Post-Election Summary

American friends have asked me just how elated I am regarding this week's national election results.

Elated? Not at all. Relieved, certainly, although with major caveats.

I am relieved to see Stephen Harper decisively turfed from office.

I was, to be honest, similarly relieved when he got his majority. Now there'd be no more pussy-footing around with public expectations, doling out in grandiose measure while slyly taking elsewhere. Now we could finally see exactly what he was keen to do. And we did.

Boy, did we ever.

Here is the short tally. If you'd like shorter, I shall borrow from a friend on FB: there's the contempt his government has shown toward our democratic system, its subterfuge, its malfeasance, its bait-and-switch "budget balancing," its secret trade deals, its suppression of scientific research.

Also, its almost gleeful antagonism toward our First Nations.

So yes, this week I am relieved. I am relieved that voters who can be persuaded were indeed persuaded that what this guy was doing in office was so bloody awful that voting in his alternative couldn't possibly be worse.

That variety of relief doesn't even begin to approach the heady summit of elation. Though watching the man lose to the one person he absolutely did not want to lose to does have passable schadenfreude value.

Still, I am old enough and from-the-West enough that just having to say the words "Prime Minister Trudeau" will always tend to stick in the throat, just a bit. I could say more, but Michelle Dean (once again) best summarizes my discomfit with the entire national political scene.

But why not let our out-going Prime Minister have the last word? Here is his tribute to Trudeau Senior. Lessons to be learned in this -- for all of us, I am sure.

"Don't even try to duck, fella."

Addendum: Wait, I lied -- let's give the final word to Drew Brown, and his ribald summary of the election for VICE.