I have just finished watching the “Rise up Canada” Liberal video on Youtube, and was once again stirred to write. Michael Ignatieff spoke eloquently and passionately about the disarray of Canada under Harper’s government, for what I believe to be the first time. He told the audience to “Rise up” against the oppression of Harper who has been found in contempt of parliament, who has prorogued government twice, who has a man convicted of fraud five times running his campaign, etc.

We all know what Harper has done; we all know about the 5 question max rule that Harper enforces on reporters at any event. We all know that Canada is in disarray, but a man who points out the obvious as Ignatieff continues to do is not a leader. He is not speaking the truth about Canada’s situation. Canada’s 16% corporate tax is the lowest of ANY developed nation in the world. Considering the income taxes that we must all endure (which goes as high as 40% for households that make over $100,000/year) which, by the way, was only meant to be temporary after World War II, a 16% taxation for multi-billion dollar transnational corporations is a slap in our face.

We are the residents of Canada. We are the driving force of the economy; when we have money, the country has money; when we are prosperous, the country is prosperous. Transnational corporations are the leeches of Canada, taking with them billions of profit – made off of Canadian citizens – outside of our borders to faceless CEO’s and stockholders. A measly 16% tax on this means that they are not only saving money to continue but are pleaded to do so by our government. Let us not forget that due to these corporations, our natural resources are being sucked dry, our Canadian companies are either dying out – unable to compete with unethical corporations – or are being bought out as soon as they are found to be profitable.

Congratulations Ignatieff, you are promising to stop the corporate tax cuts that would drop the taxes to around 14%. That will make you the hero that Canada needs right? Wrong! Canada has been passed from one colonialist power to the next; first Britain, then to the United States, and now, to the corporations that govern the world. Canada not only needs, but deserves a man with the (for lack of a better word) balls to stand up against this atrocity. Canada deserves a leader who will raise corporate taxes and drop our income taxes. If transnational corporations leave, I say all the better. Foreign “investment” is the ownership of our culture, country, politics, and social realm. Canada is dying as the corporate leeches continue to bleed us dry and we wonder why there is no more pride to be Canadian.
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The five-week campaign for Prime Minister is to start next week. That means five weeks of political bashing. Five weeks of lies and empty promises. Five weeks of unimportant dribble being spouted out by parties in every spectrum of the political elite. I for one am done with it.

I can no longer sit back and take this abuse of political power any longer. Millions of dollars spent on advertisements bashing a single proponent of the opposition’s case seems more like a highschool “he said, she said” battle than a political campaign. I would like to, instead see some real issues raised. Things like the Liberals in Ontario being as much to blame for the catastrophe of the G20 as Steven Harper.  Or maybe the lowest corporate tax for foreign corporations in any developed nation (sitting at approximately 16% at the moment). Or better yet, the lack of protection for Canadian businesses and the foreign investment (or ownership – however you want to think about it) being pushed then barely scrutinized by governmental offices who are supposed to govern it. Or, the coup d’etat, the potential merger of the TSX with the LSX – and who says we are free from colonialism?

There are a number of different ways to look at these issues. I, for one, would feel a lot more at ease if one – just one – party took the time to face these issues head on. Instead they will likely loom over the usual suspects: tax-cuts, environmental issues, and the economy. But let’s be honest here, the GDP does not – by any means – represent whether or not our country is doing well. It is instead a number, disconnected from the strifes of the common men and women of our country, that does not necessarily matter to anything but the business end of the world. Now it’s time to face the human end of things.

All these politicians keep talking about the future, so how about we do the same? University and college students cannot find decent summer jobs – fact. Student debts continue to rise, along with tuition, with little or nothing else to show for it – fact. It is now near impossible for graduated students to find decent jobs in their field with an undergrad – fact. Colleges and universities are operating more like a company with their billboards and advertisements than a place for higher learning (the classes even reflect that) – fact. Artists – the back bone of any civilization which are single handedly responsible for the origins of a country’s identity – are being destroyed with cuts to funding – fact. Foreign companies are being protected far more than any Canadian country – two acquisitions of over 10,000 of which have been stopped (remember Potash Co.?) – fact.

