The things that go through my head

The newspapers and the radios and the TV would all have you believe that the Conservatives won a minority government. They are wrong, wrong, wrong.

We all lost. Democracy is a joke. There are more Green party supporters than Bloc Quebecois and yet they didn’t win a single seat. Unless you vote for the winning party, your vote doesn’t count. Don’t ever let anybody try to tell you any differently. They don’t know what they are talking about. Demand electoral reform now. As Saskboy says, Canadian democracy is 8% away from being completely illegitimate.

The election was completely useless and a waste of my time, money and mental energy. I will now concern myself with more important things, such as the lint in my belly button.

UPDATE: Even if you didn’t vote, you still have the right to complain. Lucky for me, I did vote and I will continue to complain.

I am so completely sick and tired of elections.  Palin this and Obama that.  Bigotted anti-French smears and attack ads pervade my mailbox.  Luckily I found a radio station on my tape deck, 98.3 FM that does not play attack ads or any political ads of any kind.  But still, the blogosphere is full of this crap.  KKKate is smearing Dion in a fabricated gotcha moment caused by an incompetent journalist who has not yet mastered the English language. I refuse to link to Kate but I will post the youtube video, as it shows CTV’s coverage.  Here is a link to a blog with the original footage.

Seriously, quit falling for this crap.  It’s manufactured garbage.  This isn’t news and this is not why this election matters.  Find out what the parties want to do for you by reading their platforms and deciding who will do the best job of representing your community.  Quit watching television.  There is no substance to any of it.  CTV is nothing but a Conservative propaganda machine.  They were trying to make Dion look bad by making the question confusing.  I had no idea what the reporter was talking about and English is my first language.   No party is perfect on all the issues.  For example, I am not thrilled about the long-gun registry but the fact is, the Tories have no intention of undoing the long-gun registry.  They are happy to let the left do the dirty work of allienating Western Canadians and stirring up racist and otherist sentiments.  We don’t need a long-gun registry but maybe we should do a better job of letting these party hacks know what it is that we want.  Demand better.  At least Lizzie May has much better ideas about the environment and electoral reform, which is desparately needed so we don’t have to resort to these voter swaps to thwart the really bad evil mini Bush government.

We should just boycott all the propagandists that are running these ads.  Enough already!  That’s it, no more CTV for you.

There is no question in my mind that Democracy is dying.  I had the opportunity to attend an all-candidates forum on Wednesday night to hear the views of the people who want to represent me and the interests of my riding in the House of Commons after this election.  Except for the Conservative candidate, Ms. Kelly Block.  She will probably win this election despite the fact that she has attended few, if any, all-candidates forums.  But being the pragmatist that I am, I can completely understand why Ms. Block didn’t attend.  Nobody cares about this election.  There were very few people at the forum.  They were too busy getting their election coverage from the television and being brainwashed by conservative attack ads.

She doesn’t have to attend because her party can win this election without addressing the voters.  The Conservatives are running a top-down, centralized campaign which is exactly the kind of government that they are going to run.  I really wish that the Libertarian candidate Kevin Stricker, who is the only proponent of smaller, de-centralized government, had pointed that out.  Oh well, there is always next time!  The candidates piled on him as if he were a Tory in disguise.  Especially Nettie Wiebe.  He did me proud by mentioning marijuana and the fact that legalizing it would take money away from organized crime.  But unfortunately, Saskatonians don’t seem to be ready to hear that.  It’s a damn shame.  But I have to admit when Kevin mentioned abortion and the fact that he believes that it is a procedure that should not be funded by medicare, I was amazingly unimpressed.  I know that the Libertarians don’t believe that the government should have anything to do with medicare and don’t believe the government should be involved in any medical procedure.  Picking on abortion was just pathetic.  Why not state the whole platform instead of making the Libertarians look like another white male the-government-owns-your-uterus party?

I especially enjoyed the performance of Reverend Marcel Bourrassa.  During his opening comments, he opined that the issue of same sex marriage is of great importance during this campaign.  The economy is going down the shitter, nobody is talking about the environment and we are supposed to care about same sex marriage.  I wish nobody would get married, as marriage is a tool of the patriarchy.  But I have no desire to legislate my personal opinion into law.  In fact, the Reverend, donning his large stylish wooden cross on his chest, could have saved us all a lot of time if he had just stood up and said, “I am a tool of the patriarchy!” and sat down again.  That phrase encapsulates his views quite nicely.  He also went on at length about that abortionist Henry Morgentaler.  At one point in the debate when the candidates were discussing the Canadian Wheat Board, he stated that he didn’t want foreigners to buy Canadian grain.  Foreigners?  I looked at the lady sitting beside me and said, “Foreigners?” and we both started giggling.  I salute you , Reverend Bourrassa and the dying institution you represent, thank the Lord!

