Yesterday I was riding my bike home and I saw a poster that in big letters said "ABC" as I rode closer I realized it was in fact an acronym standing for Anything But Conservative. I thought this was an interesting voting strategy, and certainly a sign of desperation on the writers part. It shows true frustration when people will give up standing for something, only to stand against something as long as others will join them. I don't disagree either, with the Conservative party taking us more the way of the Americans as far as being involved with armed conflict, and environmental issues; as the Conservatives seem to be the only party not making a plan to reach the Kyoto protocol and want to "reduce this into a simple conversation about carbon tax" says Mark Winfield a political scientist and professor at York University. As well as Stephen Harper is the only Federal Candidate yet to release and on the record statement of what his party would do to tackle global, domestic and Aboriginal poverty, according to Gerry Barr chair of Make Poverty History.
So in light of that I have a hard time disagreeing with the sign, I miss the Canada I used to hear about, the one that helped peace keeping missions, and contributed to aiding developing nations and protected its citizens. The Conservative party doesn't seem to be in support of anything related to these, although they may have done other positive things, do they represent what we as Canadians stand for? And if not then who does represent what it means to be Canadian?
(Canada in recent years has dropped its contribution considerably in UN peacekeeping missions, ranked roughly 53rd in the world with only 168 troops this year. Also Canada is 15th on the list of aid donors when looking at % of GNI donated, giving only .28 percent of its gross national income. Also we pay taxes but we still have to pay health care every month! What's up with that?)
2 comments:
you could even argue that the Canadian identity in itself is based on what we are not: America.
good post though, I don't know any of this stuff - I know way more about the US politics than Canadian ones, probably because of John Stewart & Stephen Colbert.
Also, awesome blog! the picture of the turtle is my favourite part.
Thats funny you should say that, I remember hearing an entire radio broadcast about how we define our selfs by what we are, which is exactly that: American. I was planning on that being a future blog, and I think I still will.
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