Political Strife

Come on in, I've got those yummy Greek chips with the feta, organo, and olive flavour.  So tasty.  So this was a response on effbook to the wonderful fun that is the political system.

Not that I want to disabuse anyone from their abuse of corrupt politicians, but apathy is a problem in our political system right now. It's part of the reason we get these screwed up governments.


I understand the frustration with our political system, but there's two ways to fix those frustrations and they are the basis of HOW our system was set up, and the reason it has stopped working well. The first thing you have to do is understand how our system works. There's a great number of books out there that explain our parliamentary democracy, and just understanding the system itself will allow you to understand the movements and changes that happen without frustration or feeling 'left out' of the process.

Number two is getting involved. How many people who are complaining about this have phoned the campaign office of every single candidate in your area and asked questions that are a concern to you? How many of you have researched how those candidates have voted in the commons (All the votes are online, and easily accessible) to compare what they're telling you vs how many times they just toe the party line? How many of you have actively promoted the candidate you want to vote for, helping debate and information sharing amongst yourself and others?

The thing is, the two most important discussions that need to happen are politics and religion (In a very broad sense) yet we're all told, 'oh don't talk about those things, they just cause arguments.' Maybe we need a few arguments. Maybe we need to feel ok to get pissed at one another every so often, as long as we don't hold a grudge or make it personally.

My point is, the system isn't inherently broken. But our treatment of it is. Get involved, do the basic research, participate. We get the governments we deserve. With our apathy riding so high, with voter turnouts of about a third of the population and less than that actively engaged in the process, we're going to get governments that abuse us. Because the perception is, the Canadian public doesn't care. Let's show them we care.