On The Choice of Vote

While my blog has been notably...let's say anti-Conservative, and pointedly anti-Harper.  I have generally attempted to not be particularly partisan in my support of either Liberals, NDP or Green.  Or Pirate for that matter, although Mikkel Paulson has struck me as a rather nice and well-informed guy.

The reason for this is that there are a multitude of salient points which should influence any Canadian citizen on who deserves their vote.

First and foremost, let me say that even though it is perceived as naive, I honestly believe that the Candidate matters as much, if not more than the party.  The particular Candidate you vote for must be someone you believe will represent you.  They and their party might not agree with every point you and your fellow constituents perceive, but their job is to represent you.  You elect them.  Don't let them ever forget that.

In Calgary, I voted in past elections against Diane Ablonczy.  Over the course of my adult life, I have written in excess of a hundred physical letters, innumerable emails, and made a daunting number of phone calls.  Diane Ablonczy, the incumbent Conservative MP of Calgary-Nose Hill has never responded to any of my concerns with anything more than a form letter.  When parliament was prorogued last year, approximately 5000 fellow constituents of mine in Calgary - Nose Hill wrote a substantial petition and signed it, we received no response to our inquiry other than that it had been received.

I truly believe, truly, that Diane Ablonczy values her party above her constituents.  And that if push came to shove, if our entire constituency rose up in referendum over an issue we took particular umbrage against, I don't know what that would be, but if it occurred, I fundamentally do not believe she would cross the floor and represent our views.  I believe her party ties to be stronger than that of any sense of civic responsibility to her constituents.  Certainly since I came of majority, all my inquiries have been steadfastly ignored, disregarded, or marginalized.

This year, I am voting in Edmonton City Center, as has been my home for the last three years.  I am blessed in that there are two candidates whom I truly believe listen.  Who will accurately, and fairly represent the constituents if they were elected.  Mary MacDonald and Lewis Cardinal are challenging Incumbent Laurie Hawn.

So I believe the first choice should be who your candidate is.  It's hard to not be partisan about this, but the awful truth is that generally Conservative candidates have a bad history of choosing party over constituents.  There are far fewer cases of Conservative candidates crossing the floor than there are liberal ones or independents.

The second thing is to recognize that there are two wars of policy being fought when it comes to the parties, and by extension their leaders.

The first one is more straightforward.  It is the economic one, the fiscal one.  Literally the platform upon which the parties reside.  The truth is that I will confess, I am generally fiscally a Conservative.  I would prefer if the government intervened less in taxation, I do think there are a number of sectors and industries that can govern themselves and regulate themselves accordingly.  You have to think for yourself and find out which party generally aligns with your beliefs.  Do you support public healthcare, private, or a mix of both?  What do you think of crown corperations?  Do you think big business should be taxed more or less as a cost of existing in our nation, do you think it's fair what they pay now, do they not pay enough, do they pay too little?

What about education, veterans, First Nations people, do they deserve money, do they deserve attention, or should they be self-regulating.

I am naturally of a skewed opinion in that I literally work in the arts and culture industry, I deal with that sector every day of my career, and have seen the continual decline of it since the Conservatives took power.  In that sector, I believe government intervention is necessary.  That government intervention isn't or shouldn't be in the form of payouts though, just because I'm an 'artist' I don't expect someone to just hand me a cheque.  Rather we need to form organizations, granting agencies, cultural connections between our own nation and the international stage, we need to create lasting impressions and exchanges of art to enrich both our lives, and the lives of the greater human condition.

EDIT:  I also want to point this out.  Fiscally, Harper inheritted a fairly stable economy.  Over the previous four years of the Chretien/Martin Liberal tenure, the liberals had managed to eliminate 42 billion dollars from the deficit.  It was their own deficit to be sure, but the economy was on the upswing.  Martin was also the one who instigated tighter banking controls that had helped weather the Canadian Economy.  As of January 2010, the federal deficit did an abrupt turnaround down 36 billion dollars.  How much of that you attribute to the recession, conservative or not, is your own business I suppose.

