Les élections canadiennes en 2006 par David |
A tale of political importance. par David There was a time when a political party came to power and our elected members of parliament were forming a majority government. This was the way things were and most were happy and all was well in Canada...well for a time anyways. Then in june 2004, the Liberals with their newly elected leader Paul martin won a general federal election, although only with 135 seats in the house of commons, they were forced to negociate with the New Democratic Party to form a minority government for almost a year and a half, then everything came crashing down for Paul Martin's liberals! Now in an effort to be unbiased (as much as possible when talking about politics), we all know that the Liberal Party of Canada has been in power for over 12 years now, and it all started when then Progressive Conservative Leader Kim Campbell, lost to then Liberal Party Leader, Jean Chretien, but this only after 9 years of Progressive Conservative rule under beloved former Leader Brian Mulroney. All this to illustrate this point, it doesn't necessarily matter which political party a Leader belongs to, as much as the issues he or she supports does. Now we often believe that certain parties are more aligned then others with our values, our morals and therefore we support that party because it is better for our interests, but history has proven that wrong on a couple of occasions. Just one example is the post first world-war's "National Socialist German Workers Party" spearheaded by then unknown to the western world, Adolf Hitler. Although fortunatly we are not nearly as close to that in Canada, we may not be as far as we might think. If a certain political party decides to align itself with the United-States in one or several foreign issues, it could be neglectful to most canadian's long term interests. Now i don't believe another liberal government (or any other political party government) will be the deciding factor of a 3rd world-war(heaven forbid), but it will be the deciding factors of our economy, our national unity, our foreign influence, our freedoms and liberties, and a plenty more for several years. Tough choice to consider when you sit down and think about it, but even more mind-boggling is the fact that some people out there don't even take advantage of the right that is given to them, in other words, they just don't vote! To me this is the simplest avoidable shameful act! Our basic responsibility to our fellow Canadian citizens is to vote, in order to support a competitive and challenged democracy. It's just that simple. So this election, instead of thinking all politicians are "...going to screw us over no matter what party they are...", let us focus on the positive side of this and make Canada a country we can be glad to call our home, a Canada for Victorians to Monctonians to NewFounlanders and everyone else in between! -30- |