SOME MORE PROMISES TO BREAK - A NEW ELECTION CAMPAIGN TO STOMACH

I will be one of millions to admit the present government is arrogant, dictatorial, ego-dominant, and self serving by appearance and application of governing privilege. I will also be one of millions concerned the opposition parties, will provide pretty much the same disconnected perspective, if elected. I’m one of millions who like the idea of having government co-operation, at this tough time in world history and economics, willing to sideline personal ambitions, in order to help us, and help this nation.... weather the near future’s anticipated turbulence. And I’m not the only one of these same millions, who is worried about nuclear catastrophe in the next five weeks. An election campaign could have been delayed. There is a greed factor here that is appalling. Greed for power. So for the next month and a tad, we’ll actually be significant entities to the candidates. After that, it will be back to the usual, less than enthusiastic, citizen-politician relationship, meaning the necessity of “begging for recognition.” The only out-stretched hand will be from Revenue Canada looking for a few more bucks for the hungry coffers.

During the most recent municipal elections, I found much the same attitude. Conciliatory to a fluffy sweetness, as if you, the voter, actually means something beyond a mark on the ballot. Having been through so many of these follies in the past, at all levels, it’s just something anticipated from the get-go, and I’m seldom disappointed. Eagerness at the beginning of an election doesn’t really hold-up over the long haul of a four year term. You become inconsequential soon after their bums are in the council seats we paid for. Then it somehow becomes a lesser ordeal to tell local ratepayers about a potential nose-bleed tax levy for 2011. The excuse becomes as feeble as their willingness to chat on the street, and the new state of the union......a familiar refrain; “That’s the way it is. So suck it up!”

As for a Federal Election, awe geez.....it’ll start all fuzzy-wuzzy, making us poor bastards feel like we count, only to find out we’re nothing more than a notch on the election belt. You know when the new government takes office, it’ll be an entirely different game-plan than the one we voted for, as it always is, and we’ll just take the television remote and flick them off the nightly news! I’ll turn it on and off several times because, frankly, it’s so satisfying to dismiss them casually.....as they fob us off once they’ve got our vote. As I’ve said and written many times, “our democracy guarantees us the right and freedom to vote for a dictator.”

There are times when I start believing that a candidate I’m chatting with, could be different from the rest of them. The exceptions, over my lifetime, have been few. Frank Miller was most certainly a glowing exception. Whether Frank was on the campaign trail or a member of the Provincial Government, he was always approachable......and was always accommodating to his constituents here in Muskoka. I believe his son, Norm Miller is the same in his role as MPP for our riding. I’m not a Conservative Party supporter, as such but I have long appreciated the Miller family’s heartfelt dedication to our region. I’ve always been treated with the utmost respect by both Frank and Norman during their respective campaigns, and during their terms of office. That’s a cornerstone of accountability I need to see in place, before I can feel my voice has representation at a higher level.

This coming election for the feds, simply isn’t needed. Co-operation is! The present government could have negotiated but declined.....no matter what they spin, they had a chance to negotiate with all parties, and glory-glory, what a public relations coup that would have been. To show an insightful, conciliatory side, how wonderfully kind, to the astute citizens they know don’t want the burden of expense, to run yet another election. What a monstrously significant ovation they could have earned by burying the hatchet, setting the egos aside, and working in good faith to find solutions......., tend the fragile economic recovery, and pump-up our democracy by showing that co-operation is infinitely more important than tired old mantra, and the push and shove of today’s dysfunctional democracy. Instead we get another taxpayer burden heaped onto everything else, while the Conservatives will remind, time and again, how it is the other parties that brought rain down on the parade.

I remember being at a junior hockey game, one evening a few years back, and an oldtimer, in the stands, scolding a hometown fan who was screaming at, and taunting, the opposition players. The fan was livid about the dirty play of the visiting club. The gent, in a calm voice, asked the red-faced man, if he had ever studied the handiwork of the team he was cheering for......to see, by chance, if they were the victims of violent assaults, or on-par, equal participants in foul play. He suggested that he take a few moments to eliminate the distinction of the home and visitor colors, and watch the hockey players themselves. So was it true that the home team were angels-on-ice? While the fan blew-off the advice given by the oldtimer, with a flipped bird or something like that, I borrowed the advice for myself. Of course it is true that there is a blindness, to the idea that the hometeam (or political party of choice) can be at fault. Yet as a player for many years, and a fan most of my life, a dirty hit regardless of the sweater color, is still a penalty. Maybe we need to see those replays over and over, to be able to question “our own,” as we criticize “the opposition.” If the Tories had adopted the conciliatory mission statement that good governance for Canada means “fair play” regardless of the color or party mantra......and that compromise and negotiation seem pretty integral to the rights and privileges democracy affords us, or should afford us, every day of our lives........maybe then we could have made this present minority government work a few more years, for our benefit.....our welfare. Is our welfare of concern? For five weeks it will be! Enjoy it while it lasts.

I won’t be putting any political party’s sweater on, in any show of public support. But I will study the platforms, listen to the debates, stomach the propaganda, and exercise my right at the poll, to play a citizen-role in the determination of the next Government of Canada. As far as changing political will, or hoping that our elected representatives will be any more co-operative, and negotiable than usual, I’m just one of those poor bastards that has learned to settle for less from the general pool of elected officials. So I’m seldom more disappointed, about an outcome than the time before, and the time before that. I’m sad to admit this but I have lost faith in the democracy of the present, to put our health and welfare first......before rubbing up against big money interests, on the mistaken premise that successful governance depends on powerful friends, and corporate good neighborliness. I like the “will of the people” ideal lasting through an entire term of office. How ridiculous is this?

There is a growing discontent within the Canadian population, and while it’s a long way from the trigger point of actual rebellion, it will continue to heat-up to an eventual breaking point, if ignored by the next round of mediocre governance. Social welfare is a festering sore.....and while not a glamorous schmooze out on the election hustings, food banks and homeless shelters are worthwhile stops along the way.....for candidates, who are truly interested, as human beings, in the bare truths of their ridings. They should let their souls out for a little air. They might sense then, that what they believed, or were told was “a hale and hardy economy,” “and a prosperous business community,” is instead a reminiscent sketch from a Dickensian novel, where poverty and economic failure, is the inconvenient truth, the lesser lustre of otherwise charming hometown life. Take a spirit-led sprint into the near future, to visit a place where Banks for food have become as well attended, as those other banks of profit.

I want to see a candidate up close and personal, who will attend a food bank on a pre-election visit, who will come back and give a crap, show some concern about its expanding client-load, after the election. And maybe join me, as a volunteer, to help raise funds for this same charitable operation.....that will head into the future on the same wing and prayer it has in the past. What a glorious moment it would be, to see an elected official from any level of government, actually concerned about empty shelves and hungry folks in our midst. There’s still time and plenty of opportunities to show support for local food banks.

I’d love to be your guide.