Social media and Political Activism

There is a good article in today's Star entitled The revolution will be digitalized that looks at the role social media may play in political engagement and mobilization. It contains some links worth checking out as well.

Thoughts On The Shunning Of Helena Guergis

Wikipedia offers the following definition of 'shunning': Shunning is the act of social rejection, the deliberate avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from, an individual or group. It is a sanction against association, often associated with religious groups and other tightly knit organizations and communities. Targets of shunning can include, but are not limited to, apostates, whistleblowers, dissidents, people classified as "sinners" or "traitors" and other people who defy or who fail to comply with the standards established by the shunning group(s).

I couldn't help but think of the term, and the parts of the definition, (i.e., most parts) that would be applicable to fallen former Conservative cabinet and caucus member Helena Guergis, as she was being interviewed yesterday on Evan Solomon's Power and Politics.

Having discussed her in an earlier blog entry, I will repeat that I have never been especially fond of either her politics or her performance as a cabinet member, but I have to agree with some of her objections over how she was treated by Mr. Harper after unsavoury allegations arouse about her and her husband, allegations that were eventually deemed to be without foundation after an RCMP investigation. Nonetheless, at the first hint of scandal, she was removed both from her Cabinet post, something I can understand happening under the original circumstances, and from the Conservative caucus, something that I can't agree with, essentially rendering her a pariah, a persona non grata to the Party. She was effectively shunned.

In addition to the fact that Guergis seems to have been held to a different standard by Mr. Harper than others (think of Bev Oda, Maxime Bernier and Bruce Carson), the fact that she was expunged from the Party without any due process says much about the Harper style of governance, so thoroughly explored in Lawrence Martin's Harperland as well as in many online and mainstream media publications. It is a style that brooks no deviation, no independence, and requires absolute fealty to the leader. In other words, it is essentially one-man rule, although we have more unflattering ways of describing such governance when it occurs in the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

And that is why, despite the dismissal by some pundits that what happened to Guergis is only part and parcel of the rough game we call politics, I think her treatment is both newsworthy and should be considered by voters as yet another reason they should give serious pause before so blithely casting their ballots in favour of the Conservatives on May 2.

Student Voting at Guelph, and A CBC Appeal

Hot on the heels of news suggesting that more young people are making efforts to get politically involved in this election is the disturbing action by the Harper operatives to get a special ballot overturned at the University of Guelph in which 700 students voted. The people at Leadnow.ca are fighting back with an online petition demanding that the Conservative regime drop its challenge and let the vote stand. You can sign the petition here.

On a related note, Friends of CBC is offering a handy guide and downloadable campaign signs for those concerned with the political threats to the funding of the Corporation. Click here for that information.

Are Young People Becoming More Engaged In The Political Process?

A story in today's Globe suggests they are, in part thanks to a Rick Mercer rant from the end of March. While I have written previously about why I think it is crucial to increase voter turnout over that of the 2008 election to have any chance of defeating the Harper agenda, perhaps Mercer says it best in this video:

More Harper Pork, This Time In Vaughan

Conservatives quit over Vaughan health-care money So reads the headline on the CBC website reporting that more federal pork is being doled out, this time in the riding of Vaughan, currently held by Julian Fantino who captured it in a byelection last year. Outraged over the fact that two of Fantino's key backers, developer Michael DeGasperis and construction insurance man Sam Ciccolini, will benefit from a $10 million grant to an organization of which they are chair and director respectively, two prominent Conservatives have quit their riding association.

The two dissenting Conservatives, Richard Lorello, the local Conservative candidate in 2008, and riding association member Tracey Kent feel that it is wholly inappropriate that the money was awarded to a private group, Vaughan Health Campus of Care (VHCC); both regard it as a reward to both DeGasperis and Ciccolini for their help as fundraising co-chairs in Fantino's victory last November.

the Newest Liberal Online Ad

Sometimes you have to really love the Internet. Witness this new Liberal online ad, a response to the Harper government's misspending of G8 money:

Why Is The Story Of G8 Unethical Spending Important?

In normal circumstances, I suspect the story of the Harper government's dissolute and dishonest spending on G8 pork in contravention of its stated Parliamentary purpose to alleviate border congestion would not have 'legs', as they say in journalism. However, as critical thinkers who follow politics know, this dishonesty is symptomatic of a much larger problem that has defined the Conservatives since they assumed office.

Much has already been written about their contempt for democracy, their abuse and disrespect for Parliament, their disdain for MPs who are not part of the fold, etc., so there is no reason for repetition here. But I think this latest indicator of the amorality of those who have the hypocrisy to say they serve the people of Canada is a timely reminder of what is at stake in this election.

Although I do not believe it is generally useful or productive to reduce issues to absolutes, I think that absolutes are precisely what we have to consider before we cast our ballot: Do we want a government that at least has a semblance of concern for the well-being of Canada, both the nation and the people that comprise that nation? If we do, I don't see how we could vote for the Harper Conservatives.

However, if we want a government that is contemptuous of traditional Canadian values, that has a vision of a Canada comprised solely of rugged individuals whose chief concern is personal freedom, a government in which 'quaint' virtues such as honesty, compassion and integrity don't matter and whose pursuit of power is its highest value, then, of course, we will vote Conservative.

I don't especially like what I have just written, but the polarizing nature of Harper, his minions, and his tactics have taken me to a dark place in my thoughts, a place I hoped I had abandoned a long time ago. I honestly believe that the health of the Canadian psyche is at stake here, perhaps the most compelling reason to vote with an eye toward good principled government, or at least the honest pursuit of one.