aftermath of an election

I am surprised that it has taken me so long to respond to the election results. I think it is in part because I have been politically depressed (and perhaps even afraid of being politically oppressed). In fact I have not felt this down since Mike Harris won the Ontario Provincial election in 1995. It is so tempting to throw up one's hands in defeat and despair. It would be so easy to say that there is nothing to be done; that we are lost forever as we rapidly descend into hell in the proverbial hand basket.

But there is something that can be done - more importantly there is something that must be done. We constantly seem to forget that those who are the right side of the political spectrum are smart people. They are planful. They develop strategies and stick to them. We of the left side of that someone hard to define spectrum need to do the same. The next election is only 4 years away. We must start today to plan for that election.

What does that mean? We need to reach out to and engage the 14 year olds so that they are ready and motivated to vote when their turn comes. It was great that so many (relatively speaking) university students got involved. But we need to get every student involved. It is not enough to say that we don't care who they vote for as long as they vote. We do care who they vote for - it is time we said so. The Right cleverly targets specific groups and nurtures a relationship with them. It provides a logic for why one should agree with and support the multi-national approach to government.

It is well past time the time that we can afford to make the assumption that the truth is self evident. It is clearly apparent that it is not. It is time for those of us who know and understand what is happening to do as Gramsci suggested. We intellectuals (using his definition of an intellectual) need to provide leaderships in the areas of education and dialogue.

It is time to act.

Elections - decisions

Polesters should not be able to release the polling numbers. It confuses me and I suspect it confuses most people. The latest poles seem to suggest that the Conservatives are in the lead - a romping 38% where as the Liberals and NDP are tied somewhere around the mid 20s.  Which may mean nothing at all. But people may panic and change their vote if they feel that the Conservatives may get a majority - or they might join the band wagon and vote Conservative.

If the NDP are only gaining support in Quebec - then they may get a few seats there ( seems unlikely) but will do little to bled seats away from the Liberals. However - if they take seats in Ontario - it might in fact help the Conservatives.

However if the most recent polls are right - we could conceivably have a Conservative majority government with the 2 other parties combined having more of the popular vote.(Do you think we need to change how we count votes??)

The above speculation is exactly why we should not see the results of polls - it causes us to speculate as opposed to making a decision about who to vote for based on policy as opposed to fear.







 

using a tablet

This is my first attempt at posting on the blog using my new tablet.

This bit about my thumbs to type is not only slow but inaccurate as well. I assume that I will get faster.
Just realized that there is no spell check here....what will I do?

Oops I just found.

How texters manage? I am starting to think that all of those abbreviations have more to do with typos than creating a new language.

Election.... and hockey

It might be somewhat sacrilegious to say this - but clearly hockey has become more important than the elections in Canada. (Yes I know most of the teams are from the USA and they don't care about our elections). When the date of the leaders' debate has to be switched because the Montreal Canadians are playing - it does show our priorities. (although to be fair it was Montreal and Boston playing - I can remember being at UNB when those 2 teams were in the play-offs - in spite of it being exam time - nothing would have stopped me from watching those games).

But what bugs me more - is that there is all of this juicy stuff going on about how the Conservatives got rid of one of their members and how they didn't want the students' votes to count at Guelph - and I can't find the CBC News!!! It keeps on moving around depending when the games ends.

Hockey is making it hard to educate ourselves.

Election - 2011

If I was a young person - or someone who had never voted before - I am not too sure if last night's debate would have done anything to get me fired up. But the debate could have done exactly that if the 3 opposition parties had been cleverer.

By picking on him, Mike, Giles and Jack made Steve look like a cool calm rational leader. With the exception of a handful of comments (mostly it seemed to me by Jack) there were  few policies statements that would provide a clear alternative to the present government. By frequently ganging up on Steve, the three other leaders not only looked like they were picking on him, but they also missed the opportunity to provide a real alternative. (Canadians have this natural affinity for the underdog - which last night -appeared to have been Steve)

There are of course differences. But it seemed to me that they didn't want to talk a lot about the specifics.  All of the leaders were at best disingenuous for much of the debate.  For example - there was a reason why the Liberals supported the Conservatives for 2 years....they were not ready for an election. They did not want to force an election and lose badly. That is the honest answer and one that many/most folks would understand. Hell most of us know that already. Why didn't Mike just say so.

Similarly it would appear to be clear that a number of years ago Steve would have happily formed some sort of coalition with the NDP and PQ - but there is no way that he can admit although there must be 100s of people who know that it almost happened. Their un-truths provide all the proof needed for some people to believe that they are all dishonest and that none of them are worth voting for.

It could have been an interesting debate if they had all had been wired to lie detector machines and if they had debated policy. As it is we are left with limited choices.

The Pathetic Slowness of Spring

It may be an old man's limited memory ( ar at least how much of my memory is accessible) of what life use to be like - but it seems to me that this spring has taken longer than normal to get going.

I like spring - it is nice to have mildly warm days with gentle winds reminding us that summer will eventually come. But this year, I am not too sure if that is going to happen. I am afraid we are going to go from reasonably cool days into hot weather without that couple of weeks of spring. That would be a shame.

But then what do I know?

Politics - accepting responsibility

Of course those of us who are political junkies are somewhat compulsively absorbed by the federal elections. We will, in the next month, spend much of our spare time watching TV - listening to the paid political junkies discuss who said what, where and why. We will endlessly listen to commentators argue over the significance of those frequently less than pithy comments. And of course, for most of us, those discussions will do little to change our minds. We already know who should win and in some cases we already know that our votes will be wasted as we have seldom, if ever voted for a person who got elected (perhaps at some other time I will discuss the absurdities of "first past the post" electoral process).

However I have noticed this time a significant increase in the demands for a discussion of "real issues" as opposed to the 6 second attack ad sound bites. There is no doubt that any of the debates that will occur in the various libraries or other public spaces (or for that matter on TV) around this country will consist more of what the other party are/or will do wrong than what the individual will do right. Those debates will be tiresome and they will at best appear to be scripted. But whose fault is it?

It is all to easy to blame the Americanization of Canadian politics upon the media, the handlers or on the youth who do not care. And perhaps some of that blame is justified. But I think most of the blame lays upon us. If we the public do not participate, do not ask questions (not just now but all of the time) of our politicians; if we don't vote or attend meet the candidates meeting, if we don't talk about this stuff all of the time, it is not surprising that the handlers, the strategists and the politicians believe that we are just too uncaring and too poorly informed to make a decision based upon anything else that personality.

It is perhaps crass to re-state the old saying " we get the politicians we deserve" but it is hard to expect/demand more form others when we are unable or unwilling to ask the same of ourselves.

Get out there and listen to what they are saying, read the material, and for heavan's sake vote!!!!