Really Children ..... Please Grow Up!

This week the Finance Minister of Canada presented the federal budget. The Opposition heckled, yelled and banged their desks so loudly for the entire speech that people could not hear what he was saying. The next day, the Conservatives presented 257 motions that they insisted be voted on. Because the 257 motions put forward by the Conservatives were all related to the budget and because all budget-related motions are seen as votes of confidence, if any one of those motions had been won by the Conservatives, the government would have fallen. Therefore all of the Liberal members needed to be there all of the time. It needs to be noted that because the Conservatives knew that they would lose on each motion - they had no need to ensure that all members were there for each vote. The sight of cots lining the halls of parliament so that members could take a nap would look bizarre if not such a sad commentary on our politicians.

I can understand that the federal Conservative smell fresh blood and want to make as much hay as possible while the sun is shining (sorry for the mix metaphors). I understand that for political parties such as the Conservatives and the NDP who both appear to lack any capacity for making some contributions to the running of the country, that the temptation to fixate on one topic where the government appears to be vulnerable may be almost overwhelming. I can understand that doing the hard work of looking for solutions to our problems is a lot less fun than heckling anyone who is speaking. But it is rude and far more importantly the Conservative strategy was counter-productive.

The House sat for 30 straight hours. Listening to speeches and then voting on each motion. 30 hours to vote on motions that the Liberals were guaranteed to win seems like a colossal waste of time and energy. While it may be that there is something in the allegations about how the Prime Minister and his office deal with SNC-Lavalin matter, it is not the only issue facing Canada. If the Conservatives want to demonstrate that they could run a county perhaps they need to start showing some maturity.

As useless as I think most federal (or for that matter provincial) politicians are most of the time - engaging in silly actions just ensures that they do even less. In fact, committee meetings were cancelled the day after the Conservatives' gambit to attract attention because everyone was too tired. It is difficult to imagine that anyone would see the Conservatives in a positive light after watching them demonstrating with childish glee their silly faked irritation. What employee in any company would be allowed to show such disrespect for their bosses - the electorate?

If the Liberals get tired of all of this stuff - they could do what the former Prime Minister did and just prorogue Parliament. In the meantime - it would be nice if everyone could attempt to act in an adult fashion and at least pretend to treat each other with a modicum of respect. If not the six months between now and the next election are going to be a waste of time in terms of anybody doing anything in Ottawa.

What is the Worth of a Human

Just over a year ago two local residents were charged with failing to provide the necessities of life for their dog. Since then, the dog has died and has become a symbol for the need to have stricter laws dealing with animal cruelty. Concerned citizens have protested at the courthouse and elsewhere demanding serious consequences for the two individuals. While I have not read any of the comments on social media, according to officials some of the comments have been racist, calling for violence and physical retribution against the accused (1). Protesters are demanding the maximum penalty which could be up to five years in prison(2).

I don't understand people who have an animal and then do not take care of it. In the above case, it was more than just a little bit of neglect - the animal had been seriously hurt, probably by its owner and then willfully ignored. It died a horrible death. I understand why people are concerned. I agree that people need to face consequences for their behaviour. BUT.......

It would seem to me that we need to keep perspective on what is important and where we need to spend our resources. On Vancouver Island, there are a host of issues that would benefit from more active public involvement. There is a lack of emergency shelters for people who are homeless, there are residents in the Valley who do not have access to enough food, there is, like almost everywhere else in Canada, far too many people dying because of a drug overdose - the list of things that need fixing is almost endless. All too frequently the only people who speak out about these issues are the ones saying - "don't let that those kinds of people into my neighbourhood". Outside of a small handful of people, no one is particularly concerned about what happens to folks who are struggling. There are not regular rallies demanding that something is done to ensure food security for all or that there be sufficient shelter for those who have been abused.

No one should ever suggest that the dog's painful existence and eventual death should go unremarked or unpunished, but if there are limited human resources to effect change - where should we spend those resources?

