TwoBuy wrote:I actually wish there weren't term limits because I hate lame-ducking, but I agree that it is really hard to unseat incumbents even if the suck. My thinking is for any elected office you should be able to serve two consecutive terms but then you'd have to take at least one off before being able to run for election again.
Ultimately I'm okay with that, too.
What I didn't like about Chretien and the Liberals was that it was really boring. They didn't make terrible decisions, but they had total control of the government, and it was just getting ridiculous. And thanks to "the devil you know" everyone just kept it going. Then Chretien stepped down, Paul Martin pooched it, and now no one has supreme control of the government (thanks to back to back minority gov'ts) and I love it.
Only 2 consecutive terms would probably solve this somewhat, too.
And, yeah, I hate lame-ducking too. My main problem is that I felt like Chretien had done that for about the last 3 years of his 10 year reign as Prime Minister. He stopped doing much, then realized his poopewlaritee (Cheez Whiz should get that) was still quite high, called an election, and rode out another 2 years before stepping down. Everyone thought he was done after the two, but he came back for another couple years, and you just know he was already semi-retired at that point.
What makes lame-ducking worse in the States, in my opinion, is the endless campaign process. It is not terribly dissimilar here, but I feel like it gets beat over your head more with U.S. politics. So you get The President, no longer worried about any scrutiny, and you get a dozen hopefuls, vieing and jockeying and showing their teeth (in both senses).