How To Disappear Completely: Vote for Pedro

22.01.06

Vote for Pedro

The Canadian elections happen tomorrow. I don't get to vote, but since I didn't want to be completely out of the loop, I asked how Canadians went about electing a federal goverment. I was expecting some sort of answer that followed the lines of "well, every four years or so, we have candidates from each major party run against each other; whoever is elected is the prime minister." No, the parliamentary government only dissolves when the parliament passes a vote of no confidence, at which point Canadians hold an election and start from scratch. One government lasted eight months. Others can last for years. No regularly scheduled turn around here. I guess the thinking is that if the governmnet is doing a good job, then don't mess with it. If the government is doing a lousy job, then get it out as quickly as possible. Also, the Canadian people do not vote for their prime minister. Instead, they vote for the representatives from their precinct (I think these representatives might be called MPs, but I am a little hazy on this part). Whichever party gets the most votes, gets to choose a prime minster to lead the party. The Canadians think their system is much easier than the U.S. system. All a Canadian citizen has to do is go to the polls and cast a vote for the party. None of this voting for a Democrat for senator, a Republican for president, and an Independent for representative. The parties here are Liberal, Conservative, and NDP (New Democratic Party), colour-coded red, blue, and orange (I think), respectively.

And in other news, in Australia, voting is mandatory. Imagine if U.S. citizens were jailed for failing to vote.

Several of the Americans here hate President Bush's guts, so much that they are almost ashamed to associate themselves with the country. Granted, he is a man capable of mistakes, but really, just because he is pro-life and sent troops to Iraq does not make him the moral equivalent of Hitler, the incarnation of pure evil. Liberals, it seems, can be just as dogmatically narrow-minded as religious fundamentalists.

Posted by funke at 22.01.06 12:53 | TrackBack | Posted to O Canada

O Canada

Comments

Why have all these liberals forgotten about 9/11? It's so strange how they live in unreality. Bush has to put out so many unwarranted fires that he spends all his time on liberal backlash and is not able to dig into issues that can really benefit America. I truly believe he wants to do this, like Reagan did, but I don't remember Reagan having to deal with the constant lies that the Liberals drum up. They can't make anything stick. No, the guy is not perfect, but I respect that for him the US's best interests come first. You can't say that about anybody who would be leading the Democrats at this point. And yes, liberalism IS a religion.

Posted by: Patsy at 22.01.06 15:55

TO Patsy-- No liberalism is NOT a religion.

TO Funky-- Maybe it comes from my southern roots but i really think that our goverment made a mistake when we allowd our sentors to be elected by the people and not congressmen. I respect our northern brothers.

Posted by: hopie at 23.01.06 9:34

To Hopie, regarding her reply to Patsy: liberalism is a religion in so much as ANYTHING is a religion...in other words, ANY sort of unbiased opinion is a myth, I think...we all have presuppositions that incline us to take one or another side of an issue. I think Patsy was just trying to point out that the same arguments of blind dogmatism can be used against both sides. That's all.

Posted by: funke at 23.01.06 11:12

For instance, I'll be up front about my political biases:
1) I come from a family with a strong military background (two grandfathers fought in wars, my dad and four uncles all went to military academies), and I have good friends going to academies now, so I am going to be very pro-military.
2) I come from the West, but not the West coast. With the exception of the coastal states (California, Oregon, Washington), the Western region of the US tends to be very self-sufficient. We're descended from mountain men, cowboys, and wagon trains. We live on acres of land where people don't run into each other unless they drive 30 minutes in their pick-up truck. So we don't like big government that interferes with our lives. We vote red a lot and kill tax raises.
3) I grew up in the homeschool circles, where family is big and children are produced by the dozens. Abortion is murder, and the public school system merely an alternative that, if it collapses, won't be missed much.
4) Now I am in academia. Diversity is cool. Bigotry, racism, class divsion, generation gaps all need to be fought against.

I realize that issues aren't always clear-cut...there are problems that within these camps that I've outlined. But it just shows where I am coming from, and why I tend to have the political opinions that I do.

Posted by: funke at 23.01.06 11:28