“good riddance”
Used to express relief that someone or something has been gotten rid of. Also, “good riddance to bad rubbish”. A welcome loss or departure. This expression is often used as an exclamation. — from a dictionary of idioms.
For the information of my non-Canadian readers, Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party have finally been kicked out of power by a surprising Liberal Party landslide win. There has never been any Canadian politician that I have regarded with such loathing. He has represented everything I’ve considered vile, disgusting and immoral in Canadian politics. Divided opposition, abysmally low voter turnout and general apathy kept him in power for what seemed an eternity, but the Canadian people have finally woken up. As a succession of corruption scandals weakened his position, Harper hired an American campaign advisor — a hack strategist from the U.S. Republican Party — who advised him to run a campaign designed to exploit bigotry, superstition and ignorance in the manner of the Tea Party assholes in the U.S.. Canadians, to their credit, were largely disgusted by this kind of cynical creepiness. Voter turnout exceeded anything expected. There is little doubt that this was largely an anti-Harper wave, not inspired by any high hopes for any opposition party. “Strategic voting”, where voters carefully voted for whoever had the best chance of turning out the Conservatives, seemed to catch on, and young people seem to have flocked to the polls, too. I’m no particular fan of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, but he seemed to find his feet during the extended campaign, and his party will form a majority government, with a plurality in the popular vote on top of its victory in seats. The Liberals have many policy positions that I strongly oppose (such as support for the TPP and a partial acceptance of the hideous Bill C‑51). We’ll see how this turns out, but at least we’re rid of Harper.
Leonard Cohen’s 1984 song “Hallelujah” has been covered by many artists (beginning with John Cale), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything as magnificent as this performance by Francesco Yates, a soul-pop singer from Toronto who has entered the music scene with an EP, but has yet to release his first album. I just heard it on the radio a few hours ago, and was astonished by it. In the interviews I googled, he comes across as witty and intelligent.
