The Canadian Election

I am deeply troubled by the current climate in Canadian politics. All the Political Parties are to blame, no Party has said to its supporters stop this nonsense and talk issues. I believe that vandalism has been committed by the supporters of all the parties, Greens, NDPers, Liberals and Conservatives.

When I say supporters I don't mean members of the political parties because for the most part I believe that it is not those people who are involved in the election vandalism because they recognize that the best way to get your view point across is to join the Party that reflects your views and work to get your representative elected. I think that the vandalism is being committed by those who don't know how or don't want to work within a Party structure and feel that they are somehow helping the Party that they support by committing vandalism on the supporters of other Parties.

What has caused this downturn in Canadian politics? I believe that it starts with a general lack of civility in today's society and is exacerbated by the adoption of dubious political methods from the United States and other parts of the world. The media hasn't helped in fact I recently came to the conclusion that the media has been seduced by the 30 second clip and sensational headline. There is no unbiased reporting going on each media outlet has a bias either political or commercial. They either want to sell the most newspapers, internet ads or tv commercials they won't report unbiasedly because that doesn't help their ratings, internet hits or sales. From their very beginning the blogs were all about bias and I don't have a problem with that because that is what blogging is all about. But bloggers have to be careful about the potential libel and slander that is appearing in some blogs and in particular in their comments sections.

Do I have a solution? I think that the Parties must all denounce any and all vandalism and I think that the Canadian media needs to start reporting the news and examining the issues and stop filtering the news and dumbing down the content. But most importantly the Canadian public must become engaged in the political process, read the Party platforms, ask the politicians questions, denounce negative advertising, follow the issues and most important of all vote. Is all that a solution I hope so, will it happen I doubt it.