It’s Canada Day, 2022, and never has Canada’s democracy been under greater challenge. While we try to lay to rest the vestiges of a pandemic, we find the burial sites of un-named aboriginal children from our time of colonialism. We face the anger and confusion of a convoy of truckers seeking redress for what, we do not know. Ours is a troubled planet, and our tenure on it is being tested.
Are we not but tenants on this dying planet? Must we continue wasting its resources on fleeting pleasures? We waste food in the Americas as Africa starves. Mr. Putin makes war to advance his quest for power and prestige. The Chinese elite use their people as expendable units of labour in their factories. Americans argue about abortion rights while murdering their children with an over-supply of guns. The Saudis of Arabia build luxury yachts to deny they are products of their over-rich deserts. We burn the forests that give this world life. We dump tons of plastics into the oceans to kill the life that struggles there to survive.
Pitiful politicians accuse each other of ignoring their publics while pandering to their sources of funds and power. They have raised political dogma to a level where they think citizen contributions to law-making becomes unnecessary. They want us to argue about how we vote instead of how to make our vote count.
Canada could be an example to the world of diversity working in harmony under democracy. Yet we insult the intent when we sign-up thousands of people of one ethnic group or another to win political position.
Canada should not be shamed by its politicians. We have the capability in this country to weigh the strengths and merits of the individuals seeking to represent us in political office. We send individuals to municipal councils, to provincial legislatures and to federal parliament. Each candidate can be weighed in background, knowledge and those lacking in strength of purpose can be set aside. It is our right to question our representatives. It is our right to question their actions. It is our right to vote. Not voting can be a failure of democracy. You can always defend our democracy by casting your vote. Just be sure to know what you are voting for.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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