reed writes

I have no way of knowing what goes on in the backrooms of our government.

But I do know this – P.M. Harper seems more concerned with clinging to power than with moving forward on matters of policy. Our government does not seem to be connected to the rest of the world in ways that can help us and others – understand the fundamental principles of Canadianism and international responsibility.

The cyclical rash of advertisements attacking the opposition, denigrating other political leaders and appealing to the baser instincts of the electorate – are evidence that the thinking process in Ottawa is shallow and self-serving.

Our government has  taken a shotgun approach to policy. It has enunciated no clear goals that the average citizen can identify. There is the sense that in Harper’s court, power trumps everything else. There seems to be a mentality of “damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead”.

But we exist in a world where the torpedoes are coming at us fast and furiously; they must be identified, tracked and dealt with. This cannot happen if the leadership believes its main goal is to hang onto power, rather than to identify problems and take steps to help solve them.

Government is about much more than just exercising control…it’s about being engaged as an active player on the world scene as well as on the domestic political scene.

Politics ought to be about ideas, vision and how to make our country and the world a better place. The true purpose of responsible politics is about inspiring the citizenry to believe that there’s a better way to do things and that an educated, developed nation like Canada has a real role to play on the global stage.

Our government needs to have clear objectives, well-defined goals…and it needs to move forward carefully…to achieve those goals.

Part of the problem Canada faces – could just be the comfort level of our society. We’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled into a state of mind that could be defined as, “I’m alright Jack”…or as…”What? Me Worry?”

We happen to live in one of the greatest countries on this planet. Our standard of living is one of the highest and our future is bright. But we’re mesmerised by our good fortune and too often we seem to overlook the foundational principles on which the country was built. Some things to remember:

• we separated from imperialism in a peaceful and constructive way.
• we developed a co-operative approach to social welfare partly out of necessity, but also out of compassion for others.
• we built a tolerant country of two cultures.
• we have always opposed Fascism and dictatorship by promoting the ideals of democracy and freedom…and we have fought and bled for those ideals.
• our wars have almost always been defensive ones and we have – as a nation – opposed the idea of planning and waging aggressive warfare.
• we opposed the illegal war in Vietnam because we believed it was irresponsible and wrong and our Prime Minister spoke out against it.
• our commitment to justice was clear and we provided safe haven to those who refused to fight.
• we supported the United Nations, because we have traditionally believed in taking responsibility for international fairness and justice.
• we supported the International Criminal Court for the same reason.
• we were once the poster nation for Peacekeeping in the world. (Now we rank somewhere around #50 in terms of contributing peacekeeping personnel – on a par with Mali).
• our efforts to come to terms with the wrongs committed against Native People and against Japanese Canadians are clear evidence of our humanitarian outlook.
• our refusal to participate in the illegal invasion of Iraq is evidence of our historic commitment to rational behaviour on the international scene.
• we entered the Afghanistan conflict only after the U.N. formed ISAF – the International Security and Assistance Force.

Since then, we have lost our way it seems.

Our leadership no longer speaks out against injustice. We have allowed Canadian citizens to be held in secret prisons, mistreated and even tortured. We accepted the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, which goes against everything we have stood for throughout history. Our leadership has failed to speak out and promote the most basic Canadian beliefs. And for all those things and more, we must feel a measure of national shame.

Oddly enough – our government embraced the worst excesses of the Cheney/Bush administration in the U.S. and has failed to see the positive steps being taken by the new Obama administration, elected overwhelmingly by a majority of the American people.

Perhaps it’s time for Canadians to do some reassessment of what their country stands for.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon says he’s troubled by reports of intimidation of opposition candidates offices by Iran’s security forces.

Cannon claims that he has ordered Canadian embassy officials in Tehran to be vigilant. He has called on Iranian authorities to conduct fair and transparent counting of all ballots.

Incumbent President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been declared the winner. Was there fraud? Possibly. Does it matter? No.

Mr. Cannon is allowed to criticize other countries when Canada, the U.S. and other western nations have reached a level of democracy that is without flaws. Until then, it is appropriate for him to keep his nose out of other peoples’ business.

Let’s not forget that in the year 2,000 it was the U.S. Supreme Court that decided the outcome of the presidential elections in the context of reports of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation.

If I remember correctly, in that election Al Gore polled a majority of the popular vote, but lost the election.

Enough said.

Mr. Cannon ought to keep his mouth shut.

Another Reason Why We Need More Independent Candidates in Parliament

When a Canadian peacekeeping officer was killed in Lebanon, as a result of Israel shelling and bombing of his unarmed observation post, there was no one in the Canadian Parliament to speak out in protest.

When the Canadian Military Board of Inquiry was snubbed by the United Nations there was no one in the Canadian Parliament to speak out in protest.

When the Israeli government thumbed its nose at our Military Board of Inquiry, there was no one in the Canadian Parliament to speak out in protest.

When our Board of Inquiry found that the Israeli Defence Forces were responsible for the death of our Canadian officer, there was no one in our Parliament to speak out and demand justice.

When it became clear that Canadian Major Paeta Hess von Kreudener had been murdered by a 500kg precision-guided bomb made in America and dropped from an Israeli plane directly on the centre of his post, there was no one in our government who cared enough or felt courageous enough to speak out.

That is why we need more independent voices in our Parliament.

We need voices that will demand to be heard.

We need voices that are not subject to political party cowardice and intimidation.

We’ve already met Bill Casey of Nova Scotia…now meet Andre Arthur of Quebec. He’s the independent member of parliament for Port Neuf-Jacques Cartier.

Andre ran a low-budget campaignin 2008 and emphasized the downside of being a member of a political party.

He says that Parliament exists mainly to serve the political parties and not to serve the voters of Canada.

The Canadian political party system is deeply flawed and Canadians know it. 

That’s why we are refusing to elect majority governments. We’ve lost faith in the traditional party system. Far too many elected M.P.’s sit on their hands, keep their mouths shut and shuffle along with the crowd. Their blind obedience to the dictates of party leaders is a sad commentary of our democracy, our tradition of free speech, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and respect for the electorate.

When M.P.’s are not being blindly obedient, they are often invisible. Take the re-incarnated Liberal Party for example.

In this last session of Parliament, Liberal MPs have missed three times as many votes in the House of Commons so far this year as Conservative members. The Liberal Party under Ignatieff posted the worst record of all parties for casting votes in the House.

When they did bother to show up, Liberal M.P.’s voted the same way as the Conservatives on almost every occasion. They made few if any important speeches and raised little if anything of even the slightest interest.

In fact, the majority of members of parliament (not all), are bench-warmers with few original ideas of their own.

Among the exceptions is William Casey of Nova Scotia. (more…)