If I had to elect a candidate based on whether I thought they would do a good job of sticking up for our ridings’ interest, I would have to vote for Roy Bluehorn.  He did the best job of representing his views and I doubt that he would be a party hack.  That’s the best you can hope for in these times.

I found most of the candidates pretty uninspiring.  Amber Jones, the Green party candidate, talks about all the green jobs that the government can promote but didn’t go into the specifics of why we need the government to accomplish this task.

Anyway, I have more to say about this but I have been writing this post for three days and I am hitting the submit button already.  Election sucks!  Time to move on to more important things.

Vote anything but conservative!  Thwart the Tories.  What more can I say?

This is a post about nothing.  You see, I was hoping to hear something about drug policy in the debates last night.  But aside from Elizabeth May stating that the opium crops should be used for medicinal medication, there was no mention of it.  While this failed to surprise me, it was rather disappointing.  You know all those pot activists who abandoned the marijuana parties, as non-viable and a waste of time?  Well, now we can see that they are still needed to get the word out about drug policy, because the so-called “mainstream” parties aren’t doing it.  Doug Cuthand has an excellent column in today’s Star Phoenix about the fact that Stephen Harper’s tough-on-crime plan is the same policy that gives the United States the highest incarceration rates in the world.  But even he fails to mention the impact of the war on drugs on the crime rates.  Gangs will continue to profit from the drug war as long as we fail to regulate the use and sale of drugs.

Even though the debate ended up being five people talking over each other (as usual) there were some high points for me:

-Stephen Harper reassuring Canadians that our economy will be unscathed despite the fact that the Americans are facing an economic meltdown.  HA HA HA HA  I guess it was better than saying “I have no idea what I’m doing!”

-Elizabeth May’s response to the question on crime.  A viewer asks what the parties are planning to do about the sky-rocketting crime rates.  I was annoyed by the question, since crime rates aren’t sky-rocketting.  She responded by stating that crime rates are not going up and in fact have gone down.  But then she goes on to state that a ban on handguns is needed.  As you well know, I am not a big fan of prohibition and I think gun bans are a fatally flawed idea.  So I went from going YAY Lizzie to “You #$^$%&^ what are you thinking?”.

-Jack Layton trying to tug on our heart strings with tales of grown men crying because they lost their jobs.  I hate it when politicians appeal to my emotions.  Appeal to my common sense for a change!  I don’t think the government needs to fix everything.  Convince me with good ideas, unless you don’t have any.

-Stephane Dion did really well.  I have do admit that the Green Shift appeals to me.  We need a plan to deal with greenhouse gases and what’s wrong with shifting taxes onto pollution?  Of course, Harper wants everyone to believe that it would lead to higher taxes and there is no reason to believe that that has to be the outcome.  In order to figure out whether the Green Shift will raise taxes will take more than one screechy debate.

-The fact that Stephen Harper knows what farmers want.  They want the ability to market their own grain.  I believe this is the main reason that rural people keep voting for Harper.  Lots of rural people hate gun control too (myself included) and they believe that he is the best hope for deregulating guns.  However, he didn’t have much to say about that issue last night.  He isn’t planning to do anything so why say anything and risk giving the left more fuel, even though they are completely wrong on gun control.  Prohibition sells!

Anyway, if I get the time and I feel inclined, I will post about my ideal candidate and the views they would have.  I was struck by the total lack of imagination showed by our political leaders, who I swear couldn’t lead circle time in a kindergarten class.  The NDP wants to give everybody handouts.  Did you know that Tommy Douglas started healthcare?  It’s true!  The Conservatives have no platform and no clue what they are doing except that crime is bad and teens should be locked up longer.  The Liberals at least have an environmental plan.  The Greens are the best of the mainstream parties but not my ideal choice either.  The Bloc?  Who are they again?

And, of course, no clue on drug policy or electoral reform.  Of course, I am probably the only person in this country that cares about those two issues so I should probably quit complaining.

