Political Climate
Looking at my blog I realize that not only do I need to blog more because I have a lot of crap to say, but that I need to work on the format of it as well. There's some really nicely laid blogs out there that I read, and mine looks drab in comparison. I'll have to get off my lazy butt sometime and look for a new look.
Anyways what's really bothering me lately is the big news in Canadian politics. The fall of the Liberal government, and the upcoming election. Years ago I was quite interested in politics; I worked on a few election campaigns, I took a few political science courses, and I kept up to date with the current events. My interest in politics kind of died out though with the more I learned, and saw. First of all I knew that I would never have a future there, I'm nowhere near enough cutthroat or charismatic, and then I even doubted that I would want to be in office even if I could. I guess I grew cynical about the whole process as I clearly could see it's many flaws.
I took this whole election thing in stride though knowing without a doubt that I would cast my ballot. I was surprised though at the reaction's of others around me. My Mom said it was a huge waste of money and time and she had no interest in voting again. No doubt this feeling was a common one echoed across Canada when the election was called. To me it seems a small cost for living in a democracy like we do, and this kind of attitude while understandable is very sad.
It makes me think that our chances of evolving culturally as a race are very slim. Given our level of technology it seems very likely that we'll have the ability soon to abolish our representative style of democracy and adopt a true form of democracy where everyone can vote on every issue and assume ownership of their future. Doesn't seem too likely at this stage of the game with such high voter apathy, and people's unwillingness to inform themselves on the issues. I'd definitely lump myself in the ignorant catgeory as I seldom take the time to catch up on this stuff. But I disgress as I like to do occasionally.
Back to the topic at hand I can say that while I definitely support the election once called I don't at all agree with the reason for it. In my opinion it was a move made for the sake of more power by the Conservatives and the New Democrats. I could be wrong, and Jack Layton the leader of the N.D.P. could have truly felt that the Liberals were corrupt and that he was helping Canada, but I doubt it. In my mind that whole corruption excuse is moot because the current party is not the same party that it was in those times. We had an election since then and the Liberals, and Paul Martin won by a small majority. In addition Paul Martin was cleared of any misdeeds by an exhaustive inquiry, and those responsible have been punished. I'm not so naive to believe that the whole truth was revealed, but it was as much truth as we're ever going to see.
Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps the Liberal party should be crushed for that mistake. Crushed till they no longer exist, or till we get a new scandal from the current party in charge.
I'm not a big Liberal booster by any means, and I realize that Canadians should be angry with them for what happened, but I'm afraid I see little alternative coming up. I don't agree with the views of the New Democrats on a political level, and on a personal level I don't like Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Plus his platform of reducing the G.S.T. sounds pretty lame to me at this point. Hopefully all the oppostion parties can come up with more ideas than "we need to clean up government". It's a noble goal, but if we have to go to all the trouble of voting again it should be about some important issues.
...or maybe it really doesn't matter, and no matter who wins we'll end up with the same government. *sigh*
Anyways what's really bothering me lately is the big news in Canadian politics. The fall of the Liberal government, and the upcoming election. Years ago I was quite interested in politics; I worked on a few election campaigns, I took a few political science courses, and I kept up to date with the current events. My interest in politics kind of died out though with the more I learned, and saw. First of all I knew that I would never have a future there, I'm nowhere near enough cutthroat or charismatic, and then I even doubted that I would want to be in office even if I could. I guess I grew cynical about the whole process as I clearly could see it's many flaws.
I took this whole election thing in stride though knowing without a doubt that I would cast my ballot. I was surprised though at the reaction's of others around me. My Mom said it was a huge waste of money and time and she had no interest in voting again. No doubt this feeling was a common one echoed across Canada when the election was called. To me it seems a small cost for living in a democracy like we do, and this kind of attitude while understandable is very sad.
It makes me think that our chances of evolving culturally as a race are very slim. Given our level of technology it seems very likely that we'll have the ability soon to abolish our representative style of democracy and adopt a true form of democracy where everyone can vote on every issue and assume ownership of their future. Doesn't seem too likely at this stage of the game with such high voter apathy, and people's unwillingness to inform themselves on the issues. I'd definitely lump myself in the ignorant catgeory as I seldom take the time to catch up on this stuff. But I disgress as I like to do occasionally.
Back to the topic at hand I can say that while I definitely support the election once called I don't at all agree with the reason for it. In my opinion it was a move made for the sake of more power by the Conservatives and the New Democrats. I could be wrong, and Jack Layton the leader of the N.D.P. could have truly felt that the Liberals were corrupt and that he was helping Canada, but I doubt it. In my mind that whole corruption excuse is moot because the current party is not the same party that it was in those times. We had an election since then and the Liberals, and Paul Martin won by a small majority. In addition Paul Martin was cleared of any misdeeds by an exhaustive inquiry, and those responsible have been punished. I'm not so naive to believe that the whole truth was revealed, but it was as much truth as we're ever going to see.
Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps the Liberal party should be crushed for that mistake. Crushed till they no longer exist, or till we get a new scandal from the current party in charge.
I'm not a big Liberal booster by any means, and I realize that Canadians should be angry with them for what happened, but I'm afraid I see little alternative coming up. I don't agree with the views of the New Democrats on a political level, and on a personal level I don't like Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. Plus his platform of reducing the G.S.T. sounds pretty lame to me at this point. Hopefully all the oppostion parties can come up with more ideas than "we need to clean up government". It's a noble goal, but if we have to go to all the trouble of voting again it should be about some important issues.
...or maybe it really doesn't matter, and no matter who wins we'll end up with the same government. *sigh*
posted by Eman at 10:08 PM
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