These are just a few problems that I – as a film student who would not write a script due tomorrow until I finished writing this – can point out in my everyday life. Whatever my issues may be, I know many others have their own. The one thing I can point out is that no politician or political party has any answers to my queries, nor do they have the respect for me to even begin to care about them – and I assume the same goes to you. So what do we do as caring citizens of Canada? Simple. Vote.

I have always followed politics and find it is the civic duty of any citizen of a democratic state to do the same. So, let my own lack of a voice be heard. I will go to the polls with my paper work and hand in an empty ballot. There is not one party that begins to represent any of my beliefs – and same with many of my family and friends’. I will no longer vote for the lesser of evils. I will no longer “throw my vote away”. I will no longer have the hope in empty promises, lies, or stretching of truths. I will show that I am distraught with the lack of true democracy and choice in this nation. I will stand up and not speak when told to – my lack of a voice will say more than any check-mark made in the ballot box.

I have hijacked my vote until my demands are met. Until they are, I have a message to Ignatieff, Harper, and Layton: Your millions spent on advertisements will not sway this voter, only the real issues will.

The yellow-bellied turtle

On December 30th, two weeks after the House of Commons ended its last sitting of 2009, the Conservatives presented themselves with a belated Christmas gift, unexpectedly proroguing Parliament until March 3rd. It was to resume sitting on January 25th. As a result, the House of Commons will be vacant for nearly three months. The Conservatives assert that this is to allow them time to consult with Canadians, particularly regarding their economic action plan, before releasing their budget on March 4th. Is this what hockey fans would call “a turtle”, or is it a brilliant strategic move that once again demonstrates the Conservatives’ ability to outfox the Liberals?

Most Canadians have seen a few hockey fights. First there’s some verbal sparring, maybe some shoving, and then two guys go at it, sometimes by prior arrangement. It’s a good way to vent frustrations and stir up the crowd. Other times, a player is a pest or has done something that deserves some retribution. In this case, when the first punch is thrown the guy on the receiving end (the pest) refuses to fight back, unwilling to take the thumping he might richly deserve. He won’t put his money where is mouth is and either skates away or falls cowering to the ice, gloved hands covering his head – he is a turtle. The net result is that someone who deserved some payback doesn’t actually get much of it, and his team, in fact, gains an advantage.
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"You Can't Sink A Howe"

Martin Seligman is a leader in the positive psychology movement. Basically, this movement holds that optimism and other positive emotions help people lead healthier and better lives. Dr. Seligman has used these ideas to forecast the success of medical patients’ recovery, job candidates in the workplace, teams in sporting events, and the success of candidates in political elections.

C.D. Howe was a top political leader in Canada during the 1940s and 1950s and was known as the “Minister of Everything”. During the early part of the Second World War, his ship was sunk by a submarine, but he managed to climb aboard a lifeboat. When rescued by a passing boat, he told his rescuers, “You can’t sink a Howe”.

C.D. Howe’s comment when rescued is interesting. In those days during World War Two, it was usually too dangerous to rescue victims of a ship sunk by a U-boat. In fact, the discovery of the lifeboat in the choppy waters was only by chance, and the tramp steamer that rescued him had disobeyed a direct order not to try to retrieve survivors. Given that the policy of non-rescue was well known, and given that he still had the presence of mind to take command of the lifeboat and express bold macho comments when rescued unexpectedly, this suggests he was a person possessing extreme self-confidence. Does this mean that Martin Seligman’s theories are accurate? After all, C.D. Howe was a successful businessman and politician who sometimes succeeded against all odds.
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Prime Minister Harper addresses Canadian troops in Afghanistan

Just a week after refusing to entertain the idea of a runoff election, it appears sufficient pressure has been applied to Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai from his international patrons, that he has been forced to accept what many have considered inevitable for the past two months; a second round of voting for the dubious honor of presiding over the beleaguered nation.

The initial results of the original election on September 20, 2009 immediately showed troubling signs of massive voter fraud throughout the country. A two month investigation by a United Nations backed panel, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), validated many of the hundreds of officially lodged complaints of widespread vote rigging. According to their statement, the ECC found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud relating to improperly recorded vote totals for candidates,” and ordered ballots from 210 polling stations invalidated.
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As of this writing it, looks like the minority Conservative government may last through the week, if their budget-related ‘ways-and-means motion’ is supported by either the NDP or the (GASP!) Separatists. This after an election looked downright inevitable after Michael Ignatieff suggested his Liberals would no longer support the Conservatives and would instead send the country back to the polls at the first chance they got.

