Why this election is depressing me

The federal election in Canada is depressing me because of how the left is acting in the election.

I have never seen a campaign from the left side of the spectrum that is so negative and alarmist. I do not mean the Jack Layton NDP campaign as I do think he is doing a great job in the campaign and focusing more on why the NDP should be the home for your vote than every before. The left I mean at the activists, the environmental groups, the university educated chattering classes and the rest of that ilk.

There is a very strong push for strategic voting to defeat the Conservatives. It is unethical and unprincipled to actively advocate that people strategically vote. The people pushing these campaigns focusing on opposition to a Conservative government feast on public fear and worry. They move out of talking about ideas and visions for a future and into a realm where the only issue in politics that matters is being in power and doing so without an agenda.

I see this as a continuation of a stronger and stronger authoritarian streak in the left in Canada. Many on the left in Canada have abandoned the ideals of democracy, free speech, and equality of people.

In an election I expect to have parties decry the leaders of the other parties, but the attacks on Harper are in a realm that we have rarely seen in Canada. The attacks are less and less about his skills and more about personal issues. Harper is made out to be a bully or controlling, but this is done without evidence and without comparing him to Chretien or Martin before him. It is like people on the left want people to hate Stephen Harper, and that is a disservice to all Canadians. Harper, like Dion, May and Layton, has a passion to make Canada a better country. He is not evil, he is not the devil.

Yes, I know there are those of you out there that will point other leaders have been reviled, but normally that has been because they are at the end of their time as PM and managed to make some serious blunders along the way. Trudeau was hated in the west because of the National Energy Policy that led to people's lives being financially ruined. I did not like the Conservatives attack ads about Dion, but they focused on his potential skills as Prime Minister and not anything personal.

I also see in the left a stronger and stronger hatred of Jews. People say they do not hate Jews they hate the state of Israel. That statement reminds of Evangelical Christians saying about gays they hate the sin but love the sinner. I can dislike and disagree with a government in Israel, but I am not about say they are fundamentally evil as a nation.

Israel is imperfect as a state, but given the fact the country is surrounded by anti-semitic fascists seeking to exterminate them, one has to wonder how they have managed to survive as a democracy with free speech. Israel is not the reason there is no peace. The Palestinians need to give their head a shake and finally accept the fact Israel is there and the Jews are not leaving. Where are the leaders in the Arab world condemning the attacks on Jews? Where are the Mullahs that need to tell people that killing Jews will put people in hell and not heaven?

But in Canada there is a very strong movement that sees Israel as the problem and the fascists as the heroes? In the same way, why does the left in Canada like the proto-fascist in Venezuela?

Getting back to the election, I see this trend in the left that really would like to see a permanent government, without reference to the public, of their view of the left. A government brought about not because of the public being in favour of what they want, but brought about because of fear and a loathing of the 'other'.