CFN – I’ve decided to become Issue-Centric politically. After three years in this industry I’ve lost any desire to belong to a political party.
Traditionally I’ve been Liberal, but frankly the Federal scene and local scene have burned that out of me.
The utter hypocrisy and evil of people like Stephen Harper, Tim Hudak, and locally Guy Lauzon and Jim “McFuddle” McDonell have all but ruined any chance of me comfortably joining the Conservatives.
As much as I like Thomas Mulcair I’ve never even danced with the idea of being a “dipper”, and I had my flirtation with being Green.
I think that this job has beaten any thought of both being partisan and being a candidate from me as a person.
Frankly I think partisan politics hurt us more than help us. I’ve watched some good people support some bad politicians purely because of partisanship.
Does that mean I won’t vote or participate in politics? Nope. I probably will more as issues become clearer to me and more important. If I have to hold my nose and vote for someone I don’t like if it truly helps effect change I’ll do so with a smile on my face.
It all will come down to earning my vote. I was invited to a party last night where the conversation after some alcoholic refreshments soon turned to politics. What was really interesting was that most present were women. I think what we most agreed on was that politicians are all the same.
Most will say and do anything for our vote. Sometimes the crazy buggers actually do what they promise and that can lead to more harm than good. (see Mike Harris)
Elections are like dates. Politicians try to look their best and woo us with sweet nothings, and bright and shiny objects as they try and lead us the dark embrace of the voting booth for us to only wake up in the morning with the sickly smell of stale liquor and cigarettes to caress us, and our wallets gone.
No, for me I’ll still vote,but it will be issue by issue election by election.
What about you? You can post your comments below.
Not even The Natural Law Party? I think yogic flying would be a blast!
Too bad the Rhinoceros Party is no more. They had some cool ideas.
I know what you mean. I was Treasurer of the NDP riding association in Leeds-Grenville back in the late eighties. Now that was depressing. Never had more than about $100 in the bank account, and never got more than about 100 votes on election day. Even our candidate at the time, Art Lane, ended up being murdered by his own wife! How sad is that?
@ Pete Dick, Was his wife a Conservative?
Don’t know for sure Reg. They both seemed like very fine people when I knew them. She hasn’t been convicted yet, but the trial will be happening sometime soon in Brockville. It wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out that she was a secret super angry Con (Real Women) Harper groupie, but we’ll have to wait for the trial to determine that. It seriously is a sad story. Art was an amazing and well liked guy.
Sometimes we have good people running for office as politicans, seems once they get in they have to toe the party line, Liberals Conservatives NDP they all have there agenda an once you get in ,you dont do as you please,We need a party that the Mps who where voted in can have a free voice, an not held back by there partys agenda!
What did Harper ever do that was evil? Seriously! I can never find anyone that says that to give me an example.
One of the things that many people, and especially many journalists, found so nauseating about the government was the fondness of some of its key figures for saying one thing in public and another in private, mostly about each other. It often made the whole government feel like an exercise in hypocrisy (and, towards the end, not even an organized hypocrisy, as Jamie famously described an administration).
On the other hand, a certain level of hypocrisy is necessary in any party-political system, and particularly necessary for governments of all stripes, let alone a coalition. Parties and especially governments require their members to be publicly loyal to lines and leaders in whom, being human and therefore endowed with their own opinions, they do not always have faith. This public hypocrisy is needed for policy to be made and implemented; the private, negative kind of hypocrisy, in which politicians secretly denounce the ideas or people they praise in public, can also be virtuous too, since it can indirectly lead to policies being improved.
Anyone who thinks about these things for a moment understands that political hypocrisy has its uses, and is anyway inevitable. The question is, how and where to draw the line between good and bad hypocrisies?
Perhaps the only sensible answer is that the good kind contributes to the working of government and therefore advances the national interest, whereas the bad kind hampers it. So, for example, it might be considered a good thing.
I worry, though, that this distinction is dangerously subjective. Lots of politicians, for example, doubtless sincerely believe that it is in the national interest for them to character-assassinate their colleagues, even when their behavior seems nakedly self-serving to others. Perhaps the only safe way to adjudicate on political hypocrisy is hypocritical: some we like, and some we don’t.
Jamie, having lost any desire to be part of a political party, I suppose that your bias towards some political parties will disappear, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
🙂 @ Stan
@ WOW, where have you been this past decade? It is common knowledge that no one in the Conservative Party does anything without Harper’s approval. That makes everything that they have done his responsibility and that includes the contempt of parliament ruling, the G8 summit costs, the fighter jet boondoggle, rampant proroguing, the abandoning of Canadian citizens when abroad, the selling out of the environment in favour of big oil and those are just the first things that come to mind. I’m sure other posters can add to that list all day long.
The list is endless Reg, in and out, vote suppression (election fraud), character smearing and on and on…
We have a low-life PM, but we should be thankful to have an exemplary federal Finance Minister who has NEVER told a lie, and looks like a Leprechaun!
I am a truck driver who entered the world of politics. I was told by a Returning Officer that politics is a “Dog eat dog” business. I said Cool, I like the taste of dog.