Pretty sure that gave a lot of people just a bit of satisfaction, Lorne. It's better than burning Trump in effigy which, I understand, is some sort of offence not protected by the 1st amendment.
What saddens me about this is that it is one more sign of the fracture of social cohesion underway in what had been so many liberal democracies. Are we sliding into some grotesque Lord of the Flies society? It's not a frivolous suggestion.
A few of my Conservative friends seem to have lost some of their reverence for democracy. They're coming to accept a good bit more authoritarianism as necessary to the sort of society they seek.
As freely as I criticize Trudeau, I must credit him with always seeking to bridge gaps to promote social cohesion among Canadians. There's no similar 'reaching out' coming from the Conservatives. Now we have hard-right Bernier and wobbly-right Scheer who seems to feel he needs some 'tough guy' street cred. BTW, my most politically astute Conservative buddy thinks Bernier could take 10 ridings in Quebec and three or four more elsewhere.
Then you have your mallet-headed premier, Ford, a true abomination. Like Trump he seems to recognize no social or political conventions and, like the bull in a china shop, is on a tear-down rampage. He seems willing to erase decades of progress with the stroke of a pen.
All of this leads me to wonder if we haven't reached a state of irreconcilable differences, somewhat eerily akin to tribalism. I hope not but I'm beginning to see the other side's followers as a bit less my fellow Canadians.
There is no doubt we are living in an increasingly fractured world and country, Mound. I continue to be astounded daily by the wrecking crew known as the Ford government here in Ontario. As for Scheer, the man seems devoid of political instincts, proudly standing with Ford at last weekend's PC convention, seemingly unaware that Ford is using him as a prop as he plots his entry onto the national stage.
I do hold out a modicum of hope that if Ford does indeed succeed Scheer, Canadians as a whole will be more astute than my fellow Ontarians, who gave him a resounding majority government. Whether on a provincial or national stage, snake oil is still snake oil.
The problem in Ontario is that there was no credible alternative to the provincial Liberals in the recent election. People were voting against Wynne - not for Doug. If Wynne had stepped down and held a leadership convention a year before the election, maybe the PCs could have been held to a minority. People just held their nose and voted. That Ford should have become leader of the PCs (did NOT win the majority of votes or majority of ridings in leadership race) was an abomination just like the Electoral College fiasco in the US.
While I have been critical of the Ontario NDP under Andrea Horwath's leadership in the past, UU, I did feel that she presented a viable alternative to the Liberals this past election. The fact that she made only marginal gains and was not able to prevent a Ford majority government puzzles me. If people (myself included) could not see fit to vote Liberal, why didn't she attract sufficient votes to at least mitigate the disaster we are now living with in Ontario?
We are in a sorry state of affairs -- above and below the 49th parallel. It's not just our leaders. It has everything to do with the ignorance of so called citizens.
Pretty sure that gave a lot of people just a bit of satisfaction, Lorne. It's better than burning Trump in effigy which, I understand, is some sort of offence not protected by the 1st amendment.
ReplyDeleteWhat saddens me about this is that it is one more sign of the fracture of social cohesion underway in what had been so many liberal democracies. Are we sliding into some grotesque Lord of the Flies society? It's not a frivolous suggestion.
A few of my Conservative friends seem to have lost some of their reverence for democracy. They're coming to accept a good bit more authoritarianism as necessary to the sort of society they seek.
As freely as I criticize Trudeau, I must credit him with always seeking to bridge gaps to promote social cohesion among Canadians. There's no similar 'reaching out' coming from the Conservatives. Now we have hard-right Bernier and wobbly-right Scheer who seems to feel he needs some 'tough guy' street cred. BTW, my most politically astute Conservative buddy thinks Bernier could take 10 ridings in Quebec and three or four more elsewhere.
Then you have your mallet-headed premier, Ford, a true abomination. Like Trump he seems to recognize no social or political conventions and, like the bull in a china shop, is on a tear-down rampage. He seems willing to erase decades of progress with the stroke of a pen.
All of this leads me to wonder if we haven't reached a state of irreconcilable differences, somewhat eerily akin to tribalism. I hope not but I'm beginning to see the other side's followers as a bit less my fellow Canadians.
There is no doubt we are living in an increasingly fractured world and country, Mound. I continue to be astounded daily by the wrecking crew known as the Ford government here in Ontario. As for Scheer, the man seems devoid of political instincts, proudly standing with Ford at last weekend's PC convention, seemingly unaware that Ford is using him as a prop as he plots his entry onto the national stage.
DeleteI do hold out a modicum of hope that if Ford does indeed succeed Scheer, Canadians as a whole will be more astute than my fellow Ontarians, who gave him a resounding majority government. Whether on a provincial or national stage, snake oil is still snake oil.
The problem in Ontario is that there was no credible alternative to the provincial Liberals in the recent election. People were voting against Wynne - not for Doug. If Wynne had stepped down and held a leadership convention a year before the election, maybe the PCs could have been held to a minority. People just held their nose and voted. That Ford should have become leader of the PCs (did NOT win the majority of votes or majority of ridings in leadership race) was an abomination just like the Electoral College fiasco in the US.
DeleteUU
While I have been critical of the Ontario NDP under Andrea Horwath's leadership in the past, UU, I did feel that she presented a viable alternative to the Liberals this past election. The fact that she made only marginal gains and was not able to prevent a Ford majority government puzzles me. If people (myself included) could not see fit to vote Liberal, why didn't she attract sufficient votes to at least mitigate the disaster we are now living with in Ontario?
DeleteWe are in a sorry state of affairs -- above and below the 49th parallel. It's not just our leaders. It has everything to do with the ignorance of so called citizens.
ReplyDeletePeople seem to have little interest in fulfilling their civic responsibilities, Owen. Ignorance is the fallback position, it seems.
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