal of evidence to suggest that they aren't)

As for Martin, in his best light, has managed to come out looking like he is the pianist in a brothel - the one who's saying "this is a brothel?" while the place is being raided. At worst, it appears that the rot still pervades his party. A few people I've heard have commented that he is either corrupt or incompetent - talk about a damning indictment. (But sadly for a Prime Minister, bad news at the polls)

Ugh! - what an ugly mess. The polls I've seen lately suggest that many voters feel the same way - the parties aren't moving in the polls all that much - meaning that if we wind up at the polls in June, we might just get no more than another minority government. We might get sufficient general apathy that only the "interest" votes get out, and we get a slim majority government that those groups will then demand their pound of flesh from.