Thoughts on the Canadian Election 2011
May. 7th, 2011 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bare_bearBetter late than never? It's politics, so never is probably always the best option, honestly.
I haven't said anything on my journal, but the recent Canadian election really disappointed me. I mean, I'm sort of glad that the Liberals didn't make it because I really believe they fucked up in choosing Michael Ignatieff as their leader, and it didn't seem like they felt they had to work very hard to win over Canadians. And why not eh, they'd been the majority for over a decade, then when they did lose to the Conservatives, it was only as a minority government, with the Liberals still acting as official opposition.
As a lot of news articles have stated, they got arrogant.
I admit, I was also uncomfortable with the fact floating around that Ignatieff had spend nearly 30 years living in the States (and elsewhere? I'm having a hard time confirming this - yay untruths and opinions during election time). Now, I have nothing against the USA, but we're Canadians, not Americans, and we want to stay that way. How can a man who's spent so long living in another country, a country we try very hard to separate our identity from theirs, know what the everyday Canadian will want in our ruling body? Maybe I was influenced by Conservative attack ads (and I won't even get into how I feel about those right now - although it's another scary trend that Canadian politicians have picked up in recent years from American political tactics), but I find that I'm not entirely comfortable with the thought of our (possible) future PM only coming back to Canada because the Liberal party asked him to come and run for leader. And I know I'm not the only one. I normally vote Liberal (if being forced to vote for the overall party rather than my local pick - which is normally NDP in rural Manitoba).
Of course, I'm even more uncomfortable with the Conservative win. I mean, okay, I've been not especially happy with the minority governments, so looking at it that way, I guess I'm happy that it's at least a majority. But I'm also not happy with the Conservatives actions and campaigns of late. I don't have time to go into it right now (should be writing thesis homg why am I using my break to write about something I loath?!?), but it's all made me rather sick. As I said on fb, I sort of feel about the election results the same way I did when Bush got 're-elected'. Only worse because it's my own country.
This whole post started because I came across a link on fb about the Conservatives killing access to an information database used by journalists (and other groups) to "keep track of requests and co-ordinate the government's response between agencies to potentially sensitive information released". As my buddy commented, "it begins".
I'm not a fan of politics. Hell, fan is too mild of a word. I fucken loath everything that has to do with it, especially as an everyday Canadian who really only sees it when it's shoved in our faces during election time, and when the entire group of them are acting like fucken asshats who can't even attempt to act like decent human beings and feel the need to bolster themselves by bringing others down. Aren't we against bullying in this country? Fuck, if one group acted classy and polite and respectable like Canadians are supposed to act, they'd probably instantly catch my attention and I'd be willing to listen to what they say. Instead it's 'pick the least worst'. Hell, my family generally never votes because who the fuck cares? They never do anything for 'us' anyways. It's all about southern Ontario and Quebec. Or so it seems. Anyways, as I was saying, I feel like I need to follow along a bit closely, and I want to try to keep track of the good, the bad, and the ugly choices of our government. I don't know if I'll keep up with it, but I'm going to try.
I will say one thing for the Conservatives (and it's the one good thing that people say when I start getting upset over the election results), they did a decent job pulling us through the recent recession. From what I understand, we've recovered best (or really well, comparatively) out of those hit by it. It's a shame it came at the expense of so many programs I support. Like science and the environment. And women.
I came across this link during the election. Now, I always try to take these things with a grain of salt, but this one seemed particularly good as it seems like they back it up with facts. But if it's true, fuck, I mourn where we're headed as a country.
Okay, I'm done. Maybe I'll have a short nap before getting back to thesising. T-13 days. omgwtfbbq for sure.
Heh, my 'wtf is this' icon (said by a disgruntled Cookie Monster facing a bunch of veggies instead of tasty cookies) is probably always going to be the most relevant to these posts. :D
I haven't said anything on my journal, but the recent Canadian election really disappointed me. I mean, I'm sort of glad that the Liberals didn't make it because I really believe they fucked up in choosing Michael Ignatieff as their leader, and it didn't seem like they felt they had to work very hard to win over Canadians. And why not eh, they'd been the majority for over a decade, then when they did lose to the Conservatives, it was only as a minority government, with the Liberals still acting as official opposition.
As a lot of news articles have stated, they got arrogant.
I admit, I was also uncomfortable with the fact floating around that Ignatieff had spend nearly 30 years living in the States (and elsewhere? I'm having a hard time confirming this - yay untruths and opinions during election time). Now, I have nothing against the USA, but we're Canadians, not Americans, and we want to stay that way. How can a man who's spent so long living in another country, a country we try very hard to separate our identity from theirs, know what the everyday Canadian will want in our ruling body? Maybe I was influenced by Conservative attack ads (and I won't even get into how I feel about those right now - although it's another scary trend that Canadian politicians have picked up in recent years from American political tactics), but I find that I'm not entirely comfortable with the thought of our (possible) future PM only coming back to Canada because the Liberal party asked him to come and run for leader. And I know I'm not the only one. I normally vote Liberal (if being forced to vote for the overall party rather than my local pick - which is normally NDP in rural Manitoba).
Of course, I'm even more uncomfortable with the Conservative win. I mean, okay, I've been not especially happy with the minority governments, so looking at it that way, I guess I'm happy that it's at least a majority. But I'm also not happy with the Conservatives actions and campaigns of late. I don't have time to go into it right now (should be writing thesis homg why am I using my break to write about something I loath?!?), but it's all made me rather sick. As I said on fb, I sort of feel about the election results the same way I did when Bush got 're-elected'. Only worse because it's my own country.
This whole post started because I came across a link on fb about the Conservatives killing access to an information database used by journalists (and other groups) to "keep track of requests and co-ordinate the government's response between agencies to potentially sensitive information released". As my buddy commented, "it begins".
I'm not a fan of politics. Hell, fan is too mild of a word. I fucken loath everything that has to do with it, especially as an everyday Canadian who really only sees it when it's shoved in our faces during election time, and when the entire group of them are acting like fucken asshats who can't even attempt to act like decent human beings and feel the need to bolster themselves by bringing others down. Aren't we against bullying in this country? Fuck, if one group acted classy and polite and respectable like Canadians are supposed to act, they'd probably instantly catch my attention and I'd be willing to listen to what they say. Instead it's 'pick the least worst'. Hell, my family generally never votes because who the fuck cares? They never do anything for 'us' anyways. It's all about southern Ontario and Quebec. Or so it seems. Anyways, as I was saying, I feel like I need to follow along a bit closely, and I want to try to keep track of the good, the bad, and the ugly choices of our government. I don't know if I'll keep up with it, but I'm going to try.
I will say one thing for the Conservatives (and it's the one good thing that people say when I start getting upset over the election results), they did a decent job pulling us through the recent recession. From what I understand, we've recovered best (or really well, comparatively) out of those hit by it. It's a shame it came at the expense of so many programs I support. Like science and the environment. And women.
I came across this link during the election. Now, I always try to take these things with a grain of salt, but this one seemed particularly good as it seems like they back it up with facts. But if it's true, fuck, I mourn where we're headed as a country.
Okay, I'm done. Maybe I'll have a short nap before getting back to thesising. T-13 days. omgwtfbbq for sure.
Heh, my 'wtf is this' icon (said by a disgruntled Cookie Monster facing a bunch of veggies instead of tasty cookies) is probably always going to be the most relevant to these posts. :D
