Thursday, December 29, 2005

Canada Votes 2006

Ahh elections. The fun never ends here in Canada where we are seeing our government go through yet another election in less than 2 years. One would think that this democratic process is good for the country and in theory it is. The practice though has been proven to be not so good.

For the past 18 months, Canadians have had what could only be termed as a dysfunctional Parliament. Instead of issues being debated and decisions made, we have had question periods full of rants, insults, yelling and just generally bad behaviour that reached an all time low when Belinda Stronach crossed the floor. A group of kindergarten students could have run the country better than the last group of parliamentarians. Canadians should expect and demand more from their elected officials.

Now the time has come to make the all-important decision about who to vote for. Make no mistake; it is crucial that every single Canadian who is eligible to vote do so. We have the usual suspects running. Paul Martin as the head of the Liberal party, Stephen Harper as the head of the Conservative party, and of course Jack Layton as head of the NDP. As yet, none of the parties has come up with a sparkling platform. In fact, this first half of the campaign has been long on rhetoric and short on real issues. Healthcare, Canadian sovereignty, military spending have all featured prominently as has Gay marriage.


Canadians have shown that we are all heartily sick of dysfunctional government so all of the candidates must prove themselves worth of our consideration.

Notably, there has been much talk of strategic voting yet again in this election. My advice: Don’t. Voting strategically last time got us a dysfunctional government. This time, vote for who you want and let the chips fall where they may. There has also been talk about punitive voting. People who would normally vote Liberal but are angry about Adscam (get over it) are thinking of voting elsewhere. Fine. Just vote intelligently. That is the crux of the voting issues at hand. Canadian must decide whether or not they want a functional government. In doing so, they will be sending a strong message to our elected officials that the status quo is no longer acceptable and we are demanding more. Do not vote punitively or strategically; vote intelligently. Talk to your candidates about the issues that concern you. Make sure your voice is heard.

This election is crucial. The country can no longer operate in a state of dysfunction. When the country’s governance suffers, so do all of it’s citizens.

To not vote is possibly the worst damage you can do to this country. Canadians should be choosing who runs their country and how. We are very lucky here in Canada to be able to do so and yet so few people do. Choosing your government is not just a right; it is an obligation incumbent on all Canadians. This January, when you vote, vote intelligently.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Thank You

Hi All,

Just a quick note to thank Elaine over at Culture Life News for my lovely profile artwork. :) Check out her blog at the link below or go to my sidebar and click on Culture Life News...

http://culturelifenewsii.blogspot.com/

Also, for those of you who are interested, I have added Camp Katrina to my list of blogs to read to present a different point of view...