Election...... Finally!

I know that I am not the only Canadian who is slightly bleary eyed this morning. I, like many others, stayed up until 1:00 AM so that I could watch both the winning and the losing leaders make their speeches to either congratulate themselves and their workers or to commiserate with them. I was glad I did.

I was surprised at both Mulcair's and Harper's speeches. While they did congratulate Trudeau and the Liberal party, I found both of the losing leaders' comments to be a touch arrogant and at time a bit disingenuous.  They lost. They lost badly. Although I think it could be argued that the NDP lost more than the Conservatives, neither party lived up to their own dreams or definition of success. They should have said so. Both Harper and Mulcair needed to admit, in public, that they had misread the will of the people, that they had made significant mistakes. While I appreciate that looking depressed, sad or even angry because you lost may not be politically correct, it would at least show the voters that you are human and that you are capable of accepting responsibility. The parties would be stronger for such acknowledgements, no matter how unpalatable it would be for the leader to say. Even Harper's comment about being responsible for the loss came across as some arrogant claim to fame, or some pro forma comment a losing leader is suppose to say. As well, Harper, who by the time he made his speech to the Canadian public, had already resigned as the leader of the Conservative Party, lacked the - whatever the right word is - perhaps courage or dignity or honesty - to say so to the people in that hotel room in Calgary and to the Canadians who were watching across the country.

Trudeau's speech was long. I don't find him a particularly exciting speaker in terms of delivery (although the fact that his voice was clearly worn out may have detracted from his natural style) but there is no doubt that the content was crafted to excite, to stimulate and to create a sense of hope that politics can be and will be different from now on. Most unusually when he thanked the people who helped him get to where he was, he mentioned the names of his two top advisors. He also gave the credit for his rather stunning victory ( and come back from being a party many had written off) to the people who voted for him. A nice touch.  While it is perhaps easier to be humble when one is victorious, it was a pleasant change from the arrogant responses of the two losing politicians who could only brag about what they had accomplished, or what they would do in the distant future. I think he believes what he says, I think he believes that he can do what he says- perhaps not so much in  terms of the hundreds of policy decisions and bills that should be reversed but at least in the tone he wants to set. Time will tell if he can deliver on those promises.

After an election of this magnitude the amateur political junkies and pundits will spend energy asking the "what if" questions. My favourites in that fantasy category are: what would have happened if Harper had not raised the niqab issue; if he had not tried to turn Quebecers away from the NDP; if he had not weakened that party so that the polls started to suggest a shift. If Harper had let the Liberals and NDP fight it out, the vote might have remained more split between the NDP and the Liberals and Harper would have won once again by going up the middle.

And secondly, what would have happened if Mulcair had not assumed that he had a better shot of winning than normal, if he had not played it safe, if he had shown off that fiery debated style, the passion he is capable of. What would have happened if he had if stayed true to the Socialist roots of the party as opposed to veering somewhere off to the right of the political spectrum?

We will never know.