I just joined the Green Party, and also sent an email off to see if they need any volunteer help locally. We’re in Marnie Mellish’s turf here in Burlington. After considering platforms and reading up on the party, I am ready to commit.
Let me tell you what inspired me. I am pretty upset with the manner by which Stephen Harper swept the federal election under the rug of the US presidential campaign. The juxtaposition between the two political processes has never been so glaring — with both major US parties stepping outside of their status quo while we here in Canada continue to elect uninspiring politicians whose failure to capture the imagination of their constituencies may be directly attributed to their failure to make actual decisions.
However, the refusal to allow the Green Party’s Elizabeth May to participate in the national leaders debates was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Her exclusion demonstrates that the big three Canadian parties have begun to fear the outsider—the party establishment. They have become the leaders that the Canadian public have grown cynical about.
We, as citizens, are being excluded from our own political system. And I, for one, will not abide by that.
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I so totally agree with you on Harper. I am thinking NDP, but the Green Party is certainly a party I will have to entertain. It is time for change here too, let’s get excited about our own elections.
Posted 12 Sep 2008 at 7:38 pm ¶Hey Dan! Long time! I am even more jaded than the average person about Canadian politics. It’s not the people we need to change. No matter who we elect we get the same crap. It’s the system. What percentage of people vote and what percentage have access to internet? So if our country really was committed to giving the people what we think is best we’d just vote for issues online. And not documents like the Meach Lake Accord that include hidden bad stuff with the things that Canadians obviously want. Issue by issue. The system is a dinosaur invented when there WERE leaders who knew better what was good for us than we do. Now I’m not so sure that’s the case. Anyway, it’s nice to see somebody doing SOMETHING political in Canada. You “maverick” you! ha ha ha.
Posted 05 Oct 2008 at 10:57 am ¶Post a Comment