By Andre Den Tandt

The provincial election is nearly two weeks behind us and Premier Kathleen Wynne has revealed her reshuffled cabinet. Most of the pundits have given their verdicts on the election, the PCs are looking for a new leader and so we can all go into a long nap. But why do I have this nagging thought that all is far from well in this province?

Locally, in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, things worked out as expected, with Conservative Bill Walker re-elected. Provincially things turned out quite differently from what pundits and pollsters predicted. And, while there are at least half a dozen explanations for the Liberals getting a majority government, not much has been settled.

Are we now going down the proverbial "primrose path of dalliance " to become just like Greece, stuck in economic and financial quicksand from which there is no escape, let alone an easy one? Take Argentina or Spain, if you prefer.

Or are the incompetent, dissembling, vote-buying and free-spending Liberals now going to find virtue to metamorphose into a newborn creature made suddenly accountable and responsible?

Perhaps we 'll escape somewhere down the middle and muddle through, as the Brits have a habit of doing?

What if the truth lies, on a more fundamental level, in a breakdown of our political system, a downwards spiral caused not so much by a lack of democracy but by too much of it? In other words, when barely half the eligible voters bother to vote, when 19 per cent of eligible voters are enough to garner a majority of the seats and thus govern the other 81 per cent, when that government can run rough-shod over any or all in the latter group, how much of a democracy is left?

When a coalition of unions can outspend the main opposition party five to one, thus doing what individuals or companies are forbidden to do by law, how far are we from having an institutionalized governing party, just as Mexico had for the better part of the last century?

It's not too difficult to do the math. The three largest parties have a following of roughly 15 per cent of those actually voting, who will loyally vote for that party, come what may. In recent years, both here and in the United States, political parties of all colours and stripes have become successful in identifying various "constituencies," large and small, which can be "bought," lock stock and barrel, by making deals with them that guarantee their vote at least for the short term - say the next election.

That, by my guess, can cement another 15 to 20 per cent of voters. In Ontario that's enough for a minority government, most of the time. The rest is purely a question of getting to swing voters, with money, attack-ads, media-campaigns and canvassing. Bingo, you have a majority government.

Sure, politicians will say a stupid thing, then try to correct this a hundred times without success and alienate a part of the electorate. Yes, Mr. Hudak, this means you. Parties will elect leaders based on ideology and narrow partisan issues that create more

enemies than friends. And stick with them long after their best-before date. No need to ask which party.

Then there's the NDP and Andrea Horwath. It's more than a bit ironic that, in an age when we are pretty quick to turn on politicians for not having any principles they can't abandon at a moment's notice, she voted against the Liberal budget on principle, because she could no longer stand to be associated with that unprincipled bunch. Yet she paid the price. It's hard to figure that one out.

The trouble is this: When partisanship, deals and money are all it takes to elect a government, democracy has left the room.

So, what should we expect?

For those of us who live in the country and don't have a farm-product quota or a wind-turbine contract, things look pretty bleak. The new-old government can throw us under the bus, and the city-based electorate has just told them they can afford to do so politically.

Financially, it's a different story. The credit-rating agencies will almost certainly downgrade Ontario's credit when premier Wynne re-introduces her budget as promised, thus throwing her financial projections into disarray. Bob Ray could tell her what she will be forced to do when that happens. That's when the unions will scream that they were betrayed. After that it's anybody's guess. But let's not forget this: It's under very similar circumstances that Mike Harris, that wolf-in-wolf's-clothing, got elected.

Who said history doesn't repeat itself?

Andre Den Tandt lives in Sydenham Township.