Election Why

The complaints from my Conservative buddies at the return of a Trudeau to 24 Sussex Drive are pretty loud, ranging from 'we're screwed' to 'whhhhhyyyyyy??'
I understand their concerns, but I am baffled at how they didn't see Monday Night coming.

Maybe they're confused because their party was endorsed by a majority of the mainstream media outlets that do such things, (National Post, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail) and they still lost, and lost big.

Even though Stephen Harper did the stuff conservatives feel should be done like cutting taxes and trade deals, they were sent packing this week in spectacular fashion and it's for the very same reason the PCs in Ontario were shut out in their last effort: you can be right, but most of us think you shouldn't be mean about it. You especially shouldn't be a mean, rude, racist bully (several other words deleted here) about it.

Americans think of themselves as exceptional and Brits think of themselves as self-effacing, but Canadians are known around the world for being polite; we say sorry to each other when we accidentally collide, for heavenssakes! Most of us not only like to think of ourselves as nice, we relish thinking that the rest of the world shares that view.

Former Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak was probably correct to say that the provincial public service could use about a hundred thousand fewer workers. But he came off like a jerk when he said it, and so now, a nice lady is paying ransom to teachers to stay on the job.

Looking back, you can see the mean streak from the beginning of Stephen Harper's tenure as PM with the early unleashing of those attack ads, but we all know it didn't stop there. It ended with his desperate move on the niqab, which is when finally, the nice people of Canada had had it with the meanness. We figure the ladies who wear niqabs have enough trouble on their plates and don't need any opprobrium.

At the end of the day, most of us want our leaders to reflect our values and I don't think most of us want to look in the mirror and see a big blue meanie.

That said, we don't want to see a moron, either. So, for now, unless and until he proves himself to be something else, we've picked a tall, slim, long-lashed fella with cut abs, some retro baggage, and a groovy wife.