At the same time, Cyclone Idai has swept through Southern Africa killing perhaps hundreds of people. Plan International (3) has suggested that there may be thousands of children at risk. Countries such as Mozambique lack almost any of the resources required to help its citizens. While various world health organizations will ask for and receive millions of dollars from concerned citizens, no one will insist that policies that encourage global warming or that allow for the destruction of forests or the mining of fragile environments to get rare minerals that power our cell phones should be changed. And certainly, no one will demand that those who perpetrate these destructive acts (or benefit from them) be punished.

It is difficult to compare the two tragedies - one dog horrendously abused and then dying versus hundreds if not thousands of people dying. It is easier and more rewarding to express outrage at an identifiable face than it is to demand that the world's priorities change. I suspect that some of the local protesters are protesting because it feels as if they can have some influence on something, that their presence will perhaps have some sort of impact on the outcome of the trial. In a world where things seem to be shaped by inaccessible politicians and the executives of multi-national corporations, people need to feel as if they can control something, anything.

We all need to feel as if we have some control over our lives - how we achieve that sense of control may be critical to the survival of our species.


(1) https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/defence-lawyer-out-in-duncan-animal-abuse-trial-1.4337744
(2) https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/rally-held-in-duncan-to-condemn-acts-of-racism-amid-dog-abuse-trial-1.4334235
(3) https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/19/africa/cyclone-idai-mozambique-zimbabwe-intl/index.html

How Dumb Can they Be?

It appears, according to CBC and other media outlets, that during the 2017 campaign to elect a leader for the newly formed Albertan United Conservative Party, that there was some collusion amongst some of the candidates to ensure that Brian Jean lost to Jason Kenny. Quite simply the Kenny campaign team provided another candidate, Jeff Callaway, with resources that included " strategic political direction, media and debate talking points, speeches, videos, and attack advertisements" (1) all of which were designed to reduce votes for Brian Jean. Callaway had every intention of dropping out and indorsing Kenny. The RCMP have been asked by the office of Alberta's election commissioner to investigate further.

I, of course, am not an Albertan. Even if I was, who got elected to lead a provincial conservative party is perhaps none of my business, But I think how someone gets elected is everyone's business. If I had lived in Alberta and had participated in that leadership race by supporting Jeff Callaway, I would be bloody pissed off that he had not been serious about leading but rather only about ruining someone else's chance to lead. Whether or not it was illegal will debated by lawyers and pundits for some time. It is clear to me, however, that regardless of what is allowed by the United Conservative Party - that Kenny or at least his team's actions were just on the other side of being morally wrong. It was a gross manipulation of the public's perception done so that the crown prince of Canadian conservatives could be welcomed back to the Albertan political arena.

There is another issue that concerns me almost as much. That is - how stupid or arrogant are those who work in the backrooms of political parties? It seems to me that workers from the entire political spectrum send too many emails. Within those electronic exchanges, they share all kinds of information that while it may have seemed to be pertinent at the moment, and it may have been expedient to communicate via email - they have to know that someone, at some time, might examine their correspondence. They must realize - unless they are so arrogant to assume that they have the unfettered right to do whatever they want - that someone might see what they were doing was, at the very least, a little bit shady.

There may have been a time when people accepted that within the old boys club there were some strange bed partners. Partners who exchanged favours so that they could lead the assumed blind and ignorant public in whatever direction they (the politicians) wanted them to go. While that sort of thing clearly still happens, the public is hopefully less blind than it use to be. It is so much easier to find a record of potential wrongdoing. Part of me is quite delighted that they seem to be so full of themselves that they never think about the possibilities of having their emails flitting around the ether being read by unwelcome eyes- it makes it so much easier to watch them. It concerns me, however, because if those workers are the people who are doing the backroom manipulations and in fact creating the political environment and agenda are so unaware of how things work - how bright can they be? I think we need to have smarter people involved.

Side Point: the cynic in me wonders if it is an accident that this potentially damaging information about Jason Kenny is made public just months before the Alberta provincial election.

(1) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/kenney-callaway-campaigns-collaborated-against-brian-jean-1.5059899