Saturday, April 30, 2011

Countdown to Election Day

I've used this blog until this point to get some things off my chest about things that are on my mind, but that really only affect me but this time I want to talk about something that affects me in a much broader sense; Canada.

We are in the middle of an election, a time where change is made and futures moulded and a good time to ask ourselves who and what we want to be as a country. What I've found however is that most people, myself included, are lost when it comes to making a decision. 

You see it's easy to say just look at the different platforms and make a decision based on that but it's a lot harder because you have to inform yourself through a heap load of bullshit that is spewed in the name of getting a party into power. We as Canadians have banked so much on our international reputation that it seems we forgot that it's something that needs to be worked on and invested in. We've spent so many years looking south and trying to catch up to the Americans that in the process we've grown to be plagued by some of the same problems that are plaguing them, especially on the political front. Maybe it's time we picked another country as a role model- one that's more in line with Canadian values or since we are a tapestry of many cultures, maybe we should take the best of the top few. And maybe that's the wrong approach but not doing anything while our infrastructure, education and health standards drop aren't the right approach either.

Furthermore, the youth vote is almost non existent even though it's our future reality that they are playing with, coupled with the fact that there most likely won't be enough money for us to retire, ever. Yet we sit idly by as party heads protect their investments first and put the good of the people/ country second, while we content ourselves with Twitter, Facebook and other distractions because it's just easier- sounds a lot like the U.S doesn't it?

The problem is that no one is really willing to enter into political discussion, as many still believe in not talking about political or religious beliefs. Which is all well and good but without taking account of others opinions how then can we form an informed decision? Last night I found myself in a really good conversation about the parties after it was mentioned that there 2011 Federal Election- Explore the Canadian political landscape .

I have been having many debates with my friends over the last couple of weeks about Canada's political landscape but the hardest part was trying to decipher what the parties actually stood for, the second hardest was what kind of person we are voting in. A popular theory is to vote for who's going to work the best for you in your particular riding; this is flawed thinking because the individual ridings add up to seats which form a majority or minority government and ultimately decides our Prime Minister. But what if you don't like the person that represents the head of the party of the person that you voted for in your riding?

Well the great thing about Canadian democracy as it is, is that every party pretty much offers the same thing; it's where they differ and how what they implement will affect our future that we should be contemplating.

So I'm going to take some time to sort through the murk and check back with what I find, maybe it will help- maybe it won't but if I learned anything from the Americans it's that we can do better, we just have to believe in change and ultimately in ourselves.

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