I seldom write ‘My Canada’ on Bob’s Blog as a first person essay. Most articles are hopefully balanced issues with the content well researched. That is not to say each essay will be to the liking of every reader. I am at different times accused of being anti-Conservative, anti-Liberal, anti NDP, ignoring the Bloq or Greens and even anti-God I suppose if the reader’s God happens to be a political leader or supporter of the military.
I don’t believe in irrational political support or war. I do support defending my home, family and way of life from attack even it means supporting police or military action after all negotiating for a solution is exhausted. I do not believe in preemptive military strikes such as the US invasion of Iraq, continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. I believe there are better solutions to both than creating a living hell for the people affected using bombings, missile strikes and clandestine military action by both sides.
It is easy for North Americans to feel sympathy in the short term for the millions affected before turning off the realization that many are dying needlessly while letting others take care of the problem. Most important, those surviving these ‘wars’ are learning to hate and will turn that hatred against the ‘enemy’ regardless of which side appears to have won the conflict after some sort of solution is finally reached.
That brings us to a loving and forgiving God. Really?
The theme of this essay is not to preach the benefits of military actions that are undeclared war. It is to discuss the current political turmoil generated by some politicians trying to retain or gain the power to rule Canada on behalf of a political party. Like 85% of Canadians (according to one statistic I read) the current election is a waste of $300 million not about to make much of a difference regardless of the outcome. The cost is only one-third that of the country’s recent G-8/G30 chaos creating the arrest and imprisonment of innocent bystanders simply for viewing the proceedings.
The two main parties are unprepared to discuss issues, change, or plans for the future aside from the same old recycled promises. Is it any wonder half the eligible voters don’t turn out to vote when the minority government is defeated after the majority toppled the ruling party with contempt of parliament charges that didn't become a major election issue.
Why would voters be interested in rewarding any politician with something as cherished as our vote to support a political party using the national police force to keep young people with opposing political views from attending a party rally? That all-important vote should not support any party allowing a white supremacist or a person stating publicly sexual abuse is not serious under some circumstances.
For Canada’s political system to survive major change must happen. Worldwide television viewers are beginning to see change happening in provincial, municipal and international jurisdictions. The Provincial Wildrose party surfaced recently In Conservative Alberta. The traditional Liberal/Conservative political slugfest for the small majority of voters coming out to the polls In Ontario will probably encounter problems and maybe even challenges during the upcoming October election. Quebec politics are undergoing the biggest change since the 1995 referendum. Recent municipal elections in Ontario began giving an entire new slate of candidates a mandate to reverse the hallmark old-man style politics of previously elected councils.
All over the world from Great Britain, to Russia, China, Africa, and the Mid East to mention only a few places where people are massing and in some cases sacrificing lives to protest traditional governing. Can Canada be far from seeing the same major upheaval heralding change of its outdated political system where the rich want to hold on positions of often-unearned property and prestige?
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