I have finally figured out how to blog again. After a month of helping care for a granddaughter, who at times seemed perilously close to death, and has now recovered marvellously, I can return to blogging.
There was a time when knocking politicians was a Canadian pasttime based solely on political preference. Now, we have arrived at a point where knocking politicians has become a matter of moral imperitive.
We now have a Prime Minister who has thrown tradition and moral responsibility out the window, in favour of power and corruption. What is more, he does it with impunity. How? Because we have a national press that might just as well be wearing Liberal campaign buttons on their lapels.
Without going into the gory details, suffice it to say that Canada has now fallen into the ranks of a banana republic, where corruption is the order of the day, and anyone who calls the government on it, becomes so much garbage to be discarded on the trash heap of Liberal history.
Larry,
Put things into perspective. Canada is a fine country, with one of the highest living standards in the world coupled with a healthy level of tolerance and a progressive social safety net. You should be proud to be Canadian. So you’re PM is a plonker. Join the club!
All politicians are plonkers in Canada. The PM doesn’t have a monopoly on that.
C’mon Larry, I agree with Ronan — we are lucky!! Don’t let Belinda Stronach get you down!
Belinda shocked me.
However, she shocked me when she joined the Conservatives.
Well done guys. Some good comments.
However, Ronan, the road to dissolution of a fine country is established by the quality of its governance. I know it’s difficult to establish, at times, when a politician is telling the truth, but with our current Prime Minister, (and the former etc.) all he has to do to tell a lie is open his mouth.
Because the politicians who work with him do so for “remuneration plus” we can be reassured that they will never stand on principle. (Of course that is why I left the old PC party in 1984 and never joined the Reform Party).
I love this country. My grandfather fought in WWI (at Vimy Ridge among others)and served in WWII, while my father served in Europe in WWII. My step-mother’s uncle was the finance minister that brought us through the war debt free.
However, we have arrived at a point where it is more important, and less morally offensive, to fatten the pockets of political friends than it is to take care of our veterans, properly supply our soldiers, or properly take care of the sick and elderly.
We have a gun registry that does not work but only cost a billion + to fund. We had a scandal in Human Resources that cost 2 billion +, and we have adscam and that doesn’t even account for the waste and mismanagement that occurs.
We have a public health care system that is totally deficient, I know, because I saw it at work when my grandaughter was gravely ill.
The reason I am down is that this isn’t going to improve. As my children and grandchildren grow older, the pigs at the trough will become more numerous, and their take will increase. They will become more adept at hiding their scullduggery (just look at the recent bill introduced to give the finance minister more discretionary funds)and no one will speak up.
We are Canadian. We don’t complain. In fact, we don’t do much of anything when it comes to politics. We let the press determine our priorities and then go along for the ride. Stand up for principle and you will be laughed and scorned at.
We are only going to survive this kind of impassionate idolatry so long before we having nothing left.
I wish I could tell you how I really feel. :)
Sorry about blogging as “anonymous”. It is me, Larry. I can’t remember my password and it doesn’t accept the ones I used in the past.
Also, re: Belinda – I agree with Kim. Jessica Simpson is a bright girl who acts like a ditz for entertainment and money.
Stronach on the other hand, tries to act intelligent and constantly looks like a ditz. She is a classic case of a narcissist. Look at her life. Can’t keep relationships and thinks that seeing her kids occasionally is good enough (and she has custody).
She leaves the Conservative Party because it is wrong to align with the Block on a non-confidence vote, and goes to the party that has made the Bloc so powerful because of it’s corruption. That is real clear thinking.
Larry, just comment as “Other”. Then you can enter your name however you want.
Glad to see you finally go things worked out to at least post. We’ve missed you ever since I destroyed all the old posts.
Nothing shocks me. Like the media trying to turn our politicians into celebrities or royalty. We’re Canada, for pete’s sake.
And Conservative, Liberal, NDP,etc etc they are all self-interested and change their views whatever suits them. Mulroney sold us out to the American economy with free trade (yeah free trade, for who? certainly not for us!) and so I don’t hold much hope the conservatives would do any better. All parties have SOME good things about them, but unfortunately it’s humans running the show so most of them fail extremely. Paul Martin isn’t great, but I think he is a tad improvement over Chretien. And I doubt Harper would do any better, For some reason the idea of him being PM scares the heck out of me. Wolf in sheep’s clothing is what I think. But then I think they all are. Belinda Stronach changing parties doesn’t surprise me in the least. She’s a politician. They do it all the time. The only real standards they have are related to getting into power.
In spite of this we do have a pretty good country :) At least we don’t see our Political Leaders as being almost deity, unlike my mother who thinks Bush is the greatest thing to have happened to the western world and considers herself republican (and please tell me, how does that work???..she is a Canadian living in Canada.)
Oh and Larry, great to see you back! I was asking Kim when that would be :)
As bad as our leadership and country is, I still would rather be here then any other coutnry where I am free to choose the religion I want and to be able to worship the way I want with no feat of persuction. The way I look at it, if I don’t vote (we jsut had provincial elections here the other day) then I don’t have the right to complain. If we don’t speak out then we deserve to get what we get.
If we want to change anything we have to stand out from the crowd and we have to speak out with our voices. Do something about it. Get into politics even in your local area and make your thoughts and views known.
Its due to the lackluster of most people (only 43% of BC’ers voted) that this country is where it is. Do something about it!!
Smiles,
Great points. The problem is that so many of us who have been politically active over the years (my not belonging to a particular party did not keep me from voting or voicing my opinion)are now at the point where we can see our worst fears coming to the fore.
The problem with having been involved for so many years, and seeing the deterioration that has occurred causes a great deal of cynacism. Those who are new to the game and have grown up in recent years haven’t had the experience that you and I have had and therefore, are not as cynical.
However, if we look a little down the road, we see a greater deterioration in the ethics and morals of our country, as exhibited by our politicians.
There are a ton of issues that I could refer to that would make John A. MacDonald et al turn over in their graves but it is becoming redundant at this point in time.
As for religious freedom – watch how the provinces react to the same-sex marriage issue with respect to churches and the right to refuse marriages.
Any way, I don’t want to beat it to death right now. There is much to be grateful for in this country, with the exception of two provinces.
Canada’s much too cold to become a “banana republic.” ;)