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What's wrong with Canada, redux...
13 January 2006
[indent]I was at the all-candidates' debate in Collingwood, last night. I always enjoy the political hurly-burly and the contest of wills and dogmas in these things. However, I was a bit disappointed that the "debate" was crafted to be less an open forum than a series of short monologues. There was no opportunity for questions from the audience, and no real interaction between the candidates. It's a lame process, and distances both the candidates and the process from the voters.
I would also encourage the organizers to coach the media representatives on how to ask short, incisive questions. Since only a select few are allowed to voice questions, they should be told that NO ONE in the audience wants to hear their opinions on the matter first, NO ONE wants a mini-lecture on the issue before the question is raised, and NO ONE wants a rambling, confused, vague question. We want simple, to-the-point questions that the candidates can tackle, not have to decipher first. The audience is there to listen to the candidates, not the media.
One thing that I found distressing was the "what's wrong with Canada" theme that almost every candidate (and indeed most parties) are espousing. Sure, you may not like the way the Liberals have governed, but that doesn't mean Canada has lost its soul, gone to hell in a handbasket, degraded its moral fibre or become drug-crazed impoverished criminals. Not most of us, anyway.
Sorry, but I think Canada's just doing fine. So what if we're not numero uno on the UN's list of "best places to live" this year? We've been at the top in the past, we'll probably be there again. But a nation isn't a popularity contest. We have problems, sure, so does everyone. But compared to 180 or more of the world's 191 nations, we're one helluva a great place to live. We're safer, richer, better fed, better educated, have better health care, cleaner water, cleaner air and more compassionate governments than 90 percent of the planet. So stop pretending we're in some serious downward spiral. People will start to believe you and pretty soon your comments will become self-fulfilling.
People sometimes forget that Canada's greatness depends on a very few things: our compassion towards others, our compassion towards ourselves, our caring and all-inclusive social programs like education and health care, and our willing embrace of multicultural values. Our greatness has nothing to do with taxes, with patronage, with the Notwithstanding clause, with Gomery, with banning handguns, with photo ops, with surpluses or deficits. Canada is about PEOPLE, not administration, not scandals, not the peccadillos of any candidate. Those are merely passing fancies. A few years from now, no one will recall them - but we will still be a caring, compassionate people.
If you're so worried Canada has become such an awful place to live, here's my advice: don't run for office; run for the border. Get out while you can before the barbarians storm the gates. I didn't hear a lot of "hey, we're a great place, but I'd like us to be better" last night. I heard a lot of woe, sorrow and lament over the destruction of Ur-style epithets. Doom and gloom? Give us all a break: this nation is the cream, not the dregs. Stop pretending we're not.
And another thing: Canada wasn't founded on religious principles and upright, morally-erect white folk carving a home out of the wilderness and turning it into a god-fearing nation where men worked and women stayed at home and got pregnant. That may be some people's impression of our history, but it ain't necessarily so. Canada was formed in fire, in rebellion, in anger and in violence. And in oppression, too. We just don't like to acknowledge it. We hung Louis Riel, we shot the Acadians and those whom we missed we deported. We stuck our Aboriginal people in reserves while we stole their land, and forced them to attend schools where they learned abuse and how to speak English. We had rebel leaders like King and Papineau who tried to overthrow the government, then we forgot them. We fought the American invaders twice, and we warred with the French (and never quite figured out what to do when we won).
We enjoyed a short but rich and violent history. We weren't always gentle, happy or morally upright folks. We (and especially our leaders) were sometimes nasty, violent, cunning, mischievous, sneaky liars, and drunks. And we should celebrate them for their humanity, their guile and their accomplishments.
Last night I heard from one candidate how morally upright and god-fearing we were back in the 60s, and how we lost our way, like Dante in his wood, and only by becoming god-fearing, subservient folk again could we get back to the humble greatness we had then. And along the way we had to learn to live under biblical authority.