The mood amongst Canadians generally seems to be anti-election, with polls suggesting that 71% of Canadians don’t want or see a need for an election, sentiments which I would share. This would be the fourth election in less than six years, and less than one year after the last one of October 14th. Not much has changed since then, and public opinion has only slightly swayed back and forth (although the Liberals have a new leader, and the country has since descended into, and then begun to recover from, a recession, so perhaps that’s really poor analysis on my part).
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These days, Canadian politics is dominated by a surge of regionalism. None of the four major parties have a convincing nation-wide support to enable an oncoming majority government in the foreseeable future. The media is in part responsible for this trend in two different but equal areas of impact.

The first area is media coverage of the parties to inform the public. During an election (and even off-election times) the media rushes over to the various party campaigns and flocks to the leaders. What ensues is usually a popularity contests based on the personality of the politicians and not what he/she stands for. Sometime during the election campaign, each of the parties gives the media a scent of their respective vulnerabilities by releasing a policy book. It is literature in which the said party declares what it truly stands for and offers its solutions to impending political and economic problems the country is facing. If it is the media’s responsibility to inform Canadians of their political choices then a comprehensive understanding of these policies need to be understood and relayed to the public. Instead, the media has been satisfied to follow each campaign looking for some memorable quotes, criticisms, and banter from the leaders. This suits the politicians as well because they do not have to answer tough questions on their own policy when they can easily criticize the other guy.
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The media/pundit response to Ignatieff and the Newfoundland MP commotion last week made no sense to me. I could appreciate words like “precedent” and “weakness” being applied to the situation, theoretically. But in reality, how did Ignatieff’s decision to allow MPs to vote against the budget make him a bad leader? Phrases like “Harper would never allow it” were being thrown around, but recklessly. Is Harper our yardstick for what a good leader is? I seem to recall Harper’s downfall having much to do with an inability to cooperate, listen…give a little… Others threw caution to the future. Apparently, Ignatieff’s leniency was set to “return” to “haunt him” in the form of other provinces throwing their weight around, or increasing demands from Danny Williams. But must we assume that Ignatieff will bow to all future demands because he deemed one demand legitimate? Can I suggest we cross that bridge when we arrive?
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Honourable Iggy thinks our PM is playing games again.  According to Lord Ig, Mr. Harper has no respect for Parliament because he’s letting a few choice budget details slip out beforehand. Before we all get our shorts in a knot, let’s not forget that this budget slippage scenario was I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) started by none other than … Paul Martin.

Mind you, Paul’s strategy was meant to gently stoke the peace loving natives and booming markets of our great Dominion – in times of plenty. Mr. Harper’s may well be designed to divide and conquer them. A measly $1-billion for displaced workers. Buzz Hargrove wanted that for the auto sector alone. Sure enough, he’s turning the air blue on the phone already.  But who is he talking to?  Is it smilin’ Jack and his blinkered bunch of budget busters. Or is it Iggy – Buzz’s future boss when he finally pursues his political career.

Meanwhile here in Quebec, Gilles Duceppe and Pauline Marois watch gleefully as their approval ratings climb – for doing diddly squat. And Premier Charest looks for another way to suck more dough out of the federal coffers to keep his propped up. God only knows where it all goes. Our provincial health care system is abysmal, our taxes outrageous, water pipes are bursting in air and we’re decades behind the R.O.C. on more than one portfolio.
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Could it be true? That the NDP party is going to become redundant in the next federal election. I sure hope so for the sake of a renewed federal Liberal party and a stronger two party system. After all, for a country of 30 million persons, do we really need five “national” political parties?

While the great infrastructure begging contest goes on in earnest, the NDP is sending clear signals that they’ll likely vote against the upcoming federal budget – no matter what it contains. Apparently, they’ve been overcome by the scent of power and would like to chance it on their own coalition terms.

Government cheques for everyone!
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