Canada, you disappoint me. Sure, he’s not as bad as Mulrooney, but he’s quite clearly not good for this country. His party’s environmental policies are counter-productive, as are his economic policies (although I will admit, it actually takes some examination to realize this, and most voters are some combination of lazy and apathetic). He’s been caught lying in a civil suit, and his disrespect for the arts as an industry and artists as members of the larger Canadian community appalls me. He delivers his message well, and I can understand that his confidence, which borders on—and sometimes even surpasses—arrogance, can be comforting in these troubled times. But if the experiences of our cousins to the South have taught us anything, it should be that we should not, indeed we must not, accept short-term palliatives for serious issues like the dismantling of our manufacturing and forestry industries, the crushing debts faced by students as funding is bled from institutions and costs are offloaded to students (not to mention the baroque and downright dishonest repayment policies managed by corrupt third-party vendors), and an environmental crisis that is far closer to the point of no return than most of us would like to believe. Add to that the fact that our nation is haemorrhaging well-paying jobs in industries that support huge segments or our economy, which are being replaced by low-paying jobs, mostly in the service sector, that contribute virtually nothing to either the economy or the tax base. (There’s actually a very easy way to fix the issue of student debt that would alleviate some of that latter problem, but I won’t get into that now.) Our current PM barely acknowledges that many of these issues exist, and when he does, the solutions he and his party respond with are either patently absurd or subtly corrupt. There is nothing inherently wrong with conservativism; there is, however, a problem with voting for a party without understanding their policies or their implications. Understand that voting is a responsibility as much as a right. Your vote affects the lives of others. My life. I know that moral or family issues may be of paramount importance to you. Morality is extremely important to me, and so is my family. We are no longer together, but out there right now in the world is a young woman whom I love very much, and it is important to me that she be safe, and that her right to live her life as she chooses, to love whom she will, to have an education and a productive future, is respected. When I go to the ballot box, as I did today, it is with the understanding that my choice will affect not only myself, but her and all my other friends and loved ones as well, and my morals tell me that voting to limit their choices, to disparage how or whom they love, to pollute their communities, to make it more difficult for their children to attend post-secondary schools or find jobs they can take pride in and that pay them an honest wage, is a fundamental breach of trust. I ask you, my fellow Canadians, to think about how and why you voted today, with these things in mind, and to remember them when next you are called upon to wield this awesome responsibility.
