Sad days

Politics in Canada is making me sad these days.  The party currently in charge has decided to randomly mail out checks to people in a flagrant attempt to buy votes, and it seems to be working.  As Sthenno says, it is sad that so many people will vote Conservative no matter what the Conservatives do, but the real tragedy is that so many people will suddenly find the desire to vote Conservative when a random check arrives in the mail.  It is even worse when you consider that the Conservatives changed taxation rules to make sure that almost all of that money gets clawed back at tax time anyway... but that is after the election, so who cares?

Also it is randomly adding complexity to the tax code and requires people to worry about paying taxes on money the government randomly tried to bribe them with, so it is terrible in all the ways.

Truly we are in a sad state when the government can openly and brazenly pay people to vote for them and it works.

But hey, at least I can look south of the border for someone even worse than Harper to make me feel good about my country!  The thing that makes me feel free to laugh at Trump where I can only sob when I think of Harper is that Trump isn't going to win.  He will yell a lot and say many truly awful things but at least in the end he will crash and burn.  Seems likely he will tarnish the Republican brand for many moderates and if he runs as an independent he may well torpedo the Republican contender's chances, but no way is he going to win.

The evil man trying to win with empty promises of fiscal skill and demonization of oppressed minorities is going to lose in the US... but he might win in Canada.

Faugh.