My Politics
Just so you know... I have not blocked out the excesses of the previous Liberal governments. I know what they have and have not done. I listen to both sides, via CTV news, CBC news, the Montreal Gazette and other political sources that gather such info. Sure, I could rattle off several ethical embarrassing faux-pas the present Conservative government has been caught up in, but what use would that be. Those who see no evil there, will still see no evil. Those who want to cast aspersions on the opposition will always have damning ammunition to to fire off in all directions. I don't think I am unique in my level of interest of what is going on in MY country. I know there are extremists in both ends of the spectrum. I suppose, for me, it is more about the big picture of how I see MY Canada. I do not see myself as an extremest. I feel any party who is in power too long, tends to take advantage of questionable situations and at times throw ethics to the wind... Politicians are complicated. That is not an excuse for unsavory activities. Not all the members of any party are guilty and not all are innocent. What is important is what gets done in the areas people feel are most important to their quality of life. Sure we do not want what gets done to involve patronage, graft or nepotism. Unfortunately, the facts, at times have proved otherwise. I think this sucks! The only thing I can do about dicey politicians is vote them out, write letters and sulk. What do I think is important to my quality of life? First off the economy = jobs and job training. If most of the folks are able to work, then there is money to spend, taxes are paid and all sorts of programs are able to be put into place, infrastructure maintained and so on... Next is health care... Canadian style, government run with all it's foibles and glitches, excluding greedy insurance companies who are only interested in bottom line. Then it is education. To me, this means pay teachers more. The future of our children depend on these people. Those are my tops.. next come, not in any sort of order: environment, Canadian identity issues, including the arts, telecommunications, Afghanistan, G8 spending! (good lord) My personal opinion of our present Prime Minister, I think, reflects the thoughts of many Canadians. He is sorta creepy and he does behave like a despot. He will bear no criticism on any level, so he has built a cone of silence around him. Reminds me of the story - The Emperor's New Clothes. In my opinion, Canadians did not fall so freely into recession the past two years because our banks very clearly did not allowed the same practices here as there were allowed in the U.S. Granted the Harper government did implement a vast plan to infuse the economy with more money because we were affected by what DID happen in the U.S. to some degree. He was right to do this. It was a good thing and it worked. Any government in power would have implemented the same measures. Only the Liberals would have been a tad more, shall I say, Liberal and the N.D.P. more so.He is also guilty of removing funds from areas that, to me, he should have let be. The result being, we are losing some ephemeral but necessary ability to BE Canadians. It is not easy to be who we are living next to .... well you know. Harper does identify with the far right in the U.S. and that, to me is crazy creepy. I do not mind that Canadians are in Afghanistan. I do mind that our troops are directly in the line of fire. Since 2002, 146 members of the Canadian Forces have been killed serving in the Afghanistan mission. Four Canadian civilians have also been killed, including one diplomat, one journalist and two aid workers.For decades, since the Pearson years, Canadian forces have been known as peacekeepers, not fighters on the front lines. I would not mind if our troops returned to that sort of mission.Some folks choose to like or not like a person based on their political stance. How crazy is that? I like or not like a person based on how they treat me, how kind they are, how loving they are. Again, in my opinion, I think there are loving, kind, compassionate folks in all political camps. If I agree to disagree, please do not take it personally. We are all headed for the same dirt farm and eventually cosmic dust. It is really how we identify/empathize with the daily doo-doo anyone has to contend with at any given moment that verifies to me, we are connected in so many ways, it boggles the mind.
