Why are politicians not addressing the most blatant problems in our society? Afghanistan, Canada's largest military endeavour since World War 2, has been a footnote in this campaign. Do the troops stay or leave? Liberals and Conservatives say stay, NDP says leave. In all likelihood they are staying, but there has been no concrete plan to change Canada's military role. Why are Afghanistan's expenditures still tallied in bullets, bombs, and human life rather than Afghan literacy rates?
The Conservatives and opposition parties unanimously decided to support the no-fly zone in Libya. Which party has developed a plan to get Canada out of Libya with the most positive result? The entire issue has become bogged down in red herrings. The Conservatives use it as an excuse to purchase fighter planes, and the Liberals have an unrealistic plan of supporting rebels. Supporting rebels may prevent a complete massacre on behalf of Gaddafi, but by training and arming rebels you are still creating war. If Gaddafi is a problem, don't fight a proxy war using rebels to receive the bullets. The comparisons between Iraq and Libya are inevitable. Yes, oil will entice foreign governments to have a hand in the jar. Yes, an unpredictable and dangerous dictator is power. Yes, Arab angst occurs in both places. But keep this in mind: The US's second round in Iraq (you know the one where they got Saddam) occurred almost 13 years after Saddam committed his genocide against the Kurds. The timing was way off. Did peace keeping discussions stop on 9/11?
In my perspective, aboriginal issues have been largely left out of the discussion. It's all fine and dandy for the major political parties to talk about misspending millions during the G20. But where has the discussion been to address the largest economic and social gap between aboriginals and "everyone else"? It is not even like aboriginals are a small portion of the population. In fact, aboriginals are one of the fastest growing groups in Canada. How can we prevent cholera in Haiti, when we can't even deliver safe drinking water to our brothers and sisters on reserves. This is not the fault of any specific political party, but a failure of all. This isn't a deep issue steeped in ideology, like abortion, this is a failure of our collective ability to prioritize issues. The answer is obvious, discussion about this has to happen now! But it hasn't shared the spotlight once this election.
Sorry if this comes off as a rant. Which it probably is. I'm actually a happy person.
The issues seem to be whatever's buzzing on the web at the moment. It's not "what do we believe in," it's "how can we make a girl playing piano part of our campaign?"
ReplyDeleteAnything that reflects a defined stance will alienate some voters, they seem to fear. It sounds like Hollywood logic. Please everybody. Don't stir the pot. Make money.
It all goes back to Nintendo 64, and the dawn of the video-game era. People have short attention spans, unable to meditate and concentrate. Most people have a very poor sense of history, and Harper's revisionist tendencies (lousy governments before the Conservatives came to minority government), which would make the Soviet apparatchiks proud, further clouds the issues.
ReplyDeletePeople are into flavours-of-the-day, and the lazy members of the media on the candidates' buses and planes feed off of each other's stale air, and then present their findings to the public, who then take these pseudo analyis as gospels.
Harper has perfected the steady monotone drone to mirror a serious tenured professor's voice, while Iggy has the patented shrill sense of outrage. Layton, well, Layton is Layton. It seems only Duceppe is honest. Well, so is Elizabeth May.
Philosphy and History should be mandatory courses in our public schools; a questioning populace will never be ruled by a tyrant in sheep's clothing (mixing stuff here).