Canada is having an election today to determine who will form its 42nd government.

In just under 12 hours, the polls will close in BC and the wait for the results will begin. This is the most important election of my life so far and I wonder if any will surpass it. There is so much at stake and so many possible outcomes. The best possible outcome is change, with a categoric New Democrat win that would end our bipartisan system. The worst possible outcome would be status quo, with the Conservatives, headed by Harper, remaining in power.

I’ve always been moderately interested in our politics, keeping a weather eye on what’s going on, and voting either Liberal or NDP depending on how the former has behaved in the previous mandate and who its leader is.

I’ve never voted Conservative and it wasn’t until this election that I’ve been able to articulate just why that party is the antithesis of everything I believe in. This is also the first election where I cannot understand why anyone in good conscience would vote for that party and have not been shy at expressing my disgust at those who do, I who have always believed that, unless you’re voting for a xenophobic national socialist party hell bent on destroying the country while trampling the human rights of part of their populace, to each their own at the polls. Well, certain actions by the Conservative party have made it clear that it also no longer has a place in a free, just, and democratic society.

The list of what Stephen Harper’s government has done to this country is long, disgraceful, and borders on dictatorial. It includes:

-a refusal to fight against climate change

-muzzling of scientists and destruction of knowledge

-turning our peacekeepers into soldiers and abandoning our veterans

-favouring environmentally destructive economic development, such as mining, instead of renewable resources

-supporting Middle East dictators

-refusing to investigate the epidemic of violence against Aboriginal women

-passing the ‘Fair Elections Act’, which has proven to be just another way to corrupt the election process (which is so bad, this election has gotten an international observer!)

-passing Bill C-51, which grants nearly unlimited powers to go after ‘terrorists’

-passing B C-24, which makes Canadians with dual citizenship second class citizens

-promoting xenophobia against Muslims to gain votes

And that is just off the top of my head.

I went to my local candidates’ debate the other night and this really helped me narrow down the root problem with the Conservative philosophy, setting aside all the racism and corruption under Stephen Harper. The NDP, Liberal, and Green party members had a lot to say on a number of topics, showing how they would improve all aspects of Canadian lives. The Conservative candidate was focused on economics only.

And therein lies the crux of my issue with the Conservatives, they are the party for people for whom money is the deciding factor in their life and their only measure of wealth. I think it’s pretty to clear to anyone who’s been reading me for some time that money plays a role in my decision making process, but is in no way the crucial factor. If it was, I’d be in a corner office overlooking Parliament Hill right now.

Yes, money is important. But so is a just and free society with clean water and air. Canada is supposed to be multicultural country rather than a melting pot. That, to me, is what defines us most.

I was eating at a Japanese restaurant yesterday and there was a young Muslim family sitting in the booth in front of me. As they left, the woman, clad in a hijab, caught my gaze as I made silly faces at her precious daughter. Her expression was defiant and I wonder if it would have been such just a few weeks ago, before the stupid debate on the niqab refueled the fires of Muslim xenophobia in this country.

The thing is, I’ve known and been friends with Muslims most of my life. I’ve read the Quran. I know there are as many types of Muslims as their are Christians and that the average Muslim we meet on the street is about as midway on the scale between barely religious and extremist as the average Christian. I am so tired of this Muslim xenophobia and I cannot believe that the outcome of our current election could very well rest on the strength of anti-Muslim sentiment in this country. I feel like we’re living under the George W. Bush Administration and, in fact, The Guardian agrees with me.

I voted last week, in the advanced polls. I have campaigned hard for my party of choice. There is nothing more left for me to do but go to bed early tonight and hope that I wake up in a better world.

I wish I could say I was hopeful, but I’m not.