Political overload

Yesterday I did something I thought I'd never do: I bought a membership in the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta. I've worked for the NDP since I was 15 (I fell and broke my tailbone in their Halifax office, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "busting your butt").

Ron bought a membership, too. But we haven't undergone a radical conversion. It's just that it looked like Alberta was about to go even farther along the road to hell, and we knew we had to do something. The Conservatives are the only party that's going to be in power in Alberta in the forseeable future, so casting a vote in a provincial elections is pretty meaningless. But yesterday members of the Conservative party were voting for a new party leader, and a vote in that election can make a difference. There were three choices: a "suit" from Calgary with fairly moderate views; a southern rancher/professor who is only slightly to the left of the Ku Klux Klan, and a nice farmer from the north. The right-wing crazy man was very likely to win. So out we went and got our memberships. It was a multiple-choice ballot; you indicated your first and second choices, and if no one got over 50% of the first choices, the bottom guy dropped out and the second choices of the people who voted for him were counted. And so the winner was the one who came second after the first choice votes were counted: the nice northern farmer. With any luck he'll be harmless.

Meanwhile the federal Liberals were electing their new leader at a convention in Montreal, so when we weren't out messing around with the provincial Conservatives we were stuck in front of the TV. And the same thing happened, sort of. The leaders were overtaken by a really nice guy who'd been running third most of the time.

The thing that struck me about both these events was how nice all these people were to each other - the Liberals in particular. They'd had some ugly leadership conventions in the past, but this time they seemed to be making an effort to be civilized and kind. It seemed so much more intelligent than some of the alternatives you see in politics.

So politicians really can act like intelligent human beings. Maybe there's hope for this country, at least.

And maybe I'd better go out and buy myself an NDP membership to soothe my conscience