Thursday, December 07, 2006
Politics, Thoughts, Stuff
Politics are, for me, fun. I don't know why, but there's nothing I like better than the intrigue, the debates and even the political satire. I told my parents that the best part of being a politician, for me, would be watching Air Farce every night and laughing at their impersonations of me. Maybe I'd make a good politician - but I like programming computers to do my bidding too much.
But today, I was looking through some documents for something I was interested in (let me get to that in a moment) and I realize something unsettling. A large amount of the discussion that goes on, ON ALL SIDES - Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, independant - is targetted attacks against the other people.
Now in my mind, every party brings something important - the Conservatives have good policies on economics. The NDP is very socially conscious. The Bloc... well lets not get into that. Even the Green party has a contribution to make on the environment.
What do the Liberals offers? They are the glue - they are the only party that can take economics, social justice, the environment and national unity and bind them together to make them work. They are the masters of taking enough right wing capitalism to make our country work in the global world and to give our citizans the tools to suceed, but also take enough from the left wing socialism to give everyone a fundamental level of living. It isn't perfect by any means, but its better than what the NDP or the Conservatives offer. And now they're integrating the environment (or sustainable development, which is a better concept) into them - Dion, the new leader, called it the three pillars of the Liberal party. And I would like to suggest a fourth and a fifth pillar to form the five essental components of government in Canada - national unity and responsibility.
Stephen Harper wants to offer accountability - this doesn't seem good enough to me. There is a difference between accountability and responsibility. Accountability means you have enough oversight in place and enough checks and balances in place so that when things go wrong, there is a way to deal with it - an essential part of responsibility. But responsibility goes further. Responsibility means that our politicians will be good leaders. They will make sure that our tax dollars are spent in a way that benefits Canadians. They will explain why they make decisions as far as they can without compromising security. They won't scumb to infighting and partisan politics - these take us nowhere. Its about doing whats right for Canada and its citizans - not your political agenda, not a single group of Canadians, but all Canadians. Its about building a country where the citizens trust the government, where we are ensuring a quality of life for the future generations by preserving the environment, where we ensure that all Canadians have the same basic rights and freedoms and at least a minimum standard of living and where we ensure that Canadians have the ability to make a living. This is Canada for me - it isn't one thing, its combining all of these things together in the right mix that make Canada a truly special place to live.
And thats why I vote Liberal - because they're the only ones who seem to see a need for balance.
Now, to the days events.
Same sex marriage is here to stay - so spaek Stephen Harper and Peter McKay. By an overwhelming vote, greater than the last one (and note that this time, it was a truly free vote and even less Liberals voted against same-sex marriage (13 compared to 32 last time)), they determined that we don't want to revisit the issue. So I applaud all the Liberals, except the 13 who voted to reopen the issue, the entire NDP, the entire Bloc and the 13 conservative MPs who voted against reopening the issues.
The commissioner of the RCMP gave a touching farewell speech today and said some important things that I hope people watched and thought "wait a moment... this is different from what the media has been force feeding us...". But before I make any comments on what happened, I would really like to read a transcript of what was initally said by him and what he later corrected himself as saying. There are only six different interpretations of this and I need raw data to make my own opinion - if anyone has a link to a transcript, I'd love it. But otherwise, the man demonstrated himself to be intelligent, thoughtful and a person with a good grasp on reality - a person who realizes he will make mistakes and prides himself on trying to make the best choices so as to minimize the impact of those mistakes. A better RCMP commissioner, I don't know if they will find.
I had an interesting comment today from a so-called friend of mine (remembering a previous journal entry on friends?). They commented that I was a, quote, "noob", end quote, for taking an interest in politics. Now a lot of people have disagreed with me on a number of issues, but outright saying that its (in essence) stupid to have an interest in politics boggles the mind.
