American Politics

Hi! In case you were unaware: I am Canadian! I live in Canada, and have so my entire life: despite what you may see in my public feeds. I pay close attention to American politics, as well as Canadian.

Why?

This is due to the fact that we share a border. This is because we use American trends as a blueprint for what we can get away with. The clearest evidence of this happened a month ago when it was declared that Roe V Wade was in trouble. Within a week, Conservative and Right-leaning pundits started bringing up abortion rights again in our discourse. Much to my immediate delight, it was not received the best. To my horror, it was not booed at the first mention. There seemed to be actual consideration paid to the topic.

My point simply being that what happens in the States, reflects back in our politics. I find this disturbing as Hell, and I have and will continue to amplify issues when I see them. I try to keep my voice as centrist as I can, but some days my Leftist brain just will not let me stay civil.

I have seen the idea floated around that Canada is seen as an empire. I have seen it floated around that Trudeau (Canada’s Prime Minister and, therefore, leader) is a tyrant. I will simply put one simple phrase to defuse both of those ideas.

You’re wrong.

To go further into it, Canada has a “troubled” past. Especially with the Natives of the land. I am NOT going to excuse the atrocities that we have committed in the past. To say that we are an empire is not only extreme, but wrong. We have little to say on the world stage, and we still have (even if it’s ornamental) allegiance to the British Crown. We have always gone into wars and battles as support, and we have no public nuclear weapons. We are NOT an empire.

Trudeau is the boss of the party that represents the country, far from a Tyrant. Decisions he makes are very limited to ideals that do not affect the common person, and mostly he just confirms what Provincial leaders put forth. Healthcare, education, the market — all things Trudeau has little to no say in. Can he do things in his capacity to change them? Probably, but he hasn’t done very much since taking Parlament.

The majority of issues brought up by the common person relate exclusively on the Provincial leaders. For those who aren’t Canadian, Provinces are individually governed bodies. We have an election coming up for Ontario, the Province where I am sequestered.

We have a Conservative leader who, to put it mildly, is horrible. We need a new leader. Liberals suck, as well. I don’t try to push my political ideology on anyone, but try voting NDP this year. Liberals keep failed, Conservatives are literally making life hard for people who aren’t worth millions. I want to vote Green, but I have little faith in them simply because they are untested. I really do think that NDP will be the best change.

Anyway, that’s enough of me standing on a soap box. If you are interested, here is a link to a great collection of videos by Left of the Box on YouTube. She does a fantastic breakdown of why Doug Ford/The Conservatives are killing people.

Now, perform your Civic duties, Canadians! Go vote on election day!