“I recently visited Montreal and I was just awash in nostalgia at what Canada was like then, how we were coming into our own, with Expo,” Cuddy said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “And I realized so many of the values I had always admired about Canada, where I lived, were being eroded. And that’s why we felt we wanted to join the conversation — not lead it, just join it.”
(Er, and I’ll add two minor criticisms – they should’ve called the song “Stealing All *Our* Dreams” to make it more effective. And the words on the video go by way too fast to read in parts!)
For anyone who doesn’t know, that’s journalist Paul Wells in the middle, not the Leader of the Rhino party. 😉
All of us have reasons why we vote for the parties that we do – some people are “born wearing orange diapers” and will vote NDP as if the party were a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation (and I’m sure many people have the same experience with red, blue or increasingly, green diapers – which would be cloth of course!)
Others will vote for some combination of the usual “big issues” in an election – the economy, the environment, foreign policy, etc.
Still others will vote for reasons that leave you shaking your head. (My most notorious example here is one woman who apparently said she was voting for Stephen Harper because “he likes cats”.)
There are all kinds of reasons people vote for the parties that they do. But if you want to check how your political beliefs might actually line up with party platforms, the CBC’s Canada Votes “Vote Compass” web site allows you to answer a series of questions then indicates which party you should vote for.
(The site isn’t perfect – I’ve taken the quiz three times and been given three different parties I should vote for in different percentages. I bet you can guess the only party I haven’t been told to vote for!)
In an effort to minimize the chance of a candidate saying something wrong or that could be taken out of context during the election, those running for the Harper Conservatives (including Stephen Harper himself) have followed an approach of minimizing contact with the media, their opponents, issues they’re uncomfortable with and even voters during what should be their *best* opportunity to be answerable to citizens.
Stephen Harper has even refused to participate in post-debate scrums with reporters (unlike the leaders of every other party this election and the leaders of every party – including the Conservatives – in past elections.)
One of the most basic things you learn in high school civics is that those we elect to government are answerable to us.
But given their approach, the Conservatives are showing that if you vote for them, you are saying that they aren’t answerable to you, they’re answerable to only themselves.
One of the things that’s surprised me about the Harper government is how they seem happy to offend and mistreat even the people who make up their core constituents.
As a broad generalization, Conservatives tend to support the military and vice versa.
“It makes no sense to take these services away from men and women who have sacrificed so much for this country,” said Roy Lamore, whose service dates back to the 1940s. “This isn’t just about old veterans,” he said during an emotional press conference. “This is about young guys too.”
According to the latest Defence Department stats, 160 military personnel committed suicide between 2004 and March 31, 2014. That compares to the 138 Canadian soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014.
Frank Valeriote, the Liberal veterans critic, said ex-soldiers who’ve been denied benefits will look at the unspent funds and feel “hoodwinked, completely abandoned” and wonder why they’ve made sacrifices for their country. “It is reprehensible and unconscionable what they’re doing so that the government can create an image of fiscal responsibility,” he said.
It’s hard to know where to begin with a series of posts about why the Conservatives deserve to be turfed from office after nine years in power. But perhaps my answer is right there in front of me.
Because the fact is that the trend since WWII has been that Canada’s longest lasting governments have all ended up having their mandates end right around the 10 year mark, give or take a year. For whatever reason at that point, many Canadians (even those who support the long-standing government, whether it’s Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives or Jean Chretien’s Liberals) start to feel like the government becomes tired, old and that it’s time for a change.
One Conservative voter I know who even has a yard sign for his local Conservative candidate still told me that it’s time for Harper to go so we can get some fresh blood in Ottawa. I’m not sure if voting for your local Conservative candidate is the best way to get rid of Stephen Harper but on the fact that’s time for Stephen Harper to go, we definitely agree! 😉
So beginning tomorrow, I’m planning to have a 19 day series of posts with various thoughts and observations about the Canadian Federal Election.
My politics are no secret and much of the content will be focused on reasons why the Conservative Party of Canada led by Stephen Harper has to go but I’m hoping I can also find ways to inject some lightness and humour into some of the posts, even given the serious nature of the topic.
I’m only writing 19 posts but if you’d like to get a headstart, you can read The Tyee’s Compendium of Harper’s Abuses of Power as a free PDF which outlines 70 different major transgressions by the Harper government against Canadian democracy and values during their 10+ years in power.
Photo via Saskatchewan’s Own Tornado Hunter, Greg Johnson (https://twitter.com/TornadoGreg/status/648325988191891457/photo/1)
Watched some of the rare supermoon lunar eclipse with Shea and Pace tonight. Pretty cool, especially considering the last time it happened was 1982 and it won’t happen again until 2033!