Here's the connection - everything you do in life involves the government. You pay taxes (GST/PST here, along with income, etc). You enjoy certain standards of living, certain healthcare and education benefits. There is EI, welfare, pensions. Our culture has also enjoyed a very large freedom in terms of human rights compared to other countries... notably the US of A. These all have an impact on our lives - as I said, we pay taxes. We are impacted either directly or indirectly by the human rights - I am a bisexual and, who knows, one day I might want to marry a man. We all know somebody who is affected by these issues - we all know someone on welfare, a person who wants to enter into a same-sex relationship, a woman who is the victim of abuse - the list goes on.
Can we say we don't care?
If you do not follow politics at all, if you don't vote, if you don't have a say (however small) in the direction of this country, you don't care. Because if you don't know about politics, you can't make an informed choice about which direction you think Canada should take. If you can't make that informed decision, then we end up electing a random government or a government which happens to have the popular opinion at the moment, regardless of their policies. And when we elect a random government, they tend to do things that maybe we don't want them to do, but we elected them so they have the right.
To say it is foolish to follow politics and become involved in politics is to be naive. The world and our country is not perfect and the best way to help out is to become involved. Look at the political parties and pick the right one for you. Vote for them, follow what their candidates say, what their MPs say. Look at their platform - does it make sense. Don't go with the popular vote, go with what you think will make Canada a better place for all Canadians. And if you don't vote on election day - then I'm sorry that you can't find a spot of humanity in you.
People will now laugh and say that if you don't vote, it doesn't matter. Its one vote.
But one vote counts. Some elections are won by ten votes or hundreds of votes. There are a large number of people who don't vote every year - they could swing the election if they ALL had voted. Sometimes motions pass by one vote that maybe we didn't want to see pass. And sure - the political parties aren't perfect. Every party has problems with corruption, with greed - every party makes mistakes. Because politicians are humans too - they're not superhuman people. They're just people and they have weaknesses. Some of them aren't all that bad. It doesn't excuse you from not voting. Sometimes you just gotta go out there and pick the party with the best vision, even if they're a bit corrupt.
We hope to have elections soon - possibly in the spring/summer. If we do, I hope each and every one of you will put some serious effort into thinking about who you're going to vote for and why and then have the honor of telling me that you voted.
Onto other topics
---------------------------
Exams tomorrow - English and Networks.
---------------------------
I wanted to write about one more thing before I hit the hay, but I guess I'll save it for tomorrow as I'm exhauted.
Goodnight all!
- Dep
But today, I was looking through some documents for something I was interested in (let me get to that in a moment) and I realize something unsettling. A large amount of the discussion that goes on, ON ALL SIDES - Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Bloc, independant - is targetted attacks against the other people.
Now in my mind, every party brings something important - the Conservatives have good policies on economics. The NDP is very socially conscious. The Bloc... well lets not get into that. Even the Green party has a contribution to make on the environment.
What do the Liberals offers? They are the glue - they are the only party that can take economics, social justice, the environment and national unity and bind them together to make them work. They are the masters of taking enough right wing capitalism to make our country work in the global world and to give our citizans the tools to suceed, but also take enough from the left wing socialism to give everyone a fundamental level of living. It isn't perfect by any means, but its better than what the NDP or the Conservatives offer. And now they're integrating the environment (or sustainable development, which is a better concept) into them - Dion, the new leader, called it the three pillars of the Liberal party. And I would like to suggest a fourth and a fifth pillar to form the five essental components of government in Canada - national unity and responsibility.
Stephen Harper wants to offer accountability - this doesn't seem good enough to me. There is a difference between accountability and responsibility. Accountability means you have enough oversight in place and enough checks and balances in place so that when things go wrong, there is a way to deal with it - an essential part of responsibility. But responsibility goes further. Responsibility means that our politicians will be good leaders. They will make sure that our tax dollars are spent in a way that benefits Canadians. They will explain why they make decisions as far as they can without compromising security. They won't scumb to infighting and partisan politics - these take us nowhere. Its about doing whats right for Canada and its citizans - not your political agenda, not a single group of Canadians, but all Canadians. Its about building a country where the citizens trust the government, where we are ensuring a quality of life for the future generations by preserving the environment, where we ensure that all Canadians have the same basic rights and freedoms and at least a minimum standard of living and where we ensure that Canadians have the ability to make a living. This is Canada for me - it isn't one thing, its combining all of these things together in the right mix that make Canada a truly special place to live.
