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Canada, courage, Diana Schwenk, enviromental issues, fear mongering, Government of Canada, hair styles, healthcare, honesty, Hump Day Chronicles, integrity, Justin Trudeau, peace, politics, Prime Minister, rant, renewable energy, Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair, war, world issues
AND SO A FEDERAL ELECTION has been called…
I could go on and on about income splitting, Marijuana legalization, minimum wage increases, Trudeau’s pretty hair, Harper’s Helmut hair, or how most of Mulcair’s hair is on his face.
Or I could rant about the Keystone Pipeline, the Northern Gateway Pipeline or the one going through Quebec.
I could write an essay about election advertising spending, retroactive laws, sneaky omnibus bills, freedom of speech for scientists, crooks in the Senate and who knows where else, fear mongering, Americanism, dragging Canadians into wars we have no business being in, bringing it to our doorstep and then pooh poohing all over our service men and women when they come home.
I could regale you with my thoughts on putting all our eggs into the Oil & Gas basket; a finite resource by the way (and the production thereof IS causing serious illnesses in Canadians and causing damage to our environment – that’s not even an arguable point anymore), without putting the same effort into developing alternative, or better yet, renewable energy.
I could point out that the trickle down theory is not working, that the poor are getting poorer, that the deaths of many aboriginal women continues to be swept under the rug, that our healthcare system is in huge trouble, the blatant disregard for our privacy and basic rights and how they are slowly being taken away from us; like putting a frog into a pot of water and gradually raising the heat, that by the time I retire, I’ll have a puny pension, my daughter won’t have one at all – all while you make sure that you have one, that my grandchildren may never know what a clean body of water looks like and my great-grandchildren will never see nature as I know it today.
I am angry. I have been angry for a long time about these and many other issues, but I’m not going to go there. And I’m not going to buy into that bullshit that my voice means nothing anymore; that the government is a well-oiled machine that will just keep going like a bulldozer crushing everything in its path, regardless of opposition.
Instead, I’m going to shoot for the moon. I’m going to call you back to the basics would-be Prime Ministers.
I’m going to hold you accountable. You still work for the people, don’t you? Well I’m one of the people.
It’s time to break it down and build it up again.
Because I don’t think the government works anymore. I don’t believe in you anymore. I don’t trust you. I don’t think you remember the definition of democracy.
But go ahead and prove me wrong.
Make me believe you care about Canadians, all Canadians – present and future.
And here’s some little bonus tips for you. I’m not going to vote for the party that:
- has the best commercials, in spite of what your polls, focus groups and publicists tell you
- tells me who I shouldn’t vote for based on trivial grooming observations
- asks me to stand with them, without telling me why I should
- uses fear-mongering, bullying tactics or says that the loss of my privacy is for my own good
- acts the most American
- only cares about how they look and succeed in the short-term, while they’re in power, without considering future generations
*And don’t bother conducting a poll on the above mentioned items, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this.
Sincerely a weary Canadian, Diana Schwenk of Calgary, Alberta
~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~
There are standards to which government, religion and higher education should be held. There are examples that politicians and principled businesspeople should endeavor to set, regardless of whether their peers are making that effort. There’s right and wrong, not just better or worse.
And there’s a word for recognizing and rising to that: leadership. We could use more of it. ~ NY Times, Weary of Relativity, May 23, 2015.
I don’t about you Diana, but I’m in a riding, Calgary Central, where the Globe and Mail newspaper said it was 1 of the 4 Conservative ridings that one should look out, how hard the race will be among the candidates.
Actually I think Harper has slowly destroyed his own party in terms of allegiance..there’s probably a lot of backbenchers fuming away ..for a long time because they’ve been told to shut up.
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Yes indeed. These are interesting times Jean. ❤
Diana xo
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Your wisest of posts today makes this most important point, my dear Diana. Why hope for better when really we should be aiming for the best?
