Politics, Anyone?

Last Updated on: 16th October 2014, 09:09 pm

Hello, kiddies.

I trust everyone had just a super long weekend. I know I did. I was ready to write this post this morning but it took a few extra hours to get the last remaining bits of alcohol drained out of my liver.

It’s been a busy few days on both sides of the border in the world of politics – and… it’s pretty much fucked in both countries. Let’s start with here in Canada because, well let’s face it, everyone always starts with America. 🙂

It looks like PM Harper is ready to send Canadians back to the voting boothes. It’s seriously annoying. Currently we have a minority government which is actually working quite well… for us, y’know, citizens. It, however, does not work for any of the political parties.

Right now, since no one has a majority the parties are forced to work together and compromise. The end result, generally, is a compromise that tends to land somewhere in the middle of a left and right wing idea which keeps, at least most people, reasonably happy. it’s not overly efficient in terms of the time it takes to get things done – but I find it does produce better results.

That, however, holds no appeal for Harper and the Conservatives who are, supposed to be, in power. And really – why would it? You don’t really have power if you have to go to your opponent constantly and get them to agree. What any ruling party wants is a majority which allows them to push through whatever legislature they want, unopposed by any other party.

Idealy, this is how a government is supposed to run but in a country as divided as this one (and America0 currently is – it basically ensures that about 40 per cent of your population is very happy, 40 per cent is quite pissed off and 20 per cent are indifferent. That makes for a very unpleasant country and in all likelihood you’re going to head back to the polls early again in anyway.

All that said – I don’t know what the alternative is. With the minority the parties are unhappy and force you back to vote early – and if you have a majority then half the country is unhappy and you’ll be voting early as well. What we need is a good leader. And I don’t think we have that in this country right now. Someone who can unite a country and make people want to do what’s best for the nation instead of for their own agenda. I don’t think we’ve truly had that type of leader since Trudeau in Canada. Someone who makes you want to vote for him and forget the fact that, generally, you already know what party you’re going to vote for when you walk in the door. Most people are set in their ways and don’t pay attention to the issues or the personalities – they just know what side they fall in. That can be very dangerous and we need someone who can make people forget that.

Here’s hoping.

There’s no shortage of Political drama with our neighbours to the south either. I generally have no shortage of venom for the Republican Party in the good ol’ U S of A but you have to give credit where it’s due. It was the right thing to do to scale back their convention that was to be held in Minnesota thsi week out of respect for Mother Nature’s wrath in the deep south. I would have rather seen it out and out postponed a week or two but I don’t pretend to know enough about the logistics of that to criticize them for not going ahead with that part. It may very well have been impossible to move back – so at least they scaled it down.

John McCain has made his pick for his VP running mate and it’s Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a mother of 5. There are a few things I’d like to say about this. And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, it has nothing to do with the fact that her daughter is now pregnant out-of-wedlock. To be totally honest, that actually makes her seem a little more human as that is a problem that families just have sometimes.

First of all – no one should fool themselves about what this is. This is John McCain trying to snag up some extra votes. There is an army out there of women who were, pardon the expression, balls to the wall for Clinton to get the nomination and many of them are now furious. And they’re not just the male-hating, butch as hell, golf playing dykes that I’m talking about that would follow any woman in to war if they thought it would put a dent in a “male controlled world”. (note – the above does not apply to all lesbians – just the psycho ones). But there is a huge number of typical American women who were firmly behind Hilary and they range from the career oriented business woman to the stay-at-home mom and they will have their say on election day and it may not be for the Democrats. The Republicans would love to snag up even a quarter of those disgruntled Deomcrats who want to see a woman in the office more than they want to see their party in.

Let’s be real, here. We are talking about the American Republican Party. They’re not exactly known for their open-mindedness. This is the party of people who has forever been accused of wanting to see man over woman, black over white, war over peace and a million other negative stereotypes. I have a hard time believing that now, it’s merely a co-incidence that they embrace a woman as vice president just months of slandering Clinton for being too emotional. It’s not a co-incidence – it’s politics! It’s a desire to win votes.

That’s fine. That’s what we’d all expect. But I tend to wonder if this was the best woman to choose. As I said, I don’t fault anyone for the fact that her unmarried teenage daughter is now pregnant just days after her selection. It would have been nice if the Party had known that first… but they didn’t and you move on. My problem is with Governor Palin herself. My sources tell me (my sources being the CBC of course) that Palin may not exactly have a closet free of skeletons.

Apparently, not too long ago Palin’s sister was dating a police officer in a city in Alaska and their relationship ended rather unceremoniously. Governor Palin at this point decided the right thing to do would be to contact that city’s police Chief and tell him to fire the officer. Having no reason to fire him based on his performance, the Chief refused. Good for him. He did the right thing and that should have been the end of it. Unfortunately it was not and the Governor then had the Police Chief fired and had someone installed who would go ahead and fire this particular officer. Classy.

A little research would have gone a long long way for the Republican Party when it comes to things like this. Average, every day people don’t take kindly to being abused by the government and they are not likely to vote for someone who has done things like this once it becomes common knowledge.

There never ceases to be something to talk about in politics – no matter which country you live in.

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