![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dear Canada,
It's time to step up. For the last eight years, we've been coasting on our reputation, secure in the crazy "I can do what I want, since I'm retiring" legacy of Jean Cretien. We're Canadians! We're pot-smoking gay-marrying hippies! We're so liberal, so progressive, we might as well be Scandanavian!
Look closer. Where's our Barack Obama? Where's our Hilary Clinton? One could argue that we had our own Sarah Palin in Belinda Stronach, but in a lot of ways the treatment Stronach got from both the media and the politicians was uglier than the US media's approach to the moose-huntin' maverick. Kim Campbell doesn't count.
We have fallen behind the times on race and gender in politics, here, folks. It's past time that we had some who's not a rich white guy in the running for Prime Minister.
On a related note: this is the first time I'm aware of that the Canadian voter turnout was below the American voter turnout. Canadian politics is just falling apart. We look like dinosaurs, and perhaps it's unsurprising that the population is becoming increasingly apathetic.
It's time to step up. For the last eight years, we've been coasting on our reputation, secure in the crazy "I can do what I want, since I'm retiring" legacy of Jean Cretien. We're Canadians! We're pot-smoking gay-marrying hippies! We're so liberal, so progressive, we might as well be Scandanavian!
Look closer. Where's our Barack Obama? Where's our Hilary Clinton? One could argue that we had our own Sarah Palin in Belinda Stronach, but in a lot of ways the treatment Stronach got from both the media and the politicians was uglier than the US media's approach to the moose-huntin' maverick. Kim Campbell doesn't count.
We have fallen behind the times on race and gender in politics, here, folks. It's past time that we had some who's not a rich white guy in the running for Prime Minister.
On a related note: this is the first time I'm aware of that the Canadian voter turnout was below the American voter turnout. Canadian politics is just falling apart. We look like dinosaurs, and perhaps it's unsurprising that the population is becoming increasingly apathetic.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
So, so true. That would be hell on earth for them.
From:
no subject
I also an a firm believer that NO ONE won our last election. The Tories even ended up having less people vote for them this time round, due to the embarassingly low voter turnout. Out voting system is truly broken, as is our democratic spirit.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Upon further reflection, I think there were two powerful motivating emotions south of the border: hope and fear. Hope among progressives for what Obama represents, for the change he heralds. Fear among progressives of what a McCain-Palin government would do, and of what happens if the US continues along its current path. Fear among conservatives of the change that Obama heralds and of what he represents.
In Canada, we're not very afraid of Harper or of what he represents. We* don't believe that things will go to ruin. We don't fear in the marrow of our bones that our warmongering ways will destabilize the entire world, cause domestic upheaval, and desperate poverty. We believe, smugly, that it can't happen here, that we'll be okay, that it's save to hold out for the perfect at the expense of the compromise of "well, it's better than it could be..."
I think this shows on the one hand a touching faith in our legacy of peace, order, and good government, and on the other hand a naive and frightening lack of imagination on our part.
* by which I mean Canadians as a population, not you and me.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
How do you vote for "he's so much worse than I am"?
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Yes, Obama won. Yes, this is a fantastic thing. However, it is less important than it appears. McCain was hardly the Bush clone that his campaign made him appear to be. As long as he lived long enough that Palin didn't have to take over for him, McCain probably would've been a decent president.
My issue is that several states tacked on bills banning gay marriage (or, in one case, gay adoption) ... all of which passed.
To me, that was really the opportunity for a change in the American psyche. For all the claims that Obama's victory is the "end of the civil war" (NY Times), and for all the poignancy of a black man becoming an American president (or even just winning Virginia) might bring, the fact that such bigotry was expressed in the same election is downright disappointing.
Obama was a repudiation of Bush. A cry for help in an economic crises. A recognition that change was necessary. It was NOT an end of American bigotry. But that's what it looks like.
It's a sad, sad world. Or I'm a cynic.
Or both.
From:
no subject
if that doesn't work, here's a text copy
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27650743
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I'm going to propose meeting at 2:30 at Ryerson, 350 Victoria (the big auditorium), and we'll figure out lunch? I'm going to text Christina too. Hopefully my phone will be working again by lunch if we need to refine plans...
From:
no subject