Revolutionary Moderation

Did someone order an election devoid of ideas?



I listened to three highly-placed campaign workers discuss the upcoming election on The House this morning, and what a waste of time. I get the feeling the entire election will be sounding about the same:

Liberal: The Alliance Conservatives are scary. Stephen Harper has said some crazy things!



Conservative: Martin and other Liberals have said all of the same things. So vote for us, because we're not negative, like the Liberals, who are very negative. We don't compare ourselves to other parties, the way the Liberals do.



NDP: Those two are the same. We're different, because we have ideas. We're not going to tell you what those ideas are, though - rather, we're pretty much going to talk about the similarities between Martin and Harper.

I propose a debate format for the rest of the Saturdays throughout the campaign period, Anthony. Mentioning another party or leader gets your mic turned off. Three little kill switches - red, orange, and blue. Once they all get shut down, you call the Bloc campaign guy, and talk to him for the rest of the broadcast. Or have a back-up group of minor party candidates, who would be more than happy to talk about their own platforms instead of putting words in the mouths of the others.



Here's one prediction I've made before, but deserves a second iteration: all of this negative campaigning, alongside a late June election and no discussion of the positive platform differences among the parties, will serve to create the lowest turnout for a general election in Canada's history.