If a Canadian federal election were to be held today, which
party would you vote for – the Conservatives, NDP, Liberals, Greens, or Bloc Québecois? Well, if I
were to vote now I would choose none of the above. It’s a Canadian conundrum - and a real problem
for discerning voters, because our federal parties keep to uncompromising and
untenable platforms.
As ruled by the “Harper Government,” Canada is so
undemocratic that a vote for a Conservative candidate borders on constitutional
treason – just look for instance to the hack job on the CBC, which is now
bereft of its editorial independence. We
live in a country that no longer has freedom of the press for our national
public broadcaster. Who in their right
mind wants to vote Conservative?
Then look to the Official Opposition NDP. Stacked by soft
Quebec nationalists à la Mulroney, the NDP Party
under “Tom” Mulcair hopes to dismantle the Chretien government’s “Clarity Act”,
now widely regarded as a success story (or the only thing federalists have
going for them). For Mulcair, the
formula “50% plus 1” is enough to dismantle Canada, should a referendum on
separation in Quebec actually happen.
It sounds to me that the NDP are a profoundly disloyal opposition; they
very much deserve to return to third party status for this reason alone, aside
from their Peter Pan dream of eliminating the Senate.
How about the Liberals under Trudeau? Recently bolstered by caucus evictions of
Senate Liberals, Trudeau wants to escape the Conservative “not a leader”
caricature of his predecessors Ignatieff and Dion. But Trudeau is still floundering on his
party’s national platform to legalize marijuana. Too bad he did not bother to check out his
mother Margaret’s autobiography,
Changing
My Mind, before he adopted this “liberal” policy. Margaret Trudeau suffers from bipolar
disorder, and for two or three decades she was “addicted” to pot, which
contributed to her chronic episodes of “extreme mania”.
It was only when Margaret Trudeau stopped smoking pot on her doctor’s orders that she got better and came into her own.
In other words, Justin Trudeau has learned absolutely
nothing from his mother’s experiences, which makes him look foolish, and now his
policy on pot will contribute to any number of mental health crises among the
vulnerable, once there is legal access to marijuana. It is also well documented that marijuana use
is an early trigger for the onset of schizophrenia, especially among those who
are susceptible to this serious and tragic illness.
Legal pot is a way of dealing with foreign
drug cartels, but schizophrenics become our domestic victims, and they don’t
vote. Both the Liberals and Greens
advocate the legalization of pot; that they do so is indicative of their poor
grasp of mental health matters. Pity. Pot is also much like a
Brave New World solution, where people take its equivalent,
soma, in order to get a “holiday from
the facts.”
Moreover, the legalization of pot represents post-colonialism
at its worst: instead of the disgraceful nineteenth-century Opium Wars, it is
now the West which seeks further amusement and distraction, while the Chinese
economic engine climbs to ascendancy.
Having eliminated the Conservatives, NDP, Liberals and Greens,
there is only the hapless
Bloc Québecois,
which is not represented outside of Quebec.
That leaves no party to vote for, but many reasons to stand on guard
against this Canadian conundrum. Allow
me to suggest a remedy: stymied
potential voters should be allowed a “veto” on each and every ballot in the next
federal election.
Yes, an extra entry on each ballot to say “I deny” should be
considered by Elections Canada to give people of conscience a chance to express
their dissent at oppressive party platforms.
It is a good to declare independence from leaders deprived of foresight,
as well as hindsight.
