Canadian vs. US elections

If I wasn’t a political junkie, I would have known that an election had been called on Sunday. Within hours, Rafferty signs left over from the last federal election sprouted on lawns.
While the people of the United States have been working themselves into an election fever since January 2007, our political leaders have only stumbled into the election this summer.
In the US it takes almost 24 months to elect a president. Some of our minority governments haven’t lasted that long. In Canada we are going to do it in 37 days.
While Mr. Harper promised that elections would only fall on prescribed election days set by parliament, he has managed to side step the legislation that his government passed. His claim that the House of Commons have become dysfunctional is questionable.
The Conservatives with the Liberal party members absenting themselves from any legislation has been able to have pretty much their way for the last 30 months. It is a remarkable run for the ruling minority government. It has set a record for time between elections. No other minority government has lasted this long.
For the past two weeks, I have watched both the Republican Party and the Democrat nominate their candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. The speeches, just not on the final night, but almost every night were upraising. Yes they pillared their opposition, but the eloquence, passion, humour, and thoughts had audiences not only in the halls, but also in homes throughout the United States excited.
Our leaders, while the House of Commons are sitting, debate daily in the house and are interrupted by catcalls and desk thumping. Everyone is trying for his or her 15-second sound bite on the late evening news.
Our leaders are poor speakers in comparison to the US speakers who spoke for the two previous weeks. I am told that John Diefenbaker was an outstanding speaker who could raise the excitement in Canadians with his passionate and forceful style. Historic film clips of his speeches show his abilities.
Since Diefenbaker, who of our leaders could get us up out of our seats to action? Today of the five national leaders who would you suspect might motivate our nation to action? Our leaders just lack the skills to gallop people to action.
During the last two weeks, both the Republicans and Democrats managed to get over 30 million viewers to watch their leaders speak. Could Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, or Elizabeth May ever attract even 2 million viewers to hear them speak?
A great line from Barack Obama is “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America - there’s the United States of America.”
John McCain last Thursday spoke “Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in rerun.”
The lines by both leaders brought people to their feet clapping, cheering, smiling and excited.
Are there any memorable lines from Canadian politicians? Could any of the four bring Canadians to their feet?
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher