I haven't posted in awhile. Silly me. Actually I've been spending a lot of time in the shop, turning pens. That and I haven't found anything interesting to talk about lately. But what about the election you might say. Well, maybe I'll touch on that a little. We have some pretty pathetic leaders with some pretty pathetic answers, and we are left with some pretty pathetic choices to make. We basically have a US choice to make, only we have one party on the right and three on the left. This means the conservatives will almost certainly win. The only party that talks any sense is also the party that shouldn't even be allowed in the debates because they only represent one province. Also, I have yet to see any of the leaders give a straight answer to any interviewer. This makes me think all politicians are (at least when it comes to elections) lying bastards, and that makes me want to vote for them even less. So what do we do. Well if I could I would vote for the candidate in my riding that best represented my beliefs, but guess what, we haven't received anything from any party but the conservatives, and that's just standard party line drivel. I believe my ballot will once again be entering the box unmarked. They don't count protest votes yet, but that doesn't mean I can't place one.
As a final point I wish to prove the rule that all of our party leaders are insufferably useless. When asked if they would take the country into a deficit to help counteract the effects of the coming recession, Harper said "No", Dion said "No", Layton said pretty much the same thing but turned it into an attack on Harper, and May said the Green party would have a 10.9 billion dollar surplus in their first year (WTF?). The correct answer, if they are going to bullshit us anyway, is "Our party will do everything possible to not run a deficit, but cannot rule it out at the expense of the financial security and general well being of the people of Canada." Sure it basically means "we'll do whatever we want and tell you it's good for you", but at least they would be telling us something reasonably true and somewhat comforting.
3 comments:
I'm glad you vote, even if it's in protest!
That said, I wish to point out a slight contradiction in your post. You state,
"I have yet to see any of the leaders give a straight answer to any interviewer. This makes me think all politicians are (at least when it comes to elections) lying bastards, and that makes me want to vote for them even less."
You later point out that when asked a direct question all leaders (except Green Party guy) gave a direct answer and state that you would rather they give you a non-straight answer.
Do you see the contradiction?
I just noticed it and thought I'd be a pain in your arse for a second!
I have no real comment on the election otherwise, except to ask:
Should a person vote for a party that called an expensive election process ONLY for the purposes of attaining a majority and WITHOUT any claim made (that I've heard) that the minority government wasn't working? Is this necessary or an expensive attempt to achieve more power?
While I realize that could be taken as a contradiction, it is probably not that simple. Firstly, I summarized what those party leaders said. None of them gave yes or no answers. The liberals came the closest by saying "No liberal government would ever run a deficit." The NDP said they would balance the budget every year (sounds like a no, but not really that simple.) Secondly, while sometimes a straight answer is a yes or a no, sometimes it needs to have conditions and to say if this happens we might do this and if this happens we might do this. To give a NO answer to the question "Would you ever run a deficit?" is not a straight answer because it is a question that requires more than just a yes or no. But yes, I did literally contradict myself. I do however stand by the lying bastards bit.
As for you last question... Harper called the election because Dion (and to a much lesser extent Layton) pushed him in that direction. Did he need to do it? Not right now. Was the government working? Sortuv. It worked, but in a muzzled way. Still, I don't see a reason for this election, and I think all three major parties share in the blame for it even having happened.
Actually, in a way I don't mean the "lying bastards" part. I don't believe that any of the leaders (and probably very few of the candidates) are bad people. In fact I don't even think they are lying in the purest sense of the word. In the book "On Bullshit", the definition of bullshit is discussed. The conclusion of the book is that bullshit is what happens when we talk about something we know nothing or very little about with such passion we convince ourselves we are telling the truth. In this way bullshit is not a lie, but a statement that, while untrue, the speaker believes to be true. I think this is what happens to most politicians.
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