  Four days to the federal elections and among us political junkies, there's a growing sense of excitement. At this point, it's likely to be close and it's likely to result in a minority government. There are lots of studies about how minority governments behave and whether they last and whether they accomplish much, but for pure intrigue, you can't beat them. If I lived in Canada, I would be somewhere between Liberal and NDP in my political orientation. So my personal interest lies in seeing that kind of combination. The Alberta Health Care Flap -- is it a Flap? Yes-- has left the Conservatives looking a little stupid.
Alberta's Premier had planned to release a new health plan two days after the elections, a plan that was likely to include provisions for greater private service, etc. Basically, a major reform that the Premier had already said would likely violate the Canada Health Act, and one that voters wouldn't find out about until after they had cast their ballots. After a Liberal outcry, Premier Ralph Klein promised he would reveal the full plan yesterday. But his government gave only partial details of the plan.
(The Bush administration is really good at that: promising full disclosure and revealing almost nothing. ) So, the story morphed into "Klein fails to reveal full plans for Medicare. " And, indeed, that's the play it got last night, and is still getting urlLink this morning . urlLink Soblo thinks this controversy over Alberta health care reforms could be the undoing of Stephen Harper. He's more knowledgeable than I am about Canadian politics - it may well be. I watched Paul Martin's appearance on CBC last night.
I saw it on the Halifax feed so I could go to bed earlier, there being few other reasons to watch CBC Halifax. Overweight Canadians expressed their thoughts about the issues and flailed helplessly at the Prime Minister, who displayed his usual verbal dishevelment. A good finance minister doesn't necessarily make for a good Prime Minister. But at this point, voters seem more concerned about how Stephen Harper would be as a leader. And more and more of them seem to conclude that he wouldn't be that good. 