May change for the great really occur this election on both sides of our border, my friend. ❤
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Right? If I told my boss, “yeah, oops, that didn’t work but I did better than so-and-so, or just refused to talk about it all together, siting that it’s in the past and I don’t want to revisit it, instead of shooting for the moon, he’d fire my sorry a$$! ❤
Diana xo
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You betcha, Diana. 😮
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I do not really follow Canadian politics so am not sure about how the government is behind some of the things you mention. However, “bullying tactics that the loss of my privacy is for my own good” is pretty scary to me. Sometimes governments try and bring in such ‘loss of privacy’ measurements by stealth, they sneak them in on the back of other legislation and after a while we find that all that we have been fighting for for two hundreds years (liberty and all that) is actually fundamentally gone.
You go for it Diana!
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exactly Elizabeth, when it’s done slowly enough, we don’t even notice… Thanks Elizabeth! ❤
Diana xo
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No matter which party, which candidate we vote for, it seems we get the same as we had. Down here in the lower forty-eight, a bunch of billionaires will buy the next election. And probably the one after that. The candidates who represent my interest haven’t got a chance.
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They say that the world is run by 51 entities and only 3 are countries, the rest are corporations or something like that Don. A lot of people feel the way you do, it seems we just need to reach our breaking point before we stand up together… ❤
Diana xo
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One of the biggest distortions is that we cannot make a difference. We make a difference all the time, its just that it only shows when the build up hits the fan. 🙂
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By ‘we’ do you mean citizens or politicians, Graham? And yes, I believe we can make a difference! ❤
Diana xo
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Generally citizens. Perpetrated upon us by some politicians and any others that would prey upon us. Although I think some politicians/managers do also find themselves ham-strung by politicians and those that engineer our societies/economies to limit choice.
There seems to be a lot of effort to manage the complainant rather than the complaint and wear pepole down. Our strength is in communication and the unity of joint effort. These two, for example, are evidence of that: 🙂
https://www.change.org/
https://www.avaaz.org/en/
Rock on Diana. 🙂
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thanks Graham!
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Hell Diana, you can be my prime Minister any time. You should come and give it to us on Hyde Park Corner.
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Yeah, i’ll be right there Don! 😉
Diana xo
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Elections………….grrrrrrrrrrrr, I so do not like elections doesn’t seem to matter who you vote for none of them do anything and the ones who do want to try and do good stuff get lost in all the red tape and end up doing nothing at all, then they become another sheep following along doing nothing
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I hoping for a better outcome than that Jo-Anne! ❤
Diana xo
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Wow, you GO girl!
(And, just so you know…
I’m right on your ass; )
By the way, that pipeline you mentioned that runs through Québec? Also runs just a few kilometres south of us… ):):
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I can feel you breathing down my neck Deb! ❤
Diana xo
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The government needs to listen to the voters and their needs! I wish you the right change Diana. Don’t forget to send them all love and light to wake them up! It does their head in ha 🙂
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haha, kill them with kindness, Karen? Love it! ❤
Diana xo
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There’s some comfort in knowing that we to your south are not the only ones craving change !! Bravo for your commitment, Diana. ☺ Van xox
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Thank you very much Van. ❤
Diana xo
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Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “Every nation has the government it deserves.” (Actually, what he wrote was: “Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle merite.” 😀 )
If more people were as clear on matters as you (heh, “clearly”) are, then the people would have a better government. ‘Cause the thing is, despite all the vast sums of money, and all the lies and manipulation, the people have the power of the vote. The shame is in failing to use it. The shame is in not paying attention.
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C’est vrai mon ami! Thank you for sharing this perspective Smitty! ❤
Diana xo
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Go, Diana! You give ’em hell! 😀 ❤
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haha thanks Rachel!
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I wrote a post on this topic a while back. Every once in a while a forest has to burn to renew itself, to burn out the deadwood. Politics are the same and it is time.
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Thanks Ian, I love that metaphor! ❤
Diana xo
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Amen to every word here, Diana! I hope and pray enough of us stand together to elect a new government. It’s high time.
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It’s going to be an interesting election Jennifer, that’s for sure! ❤
Diana xo
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