A Historically Pathetic Year in Canadian Politics

Somebody put 2010 to bed already.

As the year draws to a close, the Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin estimates “it may now be possible to say that a historic low has been reached” in Canadian politics. Support for the two main parties has languished below 35 per cent for the past four years, and despite being handed numerous opportunities to endear themselves to voters, apathy towards our leaders has become ingrained. So yes, things are looking grim, but Martin offers this sliver of hope to Liberal supporters: “Mr. Ignatieff has one advantage. The images of both Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton are set in granite. On those two, the people have made up their minds. But they haven’t on Mr. Ignatieff. His measure won’t be taken until an election campaign.”

The Toronto Star’s James Travers says Ignatieff’s status as national whipping boy is part and parcel of being the Opposition leader, but is somewhat unfair considering the litany of mistakes Harper has made this year, including proroguing Parliament for political gain, presiding over the G20 fiascoes, scrapping the long-gun registry, and failing to win a seat on the UN Security Council. “By contrast, Ignatieff did no irreparable harm beyond failing to seize opportunities for his party,” writes Travers. Nevertheless, as Travers rightly points out, unless Iggy actually, you know, achieves anything in 2011, he’ll remain cannon fodder for the op-ed pages.

And of course the holidays wouldn’t be complete without some end of year lists. This list of naughty and nice politicians by the National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin is a column you could have written yourself if you paid even passing attention to the conservative paper’s blog this year. Rob Ford is “Nice Guy of the Year,” Gilles Duceppe is “Naughty, Naughty, Naughty!” etc.

This list in the Sun Media papers of the top 10 political quotes of the year has a few gems (Stephen Harper’s quip that “I have never been called upon to respond to a dominatrix before,” for one) but there’s no prize for guessing what their top quote was. Hint: it’s by Rob Ford and rhymes with “wavy grain.”