Balderdash - Excuses Not to Vote

In less than a week, political pundits and others are going to start talking about the low numbers of Canadians who voted. They are going to suggest (again) that Canadians do not vote because (1) peoples' lives are so busy that polling times just do not work for them, (2) that people feel that their votes do not count and (3) that the public perception of politicians is that they are corrupt and/or disconnected from the voters. To all of that I want to cry balderdash!!!

Peoples' lives may be more complicated than they were half a century ago, but there are so many more options available as to when to vote than there used to be. Certainly, in my area advance polling stations were well advertised and in great locations. Those polls were open for 12 hours a day, for four days. It is hard to believe that someone, if they were going to be out of town on October 21, could not have found time during those four days - if they had wanted to. I remain unconvinced that letting people vote via the internet would significantly increase the percentage of voters.

There are, depending upon how you count them, two political parties who have a chance of forming the next government. There are also two other parties (plus the Bloc in Quebec) who appear to have a reasonable chance to act as power brokers in the case of a minority government. How many more choices does one need? Certainly, there are far more choices than there were in 1960. In this election it would appear that those who vote for the smaller parties could have a real influence on the outcome. Only someone completely ignorant of our political history would suggest that peoples' votes in 1960 counted for more than they are today.

Of course, there are corrupt politicians. Has there ever been a time when there have not been a few (or perhaps even more than a few) politicians who were more concerned with their power or their money? Following the lead of our sometimes corrupt first prime minister and his cronies, every government has made decisions that have benefited people that they knew and either liked or were obligated to. To assume that all 338 newly elected Members of Parliament are only there to serve all of the constituents, all of the time is naive at best. But they are only disconnected if we remain unengaged. The best counter to corrupt politicians is a large number of citizens who are engaged.

We, as Canadian citizens have ample opportunity to vote, there is, if anything too much information available to help us make out decisions and we are allowed to be as engaged as we choose to be.

If someone decides not to vote for any of the above reasons - that is on them. Blaming the system for not being perfect (and Lord knows it is far from that) is not a reason for not voting - it is an excuse.

Perhaps the media pundits should stop pandering to their laziness or apathy.

Blocking Bridges and Plastic Bottles

Protesters blocked some bridges during the rush hour last week in an attempt to raise the public's awareness of the need for action on climate change. It was an interesting strategy to accelerate public awareness and involvement in the issue. I am not sure how effective it was. The actions in various cities certainly garnered the attention of the media, the police and of course, anyone whose commute to work was made longer. While I found it impressive that some people were prepared to risk going to jail to increase public awareness, I am not at all sure if they were "attacking" the right audience.

Some commuters, I suspect, were just frustrated by the delay. Those that are concerned or even passionate about the need for someone to do something about climate change were probably tolerant of the action; those who have not made the environment their primary concern were more likely to be irritated by the delays. I suspect that no one who is in a position of power to do anything about the amount of carbon in the air, or the amount of pollution in our rivers, lakes or oceans was inconvenienced in any way. And surely, any social action must not only increase the public's awareness of the specific issue (although I find it hard to believe that anyone is not aware), it also must make it at least a little bit uncomfortable for those in a position of power.

I believe that protesters need to be sure that they are acting against the right target. Otherwise, they are frittering a valuable resource in terms of people's time and energy.

Yesterday, CBC (https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/sea-litter-ships-bottles-1.5318390) reported on an international study that suggests that a significant percentage of the plastic water bottles that are found of the world's most remote beaches may, in fact, come from boats, specifically cruise ships. Everyone, I assume, knows that disposing empty water bottles by chucking them over the back rail is not only a bad idea but it is also illegal. But clearly, some cruise ships are doing it. The paper wondered if our assumption that much of our beach and ocean plastic pollution comes from the land was at least partially incorrect. We can ban all of the single-use plastic we want in Canada, but if cruise ships are doing it where we can't see them - our ban will not solve the problem.

It would seem to me that blocking access to the corporate offices of the cruise lines and protesting every time a cruise ship docked at one of our ports would do much to both educate the passengers and to make it just a little bit uncomfortable for the owners. It could be a much more effective use of our resources.

Yes, it is a small thing, but we will start to win the war by winning small battles.

But of course, we won't do that because cruise ships bring too much money into our cities.

A Thanksgiving Thank You

It is traditional about this time of year that Canadians gather in family groups, eat enough food to feed a village and hopefully take a few minutes to say thank you for all that we have. It perhaps feels like a well, over-used phrase to say thank for friends and family, but those of us who are lucky enough to have friends or family with whom we are in touch - should be grateful. Both are rare commodities in a world that is so full of strife, chaos and dislocation.

When I am at the market selling my weaving, I usually spin. As I sit there spinning, people quite often come up to me and say how relaxing it looks or how meditative it must be. I usually say that it is impossible to spin while tense, but I never know if I only spin when I am relaxed or if the act of spinning relaxes me. I frequently go on to describe a good day for me which is me spinning for four or so hours with my tablet playing a downloaded audiobook from the library on one side, and my tea on the other
side. I always say I know how lucky and blessed I am to have a life where I get to do what makes me feel good. As I am talking to those people, I can never get over how exceptionally fortunate I am to have such a life.

It is not perfect, I could probably go on for hours (and sometimes do) listing all of the things that I wish were better. But just because things are not exactly the way one thinks they were going to be, is no reason to ignore the extraordinary blessings that so many of us have.

There is a pike of crap that is happening in the world. Syria is still a nightmare and perhaps about to become worse because of Turkey's fight with the Kurds, there are idiot politicians who seem to be hell-bent on boosting their own egos while watching the world crumble around their neighbours, thousands of people who are homeless in Canada are facing the winter months with no place to live and extreme weather events continue to disrupt life causing not only deaths but community dislocation. Not only are these and other problems happening now, but there is no plan, no vision of how to deal with any of the issues. And all the while in Canada the political debate revolves around getting more with no increase in taxes.

I would never suggest that there is nothing that we as individuals can do about some of the above problems. I think that perhaps the first step to changing the world is to recognize that many of us have been unbelievably lucky in how our life has turned out. We need to acknowledge our privilege.

Giving thanks for our blessing is not enough - we need to find ways so that everyone has the opportunity to feel equally as blessed.