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Having had four days to reflect, I would now like to share some final thoughts on our latest federal election.

To begin, some thoughts – yet again – on the electoral system. As illustrated in my last post, if we had a proportional electoral system, we would now have a very different Parliament. Yes, it would still be a Conservative minority, but a much weaker one. The NDP and Green Party would be much stronger, the Bloc much weaker (though I generally like the Bloc [except for the separatism thing], I do think that it’s inappropriate for a party with so little of the popular vote to get so much representation).

I don’t, however, think that a straight proportional system is the best choice. I do think there is a need for regional representation too, and that’s why I didn’t include the two independent MPs. When a riding elects an independent it means that the voters really know this person and truly believe that the candidate will fight for that riding in Parliament. They are not just blindly voting for a party.

I’m not saying that MMP is necessarily the way to go, though I do like it a lot. All I know for sure is that we need a dialogue to start, and we need our politicians – all of them – to get behind making the Canadian electoral system more democratic.

On a similar note, I think we should take a moment to think about how people think about Canadian politics.

We are not a two-party system, and thank goodness for that. We have some real choices, we have parties that have very different ideas about how the country should be run, and that is fantastic because Canadians have very different ideas about how the country should be run.

I am very disappointed to see that our journalists don’t seem to realize this. I could not believe my eyes when I read the Metro on Tuesday, and saw them describe the NDP and Greens as “bleeding” Liberal votes. Other newspapers were no better, using language like “stealing votes,” as if the other parties had done something wrong by winning votes.

Excuse me? So it’s my fault that the Conservatives won? If only I could have closed my eyes and thought of Canada and voted Liberal, things would have been different, but no, I had to go and have opinions about issues and voted for something other than the two allowed parties. This is disgusting. One of the reasons why I feel so strongly about the need for electoral reform is exactly this: I don’t want to spend my whole life voting against the Conservatives. I want to vote for a party, I want to believe in something. And I certainly don’t want to be made to feel like a traitor for expressing my opinions through my vote.

The cover of the Toronto Star on Thursday (I think it was Thursday, don’t quote me on that) showed a picture of Harper on one side and Dion on the other. Under Harper was the caption “the price of victory” and under Dion “the price of defeat.” Again, this is not a two party system. The Liberals didn’t loose, at least not any more than the NDP or Greens did. This wasn’t a race between two parties; Layton and May did not cause the Liberals to loose. To my recollection, no members of the NDP showed up at my house, held a gun to my head and told me to vote for Olivia Chow or else they would off my kitty. I, a citizen of this country, chose which party I felt represented my views, and I voted for them. Boo hoo for the Grits, but I am allowed to vote with my conscience. It is not my job to not-elect Steven Harper.

I don’t particularly like the idea of “winning” in politics either. The Conservatives didn’t “win:” They were given the privilege, by the Canadian electorate, of leading our 40th Parliament. They are our employees, our servants, and we have bestowed them with a great honour. I think we often forget that. We pay our MPs salaries, and if we don’t like the job they are doing, we need to tell them. Loudly.

But I digress.

I encourage everyone to write to his or her MP and to Harper himself, and let them know you care about electoral reform. Let them know you care about democracy.

We are all Canadians. Politics shouldn’t be about this guy beating that guy, about victory and defeat. We are all in this boat together, we all win or loose together. The election is over and done, and now that it is, it’s time to get on with the actual business of running a nation: And the only way to do that is through compromise, rational discourse, and compassion for our fellow citizens.

I would like to end by paraphrasing John Wayne: “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my [Prime Minister,] and I hope he does a good job.”