Here are some great things to watch while waiting for the debates to begin. Read more…

I did not get out to campaign for the Green Party tonight, but I am waiting breathlessly for the debates to begin. My house is over-run by squawking children that prevented my escape.

As a proud Canuckistanian, I get to be more interested in the politics of my neighboring country than my own. Should I tune into an American teevee channel and watch the VP debate or should I tune into the Canadian debates? Will Palin charm the dim-witted masses with her Tina Fey glasses and beauty queen smile? Will Biden blind them with his brilliance and end up looking like a big old meanie pants? Will Elizabeth May dazzle and shine in the Canadian debates? Will the sacking of the pot activists from BC be used to make Layton look stupid? Will Harper show up for the debates in his trademark sweater and holding a kitten? Will Dion continue to mangle the English language? Will anybody care about THE ISSUES? What the hell are the issues? Did I buy enough beer to get me through the debates? Did anybody post a debate drinking game?

HEAD EXPLODING!!!11

Anyway, that’s what’s going through my head right now.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a fundraising dinner with many fine Green candidates in attendance.  I spoke with Amber Jones, the Green candidate for Saskatoon-Biggar-Rosetown.  She has been having lots of fun campaigning in the small towns of Biggar and Rosetown and she will be busy in other small communities today such as Asquith.  She was pleasantly surprised by the warm reception she got from all of the rural folk.  Let’s hope this translates into votes.  I also made plans to go and help her out tomorrow night while she campaigns in Saskatoon.  I am really looking forward to this opportunity.  I sure hope that the conventional wisdom for this riding turns out to be false!

I still have no idea how I am going to vote! At the beginning of this obscenely depressing election cycle, I said that I just might vote for the NDP, just my futile attempt to thwart a Harper majority, which I feel would be an absolutely terrible outcome to this election that nobody cares about. Then I got angry with the NDP for their treatment of Dana Larsen and Kirk Tousaw and said I would never, ever vote for them.

I love the Green party, but I can’t help feeling that it’s a waste of a vote.  Of course, it does help the Green party out, as they get $1.75 per vote.

If I was to vote with my convictions, like Jim Bobby recommends, I would vote Green.  If I vote strategically, I vote NDP, as they are the only candidate with a reasonable chance of defeating the Conservative candidate.  Until we reform our electoral system we won’t have election results that reflect what the people want.

I guess I will wait for the debates!

The NDP did not stand behind their candidates when they were being smeared based on their past open drug use on POT-TV. They got rid of Dana Larsen and Kirk Tousaw because of their connections to Marc Emery, the BC Marijuana Party and the drug policy reform community. Dana Larsen is the founder of eNDProhibition, a drug policy reform group within the NDP that calls for the end of the drug war. This group has done wonderful work getting the word out that the drug war is an important issue to all Canadian voters. Now what are we going to do? I don’t see how any self-respecting cannabis consumer could ever support them again.

Now the Liberals are flinging their monkey poo and demanding to know the NDP connections to the cannabis culture. They make it sound like they have something to be embarrassed about. Of course they took money from drug policy reform activists. There are many people living in Canada that are upset about the drug war and they vote. They also have jobs and put their money where their mouth is by donating to good causes, like political campaigns. I won’t be giving the NDP my money any time soon. I better stay out of politics, before I get contaminated.

You know, I didn’t want to turn this into drug blog but here I am ranting on my internet soap box about the unfairness of this smear campaign. Not happy. After this rally is over today, I promise to write about something else. No really, maybe I will take a picture of cute puppies and kittens and post that instead.

Who do I vote for now? I wonder if I should even waste my time. I just think that the NDP should have stood by their candidates. Now it’s going to be impossible for anybody who is guilty of the crime of ingesting politically incorrect drugs to ever be taken seriously in politics again. Are all politicians that have smoked pot going to be expelled from politics? Jack Layton was on POT-TV. Are these cowards going to stand by their leader when the mud starts to fly?

We are getting a two party state. The Reform and the PC’s and the Conservatives all managed to combine powers under one leader and the “left” will end up doing the same thing. Which means that anybody with so-called “far-left” views will be ignored. All those far-left hippies, with their concern for the environment, the promotion of drug use and organized crime and anti-war activists. BAH! As you can tell, I am very steamed by this unfortunate turn of events. I am so discouraged by the whole undemocratic system, that I just don’t see how I can stay tuned in.