I was wondering which 60s this candidate meant... the late 1960s in the Hippie era, the time of drugs, the sexual revolution and draft dodgers? The 60s when Canada was still military-minded (we built the most sophisticated supersonic military fighter jet in the world - the Avro Arrow - in the mid 50s then scrapped it)? The 60s when Canada allowed the US to put nuclear missiles in our Arctic? The days when the Dukabors burnt their homes and stood naked in the street to protest government interference? The years when the Quiet Revolution began, when the FLQ formed and started bombing Quebec mail boxes (first one in 1963)? The 60s when thalidomide crippled children? When Canada pulled its peacekeepers out of the violence in Zaire and put them into Cyprus? When Canada raised its new flag amidst great debate, protest and even filibustering? Or the postal strike in 1968, the same year Rochdale College, the great but doomed experiment in cooperative living, opened? The takeover and siege of Sir George Williams' University in Montreal, 1969?
For me, at least, Canada in the 1960s and 1970s was tumultuous and unsettled. Exciting times, but not necessarily a time to be emulated a generation later.
And as for making us subservient to one religious ethic, belief or value - forget it. It's not even one faith that's being presented, but rather one small facet, one perspective (and a fringe group at that) of that faith. And no matter what your faith: government and religion MUST be separate spheres. There's too much temptation to become a theocracy - a religious dictatorship - if they mingle. It's a short swim to becoming the Taliban once religion enters the river of politics.
We're a lot more mature and settled now, even if our Anglo-Franco differences are still in the forefront of our national identity (at least we're not bombing any more...). Medicare (launched in Saskatchewan in 1962, it became national policy in 1966) has improved with the Canada Health Care Act (1984) and ever since (despite the desire of some parties to dismantle it and Americanize health care into a for-profit system that benefits the rich and penalizes the low-income families). We have a lo here, we have a lot to be thankful for, and we should recognize just how well off we are.
Canada is a great place to live, for all its blemishes. I want candidates to tell me what their party can do to make us even better, not to whine and bitch about how bad things have become and how far we've sunk. I respond to positive, not negative. Canada's great, almost despite our governments. And we'll continue to be that, almost no matter who gets in power. So tell me how we become better... not how bad we are 9or will be) under your opponents...
[/indent]
I would also encourage the organizers to coach the media representatives on how to ask short, incisive questions. Since only a select few are allowed to voice questions, they should be told that NO ONE in the audience wants to hear their opinions on the matter first, NO ONE wants a mini-lecture on the issue before the question is raised, and NO ONE wants a rambling, confused, vague question. We want simple, to-the-point questions that the candidates can tackle, not have to decipher first. The audience is there to listen to the candidates, not the media.
One thing that I found distressing was the "what's wrong with Canada" theme that almost every candidate (and indeed most parties) are espousing. Sure, you may not like the way the Liberals have governed, but that doesn't mean Canada has lost its soul, gone to hell in a handbasket, degraded its moral fibre or become drug-crazed impoverished criminals. Not most of us, anyway.
Sorry, but I think Canada's just doing fine. So what if we're not numero uno on the UN's list of "best places to live" this year? We've been at the top in the past, we'll probably be there again. But a nation isn't a popularity contest. We have problems, sure, so does everyone. But compared to 180 or more of the world's 191 nations, we're one helluva a great place to live. We're safer, richer, better fed, better educated, have better health care, cleaner water, cleaner air and more compassionate governments than 90 percent of the planet. So stop pretending we're in some serious downward spiral. People will start to believe you and pretty soon your comments will become self-fulfilling.
People sometimes forget that Canada's greatness depends on a very few things: our compassion towards others, our compassion towards ourselves, our caring and all-inclusive social programs like education and health care, and our willing embrace of multicultural values. Our greatness has nothing to do with taxes, with patronage, with the Notwithstanding clause, with Gomery, with banning handguns, with photo ops, with surpluses or deficits. Canada is about PEOPLE, not administration, not scandals, not the peccadillos of any candidate. Those are merely passing fancies. A few years from now, no one will recall them - but we will still be a caring, compassionate people.
