We are being bombarded by federal election news these days but so far it’s all the same blah.
Maybe the leader’s debate will jazz things up a bit. Too bad Elizabeth May won’t be there, and I wish someone could explain to me what makes Gilles Duceppe a national leader.
I can do without negative ads and cutesy photo ops. They don’t tell how a leader would lead.
There are a number of issues nobody’s talking much about. For instance, trade agreements.
European Union negotiators are in Ottawa now working to finalize the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
This is biggest trade agreement Canada has ever been involved in. Do all the leaders agree with it? Shouldn’t the negotiations wait until after the election? What about foreign policy? Over the last nine years we’ve spent billions of dollars and lost 159 lives in Afghanistan.
Will Libya be the encore?
The opposition parties considered the Conservative’s contempt of parliament so heinous they toppled the government over it.
So why aren’t they talking about it? Finally, are our nuclear plants safe? Are we in any danger from fallout from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plants?
The Doomy Gloomies are raising concerns. Call them fear mongers if you wish, but this crisis was predicted in the 1970s by anti-nuke campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott. She said it was insane to build nuclear plants on sites that were in danger of earthquakes or tsunamis. It can’t bring her any joy to have been right.
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Governments often blame past administrations for problems and take credit for good things.
The Harper government is taking credit for how well we weathered the recession, but former PM Paul Martin had something to do with it.
As finance minister in the 1990s, he said no when our banks petitioned for amalgamation and deregulation.
That surely helped save our bacon.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
