More Sax Needed
In honour of the Shuffle Demons:
Sing along, if you know the words.
"They say they're gonna pave my road this year,
Whoa-oh, must be calling an election..."
Here's what you need to know about Canadian political parties:
New Democratic Party - Will be happy to tell you what you should think, secure in the knowledge that they can take the moral high ground of social responsibility without any real hope of winning enough seats to put policy into action.
Conservative Party Of Canada - Assumes you think like them, therefore their policy makes perfect sense, therefore they don't need to explain anything.
Liberal Party of Canada - Makes life easy for you by simply telling you what you think. Enough people are happy to be told by others what they think, that the Liberal party can get itself elected more than any other party.
Rhino Party - Recognizes the inherent danger of thinking and simply refuses to do it. Thinks it's bad for the heart. They're probably right. Too bad they don't run anymore.
According to the Liberal Party, nobody wants an election over Christmas. According to just about everyone else, nobody else gives a rat's banyack. I think I know why they think this way. Typically, they like summer elections. It's hot, people like to leave town for the week-ends, many people are away for vacations, nobody likes to think too much. In the winter, people are stuck inside with nothing better to do than think about things. This is not good for the Liberals. In the last election, the Liberals wanted to make the election about health care. thney positioned themselves as health care's saviour, and told people that people think they are the great caretakers of said health care. An examination of various parties' platforms showed that the Liberals were promising to do the least to improve health care in Canada, yet they won the election anyway. So if people think about things, they might start to wonder about things, and even without considering rampant corruption and mismanagement, that can't be a good thing for Paul Martin.
What would be fun is to collect campaign flyers from the last two or three elections and see how many promises from the Liberals haven't been followed through on. I'm guessing a lot. We've still got GST for a start. And inadequate health care. And I'm sure the list goes on. And on.
Sing along, if you know the words.
"They say they're gonna pave my road this year,
Whoa-oh, must be calling an election..."
Here's what you need to know about Canadian political parties:
New Democratic Party - Will be happy to tell you what you should think, secure in the knowledge that they can take the moral high ground of social responsibility without any real hope of winning enough seats to put policy into action.
Conservative Party Of Canada - Assumes you think like them, therefore their policy makes perfect sense, therefore they don't need to explain anything.
Liberal Party of Canada - Makes life easy for you by simply telling you what you think. Enough people are happy to be told by others what they think, that the Liberal party can get itself elected more than any other party.
Rhino Party - Recognizes the inherent danger of thinking and simply refuses to do it. Thinks it's bad for the heart. They're probably right. Too bad they don't run anymore.
According to the Liberal Party, nobody wants an election over Christmas. According to just about everyone else, nobody else gives a rat's banyack. I think I know why they think this way. Typically, they like summer elections. It's hot, people like to leave town for the week-ends, many people are away for vacations, nobody likes to think too much. In the winter, people are stuck inside with nothing better to do than think about things. This is not good for the Liberals. In the last election, the Liberals wanted to make the election about health care. thney positioned themselves as health care's saviour, and told people that people think they are the great caretakers of said health care. An examination of various parties' platforms showed that the Liberals were promising to do the least to improve health care in Canada, yet they won the election anyway. So if people think about things, they might start to wonder about things, and even without considering rampant corruption and mismanagement, that can't be a good thing for Paul Martin.
What would be fun is to collect campaign flyers from the last two or three elections and see how many promises from the Liberals haven't been followed through on. I'm guessing a lot. We've still got GST for a start. And inadequate health care. And I'm sure the list goes on. And on.
posted by MyMaidMary | 11:29 p.m.
3 Comments:
I'm game for that. NDP = new duck party -- I'd vote for that....
PS: I like sax...
Thanks, M-cubed, for clearing up the confusion -- I'm just a simple American, and your Canadian multiparty politics frighten and confuse me! :-) Honestly though, how do you folks ever get anything done in government?
In America, we have only two political parties of consequence, which creates the illusion of a choice. Gore Vidal and others have argued persuasively that there is really only one political party in America, namely the party of large corporate interests. I think that's an accurate statement.
Though I voted for John Kerry in 2004, I ultimately had to admit that there was precious little difference between his pro-war position and George Bush's pro-war position, for example. After yet another highly questionable "election," Kerry didn't even have the guts to challenge any of the numerous voting irregularities which were reported and documented all over the United States. He left that important task to third-party candidates with a fraction of his financial resources, but they at least had the guts to take up the challenge.
I believe the impotence of the Democrats and the corruption of the Republicans may yet give birth to a viable third party in American politics.
Question #1: Do you have any suggestions on how we Yankees can make that happen? (Perhaps we should begin by abolishing the Electoral College.)
Question #2: Does the Canadian voting process leave an auditable paper trail?
Friendly Advice: Please don't EVER allow electronic voting machines with no auditable paper trail in Canada. Once you allow that, your democracy is effectively over.
It's by no means clear whether there is still a functioning democracy south of the border. Please don't let this happen to you!
Post a Comment
<< Home