If you're so worried Canada has become such an awful place to live, here's my advice: don't run for office; run for the border. Get out while you can before the barbarians storm the gates. I didn't hear a lot of "hey, we're a great place, but I'd like us to be better" last night. I heard a lot of woe, sorrow and lament over the destruction of Ur-style epithets. Doom and gloom? Give us all a break: this nation is the cream, not the dregs. Stop pretending we're not.
And another thing: Canada wasn't founded on religious principles and upright, morally-erect white folk carving a home out of the wilderness and turning it into a god-fearing nation where men worked and women stayed at home and got pregnant. That may be some people's impression of our history, but it ain't necessarily so. Canada was formed in fire, in rebellion, in anger and in violence. And in oppression, too. We just don't like to acknowledge it. We hung Louis Riel, we shot the Acadians and those whom we missed we deported. We stuck our Aboriginal people in reserves while we stole their land, and forced them to attend schools where they learned abuse and how to speak English. We had rebel leaders like King and Papineau who tried to overthrow the government, then we forgot them. We fought the American invaders twice, and we warred with the French (and never quite figured out what to do when we won).
We enjoyed a short but rich and violent history. We weren't always gentle, happy or morally upright folks. We (and especially our leaders) were sometimes nasty, violent, cunning, mischievous, sneaky liars, and drunks. And we should celebrate them for their humanity, their guile and their accomplishments.
Last night I heard from one candidate how morally upright and god-fearing we were back in the 60s, and how we lost our way, like Dante in his wood, and only by becoming god-fearing, subservient folk again could we get back to the humble greatness we had then. And along the way we had to learn to live under biblical authority.
I was wondering which 60s this candidate meant... the late 1960s in the Hippie era, the time of drugs, the sexual revolution and draft dodgers? The 60s when Canada was still military-minded (we built the most sophisticated supersonic military fighter jet in the world - the Avro Arrow - in the mid 50s then scrapped it)? The 60s when Canada allowed the US to put nuclear missiles in our Arctic? The days when the Dukabors burnt their homes and stood naked in the street to protest government interference? The years when the Quiet Revolution began, when the FLQ formed and started bombing Quebec mail boxes (first one in 1963)? The 60s when thalidomide crippled children? When Canada pulled its peacekeepers out of the violence in Zaire and put them into Cyprus? When Canada raised its new flag amidst great debate, protest and even filibustering? Or the postal strike in 1968, the same year Rochdale College, the great but doomed experiment in cooperative living, opened? The takeover and siege of Sir George Williams' University in Montreal, 1969?
For me, at least, Canada in the 1960s and 1970s was tumultuous and unsettled. Exciting times, but not necessarily a time to be emulated a generation later.
And as for making us subservient to one religious ethic, belief or value - forget it. It's not even one faith that's being presented, but rather one small facet, one perspective (and a fringe group at that) of that faith. And no matter what your faith: government and religion MUST be separate spheres. There's too much temptation to become a theocracy - a religious dictatorship - if they mingle. It's a short swim to becoming the Taliban once religion enters the river of politics.
We're a lot more mature and settled now, even if our Anglo-Franco differences are still in the forefront of our national identity (at least we're not bombing any more...). Medicare (launched in Saskatchewan in 1962, it became national policy in 1966) has improved with the Canada Health Care Act (1984) and ever since (despite the desire of some parties to dismantle it and Americanize health care into a for-profit system that benefits the rich and penalizes the low-income families). We have a lo here, we have a lot to be thankful for, and we should recognize just how well off we are.
Canada is a great place to live, for all its blemishes. I want candidates to tell me what their party can do to make us even better, not to whine and bitch about how bad things have become and how far we've sunk. I respond to positive, not negative. Canada's great, almost despite our governments. And we'll continue to be that, almost no matter who gets in power. So tell me how we become better... not how bad we are 9or will be) under your opponents...
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