I managed to get through the elections without making a single comment online. Wasn’t easy. But I wanted to stay out of this one. Just about everyone I know has been involved this time around, and that’s awesome. Apathy sucks and complaining after the fact is even worse, so it’s great to see people care enough to vote.
This was the first time, though, where the people around me were so divided on where they stood.
Not that they were individually indecisive, for the most part. Just that in the past most of my friends have been of like mind. We all pretty much agreed on where the problems were and who was best suited to deal with them, and then we went out and voted for that who. This time the whole thing was a stupid game of maneuvering and backstabbing with our leadership as the prize.
It feels like back then politicians were trying to get elected because they were compelled by their Vision. Well, that’s what it felt like. Now… they don’t even make a secret of it. They openly lie, cheat, manipulate and steal to what? To win. They want to win. It’s not about righting wrongs or leading the country to a brighter future. They just want to win. To beat the other guy.
Election coverage spent more time on who was slagging who than on the simple fact that the system is broken. It’s just a game. Too much tv. Too many movies. Too many cliched plots. A soap opera. The latest bad reality tv series.
Elections aren’t about winning. Few things upset me like the mentality of voting the popular vote so you can say you voted for the winner. Someone once said that those most fit to rule are generally those least likely to want to. Which is a nice way of saying that politicians are usually in it for all the wrong reasons. Money & ambition and not necessarily an ounce of wisdom.
I want to see politicians that really just want to advance the issues. Give me someone who cares about education, about rerouting people on the way down, about generating new domestic growth and about the responsible long view. Start fixing the mess. Enough with taking us another notch deeper into the tangle every four years.
Understand this, politicians of the future: I don’t care about you. I don’t give half a rat’s ass about your ambition or your career or whether or not you smoke pot and cheat on your spouse. I just want you to do what’s right for this country. Get it? If that means you have to make some people angry to do it then you’ll just have to look like the bad guy for a while. You’re supposed to be our leader, which implies that you know the Big Picture just a little better than most of us. That’s your job, after all. Not winning a popularity contest.
They had a minor crisis in the States when Ralph Nader said he was going to run as an independent. Splitting the vote, they said. That’s what the general consensus was around here when people talked about voting Green or NDP. Splitting the vote. Taking votes away from parties that might need your vote to keep even worse parties out of power.
Vote strategically? Vote for the lesser of two evils? Ensure that voices with perhaps more integrity are kept out of the House, just to make sure we don’t usher in a new era of pitiful short-sightedness?
Well, fair enough. That’s what I did, after all. Sacrificed my vote to shore up the defences. A stop-gap solution at best.
And now we have a minority government, where the party with the most seats is depending on an uneasy alliance with the party with the least seats to help them get anything done. How stupid is that? Where the issues are nothing more than game pieces? Where rather than debate the merits of a given cause they merely pick the side the other party opposes. The swing vote falls to the little guy, and while you might think that gives the little voice disproportionate power you have already forgotten that it’s all just a game and they’re all just people like you & me. They want to be heroes. They want to look good for the camera. They buckle under pressure. From House, from party, from lobby, from media and hopefully from riding.
As much as we’d like to take comfort in voting for a particular party it’s not that simple. That’s like saying red is better than blue. They both have their place. The Conservatives have some wacky ideas, but if they were all wrong about everything then chances are they wouldn’t be the second strongest party in the House. The Liberals have managed to cock up a lot of things recently, but here they are again for another round. Clearly they did not suck all that bad. And the NDP- the underdogs. They who believe in empowering the common folk and casting the safety net wide. They champion education and social security and quality of life for the common people and how can those ideas be bad? Well, execution is everything. Nothing like a committee to butcher a good idea. The Greens made a poor showing this year. As much as many of us would like to vote for the environment we don’t have the confidence in our fellow citizens to do the same and we worry we’ll end up with the wrong guys in charge and worse off than we are now. So we strategize.
Ah, politics.
Why don’t I run, if I have such strong views? If I’ve got it all figured out, why don’t I run for office and perform a little catalystical magic? Something about those most fit to rule…
why DON’T you run? it takes more than conviction. it takes charisma to get noticed. unfortunate, but true.. you seem to have both.
*taps foot patiently*.
did you know that this year had the lowest voting turnout percentage for Canada since confederation in the 1800’s?
Ahh, Davin. I have thought about it many times. And I usually tell myself the same thing- sooner or later I’m going to need that French thing. And that seems like a lot of work.
But you never know. I did well in French.
Agree or disagree, someone tell me that bud is just joking. I know he is an american strictly by his ignorance and lack of respect.
As per your post, I must agree on most of it. Funny though, that Campbell seems to fit your idea of a good leader. He is doing what he thinks is best for this province, even though it is causing hatred amongst his constituates. He is taking the pain, to do what he thinks is right. Agree or disagree with Campbell, you have to respect what he is doing. He is not thinking about his next term, only what is good for the province.
This could be a good conversation over coffee. See you soon.
> I know he is an american strictly by his ignorance and lack of respect.
Wow, what a naive, stupid bigot you must be! Are you prejudiced against people based on their race as well?
That may be one of the funniest ironies I’ve heard in weeks. If you can ignore the gross inaccuracy anyway.
Actually, it’s funny how the occasional idiot shows up here and spouts off, thinking that vomitting rhetoric will actually make any difference. I mean, any time I want I can just nuke anything he or she says. Any time I let his comments lie everyone knows I’m only leaving him there so we can laugh at him. Or her. Come on now. I have nothing against people who disagree with me, but at least bring something to the table. Hypocrisy has no place here, no matter how stupid you are when you show up. You can’t expect anyone to take you seriously if you’ve never had an independent thought in your life. And you aren’t even aware of how benighted you are. That’s what makes you so funny to the rest of us. You’re like a little bug that can’t find his way out of a simple box. Honestly now, do you have any idea? You hate Canadians but have no idea why. You have the nerve to be upset when someone else judges Americans. You really have no idea, do you?
And that’s why I let you stay. You entertain us. So by all means, keep it up. You’re funny. Like a clown, except we don’t have to pay you to show up. You seem happy to do that on your own time. It’s hilarious to me that you take time out of your apparently superior day to take impotent little uninformed jabs at a Canada you know worse than nothing about.
Bud, we’re laughing at you. Even the majority of your own nation is laughing at you. You aren’t accomplishing anything here except underlining all the reasons the world hates Americans. Congrats on that, at any rate. Way to further the cause.
I can only hope you grow out of this eventually. Puberty is bound to strike. You’ll discover girls (or, by the sounds of it, boys) and you’ll find better things to do with your time than give Americans a bad name.
Awww… I was going to see how much longer we could ignore Bud. :)
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go be gay and eat bacon.
Haha, whatever djmoron. You’re as dense as a brick wall. What you think about me is pretty much what I think about you: no original thoughts; no idea why; you’re a perfect example of stereotypical liberal laughing stock; and more. You’re just regurgitating typical (far-left) liberal rhetoric and platitudes, and use the typical tactics of dodging, playing coy, insults, etc. I really think you’d have a massive aneurism if you and your couple of Gaynadian buddies ever actually tried to think for yourselves.
> any time I want I can just nuke anything he or she says.
Woowwwww! Your stupid blog is such an infinitesimal ultra-liberal-US-bashing-Crapadians harboring corner of the web. Yet you act like it, and you, matter. What a little person you really are.
Bud, you keep coming back. Need I say more?
Hmm. J makes a valid point. I was drunk and felt like picking on someone much smaller than me. Let’s go back to the original game. That was funner. =)
Smaller than you? You look pretty chunky djmoron. Probably from all the muchie attacks you get from all the pot you smoke (after having gay sex because you have so much free time because you’re on Gov’t welfare).
He seems to be missing a fundamental part of this equation. We like our gay-friendly, pot-smoking, pseudo-communist country for these very reasons. We would be happier if the country became MORE gay-friendly/commietastic/stoned. It’s like getting up in some one’s face because they are too smart/good looking/rich. It’s hard to make a good insult about that.
I guess we can let it slide though, despite the fact that a pro-gay/pro-pot/pro-communism ticket could probably win you a seat in Parliment.
werd
dave
Again, trying to point out the obvious to this little boy is like trying to teach a rock to roll over. I can only assume he’s grossly overweight, chronically stoned, and pathetically in the closet. But don’t take my word for it. We’ll let the clown continue his act.
djmoron is grossly overweight, chronically stoned, and pathetically in the closet. Why are you so ashamed to admit you’re gay djmoron? Because you like little boys?
Yes, I’m ashamed to admit I’m gay because I like little boys. Want to come over to my house and play? I’ll let you wear the skirt. I know you wanna.
Look, bud. You & I are the only ones reading this. Don’t you feel just a little bit stupid?
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