In a rushed lead written in Twitter yesterday, there was some unnecessary meanness. It was not intended. It just appeared in the Twitter space and was carelessly left there because there were other things needing attention. What started as humour became something else. It is a very human fault.
The meanness of the comment was not apparent until watching the local Global News segment at six pm and there was a news item about teaching children about kindness. The clip brought home the feeling that we were possibly handling the problems with Stephen Harper and his Conservative henchmen and women entirely wrong. Instead of ridicule, derision, mockery, blame and criticism, we should be showing them more compassion and kindness. If nothing else, it could start an entirely new trend in Canadian politics.
An example of this new trend could start with the next time Justice Minister Peter MacKay has an announcement on the government’s campaign against cyber-bullying to make. We could counter with a very positive statement about his lovely wife and their sweet new child. That would be far better than noting that the announcement was just another series of desperate advertisements that will be used to try to re-elect the Harper government. Can you see the difference that this will make?
And we could be nicer to the Bobbsey Twins. Foreign Minister John Baird and Employment Minister Jason Kenney are stalwart members of the Harper Cabinet. And we know they are loyal to a fault. There is no point in deriding them at every turn. When Jason Kenney announced the other day that the federal government might not bother with involving the provinces in its all-important Canada Job Grant Program, we could have been polite and not laughed.
Just because the money is going to come out of the provincial funds one way or another, provinces—other than Alberta and Saskatchewan—have made derogatory remarks about the heavily advertised program. And because the federal government spends so much money advertising the program does not mean it needs to exist. Did you note though the very fine cut to the new suit Jason was wearing when he made the announcement. It is by noticing these things that will enable us to be nicer to him.
Now that we have had a chance to think about this, it is unlikely that we will always find something nice to say about the Harper government. We will do our best.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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