New Media

Only 59.1 per cent of my fellow Canucks voted (CBC.ca) in Canada’s election 2008.

To those who ignored their minimum obligation of living in a democratic state and decided to play the role of ignorant slaves, you ought to be ashamed. By the way, you don’t get to bitch about anything the government does or doesn’t do for the next couple of years. Cheers.

Yet another descent down the rabbit’s hole for Canada’s political leaders. While the global economy tanks, very possibly taking us innocent Canucks down with it, the Grits’ Stephan Dion is blasting the Tories over a few lines PM Stephen Harper spoke a few elections back, while he was leader of a party that no longer exists (Canwest), presumably to show that the Conservatives are taking orders from Australia (?!?!?!?)… and the rest of the opposition parties seem quite happy to follow Dion’s, ah, um… lead?

How about focusing on real issues, like ensuring Canadians are safe to walk around our urban centres without worrying about hate-motivated violence like the tragic attack in Vancouver this week (as commented on by Vancouver uber-blogger Hummingbird604).

Or another issue, like taking steps to put the lid on deadlier violence by extremists hatching plots to make our country into a warzone (New York Times).

If our politicians really want to waste their time tut-tutting each other over plagiarism this election, then I’m not happy with what that says about our overall political culture.

Who says that waiting times in hospitals are out of control? Oh, wait. A homeless guy sits in a waiting room for a day and a half without getting any attention and expires… and no one notices for three more hours (Winnipeg Free Press).

Maybe health care really ought to be an Canadian election issue for our politicians in 2008? You think? Sure beats talking about pooping poppins.

Canada’s battlegroup in Afghanistan has handed over command to a new group of Canadian soldiers (CTV.ca). There’s still much work to be done before the troops can come home.

Yes, Conservative PM Stephen Harper has already announced that the larger portion of our military involvement in central Asia is likely to end in 2011 (which the Taliban and their allies are likely hailing as a strategic victory a la the Madrid bombings). But it’s not fast enough for at least one foreign policy lightweight, who happens to be the leader of a mainstream political party. Says mustachioed moron Jack Layton, “We’ve got to construct a comprehensive peace process using all the various tools and elements that are available in the UN toolbox — and they are many — in order to work towards the accomplishment of ceasefires, piece by piece, working towards negotiations in as many locations as possible” (The Star).

To which Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee founding member and political commentator Terry Glavin would likely reply:

“The NDP’s ideas have already been tried, and they have already failed catastrophically. This is why UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the ground that the NDP has staked out as ‘a misjudgement of historic proportions.’ It’s because the position demands “the repetition of a mistake that has already had terrible consequences.

“Quite apart from the earth-rattling mistake the “international community” made when it abandoned the Afghan people to the Taliban in the first place, Canada has already tried withdrawing its troops. We already did that once. After joining with NATO in driving out the Taliban, we joined an exodus of foreign troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2002. Canada withdrew its troops, our meagre successes were slammed into reverse, and the whole country started sliding back into barbarism again.”

Is Afghanistan really neutralized as an election issue for 2008? Perhaps. But we’re still going to need clear thinking about our involvement in Afghanistan and the endgame we desire for a long time to come.

Nice to see that politicians are engaging their constituents with social media apps to connect on the issues in this Canadian federal election season. Even nicer to see NDP boss Jack Layton getting slammed on his own Facebook site (CTV.ca). One angry voter writes on his wall:

“You just lost my vote, you undemocratic shill.“

Canadian politics 2.0. Loving it.