Echoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s promise that Canada will not “cut and run” from the Mission in Afghanistan, the Conservative Party of Canada has proposed a 2 year extension to Canada’s presence in Afghanistan.
Parliament plans to debate the topic for several hours Wednesday followed by a vote.
Canada currently has approximately 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan
Despite my prior intense interest in Canadian politics and in particular the 2006 election, I have decided to cease writing updates and opinion pieces for this site [northernpundit.com]. The reason is simple - I feel this election, as well as Canadian politics is nothing more than a circus of fools.
This election has proven to me what I have suspected (and not wanted to believe) for some time - Canadian ‘politics’ no longer consists of parties with platforms based upon leaders lobbying for what they believe in. Politics has become a scramble for votes - a disheartening and frantic attempt to appeal to as many voters as possible by promising anything and everything. We are presented with a set of parties who will promise whatever they feel the majority of the populous wants to get and stay in power.
That appears to be the only concrete truth and basis of politics in our current society - do whatever it takes to get and retain power.
Instead of leaders defending party choices and stances, we now witness an about-face of a challenged viewpoint to appease the populous. Attempts are made daily to discourage support of the opposing candidate with an expose of mistakes made in the past. These mistakes get repeated over and over, in a twisted and sad attempt to ultimately convince as many people as possible that a contrary vote will be helping criminal and a degenerate do more wrong to our country.
We are in trouble and none of the parties that have a shot at winning appear poised to fix the problems. This leaves me feeling discouraged and unwilling to choose any of the candidates presented to me in my district - and it appears I am not alone. Elections Canada’s report on the 2000 election states that nineteen percent of non-voters claimed they did not vote due to some sort of distaste for the parties or candidates running. I will be curiously awaiting the results from this election when they are published in a couple of years - I propose the above mentioned reason will rank much higher.
So what is the solution? What is supposed to happen in a democracy when there are no acceptable candidates? Who is to blame? I am unsure of the answers to these questions, being a chemist and computer geek - not a political scientist. I suppose the answer is that we are all to blame, and someone fresh and new to must run as a candidate in an attempt to alter this political stalemate we are in. But is that not what every candidate running in this election is promising us? Besides, who would be the just and pure hearted soul to selflessly tackle the problem? It certainly will not be this humble writer.
What I will be doing, however, is heading to the polls on January 23rd, and my action and protest will consist of spoiling my ballot. Perhaps this small gesture will help me, if no-one else, feel that I have done something more than sit and complain.
JJS
Jan 13, 2006