And thats why I vote Liberal - because they're the only ones who seem to see a need for balance.
Now, to the days events.
Same sex marriage is here to stay - so spaek Stephen Harper and Peter McKay. By an overwhelming vote, greater than the last one (and note that this time, it was a truly free vote and even less Liberals voted against same-sex marriage (13 compared to 32 last time)), they determined that we don't want to revisit the issue. So I applaud all the Liberals, except the 13 who voted to reopen the issue, the entire NDP, the entire Bloc and the 13 conservative MPs who voted against reopening the issues.
The commissioner of the RCMP gave a touching farewell speech today and said some important things that I hope people watched and thought "wait a moment... this is different from what the media has been force feeding us...". But before I make any comments on what happened, I would really like to read a transcript of what was initally said by him and what he later corrected himself as saying. There are only six different interpretations of this and I need raw data to make my own opinion - if anyone has a link to a transcript, I'd love it. But otherwise, the man demonstrated himself to be intelligent, thoughtful and a person with a good grasp on reality - a person who realizes he will make mistakes and prides himself on trying to make the best choices so as to minimize the impact of those mistakes. A better RCMP commissioner, I don't know if they will find.
I had an interesting comment today from a so-called friend of mine (remembering a previous journal entry on friends?). They commented that I was a, quote, "noob", end quote, for taking an interest in politics. Now a lot of people have disagreed with me on a number of issues, but outright saying that its (in essence) stupid to have an interest in politics boggles the mind.
Here's the connection - everything you do in life involves the government. You pay taxes (GST/PST here, along with income, etc). You enjoy certain standards of living, certain healthcare and education benefits. There is EI, welfare, pensions. Our culture has also enjoyed a very large freedom in terms of human rights compared to other countries... notably the US of A. These all have an impact on our lives - as I said, we pay taxes. We are impacted either directly or indirectly by the human rights - I am a bisexual and, who knows, one day I might want to marry a man. We all know somebody who is affected by these issues - we all know someone on welfare, a person who wants to enter into a same-sex relationship, a woman who is the victim of abuse - the list goes on.
Can we say we don't care?
If you do not follow politics at all, if you don't vote, if you don't have a say (however small) in the direction of this country, you don't care. Because if you don't know about politics, you can't make an informed choice about which direction you think Canada should take. If you can't make that informed decision, then we end up electing a random government or a government which happens to have the popular opinion at the moment, regardless of their policies. And when we elect a random government, they tend to do things that maybe we don't want them to do, but we elected them so they have the right.
To say it is foolish to follow politics and become involved in politics is to be naive. The world and our country is not perfect and the best way to help out is to become involved. Look at the political parties and pick the right one for you. Vote for them, follow what their candidates say, what their MPs say. Look at their platform - does it make sense. Don't go with the popular vote, go with what you think will make Canada a better place for all Canadians. And if you don't vote on election day - then I'm sorry that you can't find a spot of humanity in you.
People will now laugh and say that if you don't vote, it doesn't matter. Its one vote.
But one vote counts. Some elections are won by ten votes or hundreds of votes. There are a large number of people who don't vote every year - they could swing the election if they ALL had voted. Sometimes motions pass by one vote that maybe we didn't want to see pass. And sure - the political parties aren't perfect. Every party has problems with corruption, with greed - every party makes mistakes. Because politicians are humans too - they're not superhuman people. They're just people and they have weaknesses. Some of them aren't all that bad. It doesn't excuse you from not voting. Sometimes you just gotta go out there and pick the party with the best vision, even if they're a bit corrupt.
We hope to have elections soon - possibly in the spring/summer. If we do, I hope each and every one of you will put some serious effort into thinking about who you're going to vote for and why and then have the honor of telling me that you voted.
Onto other topics
---------------------------
Exams tomorrow - English and Networks.
---------------------------
I wanted to write about one more thing before I hit the hay, but I guess I'll save it for tomorrow as I'm exhauted.
Goodnight all!
- Dep
// posted by Dep @ 11:29:00 p.m.
