THUNDER BAY – When it comes to politics, it has always been my view that it is important to take an active interest. After all, those who do not care, and do not get involved in the political process are doomed to be ruled by those who do get involved. Right now it is looking like, across Canada it is time for Canadians to flex some democratic muscle and put politicians and those who have been involved back in their rightful places.
Across the country right now, with serious issues facing us, it is looking increasingly like Canada will head into an election.
The polls are showing the Conservatives, this week at least, well ahead of the Liberals.
Perhaps at issue are that those who oppose the Conservative Government are now massing themselves for an election. There have been a jump in stories of scandal and crisis in Parliament across the media. Sadly however it increasingly appears that the real issues, those massive issues that governments should be focused on are being left in the to-do box.
Part of the problem is that in politics today we have a surplus of political scientists, rather than a surplus of professionals working in politics. After several years of minority governments, instead of building toward large visionary governments with major goals for Canada, we have de-evolved into a poll by poll – issue by issue government which bluntly doesn’t see much past the next vote in the Parliament.
That is likely why what is really needed are people across Canada, and across traditional party lines voting to stop these games. How? That will not be easy, there are years of political games to overcome, and despite what any party will try to tell you, they are all guilty of doing for themselves rather than for Canada at times.
Canada, as we have been told for generations, has the greatest promise of any country on earth. The last century was, according to then Prime Minister Laurier, going to “belong to Canada”.
In a lot of ways, today that promise could be made. However one might really wonder which political leader would dare utter those kinds of bold words? One wonders which one might back it up with action?
From one side of the political spectrum we have “Darth Harper” the dark force dictator attempting to re-make Canada in some version of George W. Bush’s America. On the other side we have “Taliban Jack” who would sell out Canada in a heartbeat. Then we have the “Visiting Professor” who is only in it for himself.
Canadians are, I suspect far smarter than the average political science graduates working in the war-rooms in the bowels of Ottawa-Politics. It is time for all Canadians to start figuring out that just because we have different ideas, that does not mean those who hold different ideas are anti-Canada. Maybe it is time for all the party leaders to start remembering that they were elected to represent the people back home, not their party line?
That might be a pipe-dream, but if we were all more focused on what Canada and Canadians really need, rather than partisan politics, can you imagine how incredible Canada could be?
James Murray