elections 2011

The alarming apathy of Canadian electorate indicates:  serious malaise in the Canadian body politic. It signifies   lack of respect and high regard for the sanctity of our Rights and Freedoms which we casually take for granted, something denied to peoples in Africa, Burma, Tibet, religious fundamentalist states, rouge and failed states. Just look at how the Romas or gypsies are being treated in Europe, they are treated like dogs because they have no country or a charter to protect them from extermination. We allow the multimedia snippets to take the place of serious study of our political dynamics and serious discussions on how the various parties affect our future as a nation and as a people. We think that political life is on auto pilot while the ruling classes are nibbling away at our social programs, selling our business interest for cheap to foreigners because we do not want to invest on our destiny, reducing our sources of revenues and slowly dismantling our tradition of equitable distribution of wealth as envisioned by statesmen like Tommy Douglas. We rely on natural  resources as the ultimate insurance for our future, when in fact this is the delusion of our ruling classes who lull us into blind complacency. But as responsible citizens, , it is our job to inform ourselves how our ruling classes or government is operating and whose interest mainly do they serve. If we do not inform ourselves and ignore our duties as citizens, we deserve the abuse and exploitation that our rules inflect on us. By not participating actively and informing ourselves, we rightly deserve the corruption and lies perpetrated by our government whether it is the liberal, conservative, NDP. The idea of one man one vote is a right fought very hard to gain by heroes in the past, it was not granted without bloodshed. If we are so distracted by pornography, unbridled consumerism, drugs, alcohol, gambling, senseless cyberspace activity, then surely if we lose our fundamental rights and freedoms, we have only ourselves to blame. Political parties have their own agenda, and politicians tend to prevaricate to gain power and if we are willing dupes, then we are the losers. Politicians enjoy power, the citizens job is to take them into an accounting of their policies. Not all politicians are ugly people, but if we are supine in our attitude towards our government, then they will not conduct themselves honorably because we are not paying attention to their conduct.. knowledge of the workings of our government does not require academic credentials, just a commitment to be curious , access information and discuss these with fellow citizens. Together we can make Canada much better than we found it, taking our citizenship for granted leads to ignorance, prejudice, injustice and chaos.  The future of our children is at stake. Let us vote according to our thoughtful reflection and conscience. If we can go drinking, shopping ,gossiping,  golfing, fishing all year round, going to the polls once every 2-3 yrs. is not such a great deal of sacrifice. We need to give our children a good example in exemplary citizenship, it is our duty, not a choice. It is similar to arming ourselves to defend our country if we are invaded, it is similar to fighting in Europe to defend Democracy against Fascism.