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Canada-sparklers

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.

Moraine-Lake-canada-9727405-1024-768

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.

images286AZ4XYI 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.