the election is over. what an interesting result. so we face a minority Liberal government. I suppose the question is what that will mean to us and what will be the result. One obvious result is that we will be going to the polls in probably two years. The second is that all of a sudden, Paul Martin is going to have to keep some of his promises. I know what you're thinking, a Liberal keep his word, what a concept. If the NDP comes with a list it will mean Paul will have to become a liberal. You see one of the great myths in Canada is that Paul Martin is a liberal. He is not, he is a conservative multi-millionaire. The only thing that interests him is not paying Canadian taxes. It is still the irony that the man who wants us to pay for all the benefits of being a Canadian doesn't like his company paying any taxes. You would think the man who believes paying taxes is a patriotic duty would gladly get rid of those 'flags of convenience' and pay his fair share. Of course, this is another example of the two rules that exist, one for the rich and one for the rest of us. The big difference is that the rest of us get to pay.

I was glad the local candidate I supported go elected. Jeff Watson will do a good job representing this riding in Ottawa. He's got some good ideas and will make a strong presence nationally. One difference between him and Susan Whelan is that he had to work to be elected and not depend upon the last name. Oh yeah, and some of his election workers, very nice.

I did some scrutineering last night, oversaw the counting of the ballots. I want to say this right here, right now, Liberals cheat. This one fellow decided a spoiled ballot should count, yes I immediately put on a challenge. Had this been a narrow election my objection could have made a lot of difference. Lesson to all, a Liberal will cheat, steal and do practically anything to win. Perhaps we should give Liberal supporters a world map to show Canada is not a bananna republic.

The biggest disappointment I had, besides the minority Liberal was the turn-out. I thought there was sufficient interest to get a huge crowd but the turn-out was the same as 2000. At 60.6% that means a lot of Canadians didn't get out to vote. Of course there will be the questions and probably the best answer is the fact a sizable number of Canadians have lost faith in the political process. The mantra, 'they're all a bunch of crooks' is one that comes out of the mouth of Canadians too easy. Of course if you examine the last 11 years of Jean Chretien, it's easy to understand why the cynicism has developed. Here was a man who went out of his way to prove politicians are crooks. He ruled with an iron fist, abused opponents and spent money on his cronies. He lied about the sale of his property and to ensure that the right people got the right money put pressure on the President of the Business Development Bank, to the point he resigned. This man later sued the government and won. Also for the people of Ontario, with the McGuinty break a promise a week regime there is a lot of mistrust. It's sad because not all of them are crooks, just the ones who run under the Liberal banner.


Peace