I used to enjoy reading about politics. In high school, when I was just developing a conciousness about politics, I used to find the littlest, most menial government tasks absolutely fascinating, and I would exuberantly encourage my peers to read about it. I thought the whole process was incredible — representatives of the people created processes and plans to actually DO things to the country; create new roads, fund small businessess, regulate corporations and collect taxes, etc.
My teachers warned me not to get too involved — that I would only become jaded, and of course I didn’t listen to them. I don’t think any 15-year-old really knows what ‘jaded’ means (although, perhaps I did, because I had been through a lot of depressing things by that point, but that’s another post) but I dove into politics and activism head-first. As most of you know, I’ve been lobbying and doing public speaking on drugs and drug policy for three years now. And in that time, I’ve become more and more aware of how the political system REALLY works, how power is really distributed.
I became jaded.
I know that everyone uses this as an excuse for apathy or non-action, but in reality all that does is hand your power over to the leading party, and the incumbants. One of the many, many reasons I’ve started to dislike this city is our municipal politics. What petty, slovenly, childish politicians we are blessed with. Our mayoral literally got into his position illegally. Just because he was found not guilty doesn’t mean he didn’t do it — and I point this out to people all the time. The other councillors are equally terrible, and for some godawful reason the people of Ottawa don’t want to unseat their incumbant representatives.
I think this really says a lot about Ottawa. Yes, it’s a little-c conservative, government town, that’s still stuck in the 1970’s as far as arts and culture goes. But it’s more than that — because we’re so close to the Parliament, I think people have become overly complacent with their leaders. We don’t see the full spectrum of the political environment, only what the Harpy Media Control Department shows us, and the people here lap it up like thirsty dogs in a drought of right-wingism. It’s not only disheartening, it’s pathetic. You can’t not vote, or vote for the incumbant, and then spend years bitching and whining about how the government never serves you and your needs. Well call your MP for fuck’s sake! Like, really, if you don’t participate in your political system then you have no right to complain, or any right to make suggestions on how to fix it.
Earl McRae, the consummate Ottawa Sun columnist, is a perfect example of the bigoted idiocy so prevalent in this city. He writes from a conservative point of view, but he is such an expert at twisting issues to always make it seem as if only HE can fix it. He panders to the elderly, to people who are worried about leaving behind an awful legacy, and it works. I bet you there are thousands of elderly readers who vote Conservative because of writers like him. Some of his articles are so … stupid. He wrote a huge, long article whining about how people don’t put their ‘buggies’ (they’re called shopping carts in the 20th century) back to the store. And how, because of these ‘lazy, indolant, inconsiderate slugs’, basically, society is falling apart at the seams.
I believe that working as a journalist, especially for a major daily, grants you a responsibility and a huge commitment to your readers — you have to make every word count. I think that most journalists have totally taken for granted these responsibilties, especially old farts like Mr. McRae.
Now, he’s not all bad. Occasionally, I am surprised by how social some of his comments are. For instance, he was apparently shopping at Carlingwood Mall (which says a lot in itself) and overheard three elderly folk speaking about politics. They were complaining about how their representatives were complete idiots, and how the Liberals just want to milk everyone’s money out of them and then give it to their friends and to people that are like, poor, or something equally awful. He asked them who they would vote for, and then went on a tirade about how people shouldn’t vote for incumbants if they don’t like them, and the only way to effect change is to CHANGE something, like the box you tick on your ballot.
I’m getting a bit long-winded here, but my point is: you have a RESPONSIBILITY to the people of Canada, and to yourself, to participate in the political process. %90 of us never even think about politics unless we are reading a newspaper, and probably %99 never EVER call our MPs, MPPs, or Ward Councillors unless we need something from them. Personally, I call them all the time. Every time I read about an issue in the paper, especially when that issues lights a raging fire inside me, I call and respectfully outline EXACTLY what they should be doing to fix the issue etc. And because I do this, I feel I have a right to bitch and complain when they STILL do NOTHING about it. Now, if we ALL called our councillors when something outrages us, let’s say the G20, maybe they’d realize that we actually care about our country and the direction it’s taking.
Or maybe not.