The second war of policy is considerably more obfuscated, more grim, and more difficult to understand.  It is no less important.

What I am about to say will sound to a great number of people as being sensationalist, partisan, 'dramatic' or any other number of words that are of similar nature.  We live in Canada.  Our rights, and freedoms, are being slowly eroded.  A small nip here, a tuck there, an incident here, an event there.  Tiny moments, tiny things, incidences that reveal a changing world.

A girl had a picture on facebook of herself and Ignatieff.  An officer took her name, screened her, looked at that facebook picture, and had her removed from an event for students.  A peace officer literally went online, searched out her name, saw an image and violated her right to attend a rally her peers were allowed to go to.

On June 26th and 27th of 2010, 1105 people were arrested, detained, denied representation for hours, without formal charge.  They were detained on cold concrete, packed in so tightly that often there was not space to sit for hours, without access to food or water.  Widespread reports of police brutality surfaced, police told protesters on multiple occasions that martial law had been declared, (which was wholly falsified), abuse of female detainees.  Amnesty International, called for an investigation, which has not happened.  At one point, facing accusations of brutality Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair unveiled a number of items he alleged were seized from protesters, when confronted however he confessed some items were unrelated.

Diplomat Richard Colvin brought allegations that the Canadian Forces were at least somewhat, if not wholly complicit in the handing over of detainees, many of whom proved innocent, for systemic torture by Afghani forces.  Colvin alleged that the torture involved beatings, whipping with power cables, the use of electricity, knives, open flames, and rape.  In an EKOS poll, 83% of Canadians surveyed believed that the Canadian government was aware that torture was going on, and were at least partially complicit in a war crime.  Instead of going right to the heart of the allegation, Harper instead chose to prorogue parliament.  The High Court of Whales has since corroborated Colvin's accusation, and predicts with a high degree of probability that torture occurs in Kandahar.  While the first specific allegations of abuse surfaced more than three years ago, there has been no official public inquiry. MPs in the House of Commons voted 146 to 129 in favour of a motion to set one up, but the Prime Minister has refused to consider it, stating that "the government of Canada has taken all necessary actions in all instances where there is proof of abuse of Afghan prisoners."

In 2007, The Canadian Association of Journalists awarded Harper the Code of Silence award, for literally maintaining his "white-knuckled death grip on public information".  They cited that the Prime Minister's Office regularly demonstrated contempt for the Public's right to know.  They followed this up in 2010 with an open letter, as seen here.  During the early part of the election, reports were notably kept in 'steel pens' at a stop in Halifax.  Since the election has gone on, the Prime Minister only accepts 5 questions per stop, all pre-approved.  Once when confronted with recent controversial issue over support from a terrorist group, media and campaign managers incited the PC crowd to cheer, drowning out the journalist.  

The problem is that are perceptions of these incidents depends on our own personalities.  Some people fundamentally believe the government is filled with idiots, certainly that is one perception.  Another is that they are maliciously whittling away social rights, norms, and values in order to push their own agenda, whether that be Fundamentalist, Pro-Life, Anti-Gay, what have you.  What I submit though, is that more troubling than any particular 'stance' or 'spin' as it were, is that there is a flagrant disregard for Democracy in the way our government is run.  As Canadians, we should be almost up in arms.  Every single one of us, every single one who reads this blog is practically a second-class citizen in Canada.  We are abused, and at the behest of government politicians seeking to build upon their own legacies, reap the rewards of their social positions.  We are made to think, throughout our lives that we will never be able to aspire to politics, never be able to grasp at politics.

The vitrol of the media is pointed as such, as youth we are told endlessly that we are uninformed, that we are too young, that we have not paid enough in taxes to truly understand.  It's not that hard, Canadians.

The truth is there, all over.  Read what's out there, talk to your peers, have an opinion, think about what matters most to you.  The choice of vote is yours, and yours alone to be exercised.  We live in a time when you can access every and any form of media at your fingertips, global tv, ctv, cbc, newspapers, national post, blogs, twitter.  Everyone is saying something about this election.

It's yours to listen to, and to shape.  That's who you should vote for.