A couple of weeks ago, @causticchick tweeted “I was followed by @VisionVancouver today, which is weird because I’m STAUNCHLY AGAINST Vision Vancouver. Gregor can kiss my ass. #VanPoli” after Vision followed her.
This tweet reminded of a several conversations I have had since joining twitter from people in the NDP or CPC that are shocked and appalled that I followed them after an argument. One person last year went so far as to block me because I #FFed them. (Full disclosure: While I have nothing to do with the content on the Vision Vancouver twitter account, I did help setup the account and have given advice on social media strategies to the party).
The kind of mentality that would cause someone to complain about their opinions being followed by those who oppose them confuses me. Shouldn’t @CausticChick be happy that the ruling party of Vancouver wants to know her opinions, even though she doesn’t support the party? Isn’t it a good thing that I want to understand the ideas of those who disagree with me? Well, no, not to these people. Because they don’t see me as the opposition. They see me as the enemy.
There is a great line from the West Wing that went something along the lines of: “The Republicans aren’t the enemies, they’re the opposition. Congress is the enemy…” Somewhere along the way we have lost the idea that we can have good natured debate in our political system without it creating long term animosity.
CAPP and other organizations have been engaged in an effort to introduce Question Period reform. While I do think there are things that could be done to improve QP (like giving the speaker the ability to declare something a “non-answer”, or forcing the person asked the question – PM or minister – to be the one to answer the question), I think the real issue is that the Members in the house are no longer colleagues in opposition: they are opposition enemies.
I don’t like Stephan Harper very much. I don’t like most of his cabinet very much either. But I do acknowledge that they are people who have dedicated their lives to public service, in a society that does not reward public service. I may not agree with their objectives (this being in the way of an understatement), but I do believe that they believe that those objectives are in the best interest of Canada. I would have a beer with Harper, or Baird. I would take the opportunity to argue with them endlessly, but I would still buy them a beer.
Because the Conservatives are not my enemy. We have enemies in this country (Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-il… Ezra Levant…), but they aren’t the dedicated Canadians who take the time to debate public policy in this country.
So, @CausticChick, I think you need to ask yourself: Are you really upset that Vision cares about your opinion? And if you are – if you are so opposed to Gregor and his team caring what you think – why?
