Some modest requests

For me this election it's all about replacing the toxic Harper government, and I'd vote for anyone most likely to do that. Luckily for me that's the NDP candidate in our riding, but I'd vote Liberal or even (gasp!) Green if I thought those were more realistic choices.
So I'm happy to report they all have viable plans that would improve the present democratic deficit enormously.
Which brings us to the rest of the agenda for the next government, where, once again, I'm lucky because the NDP platform appears to me to be both realistic and transformative and consequently, easy to vote for.
But  ­- although it pains me to say it, and maybe it's a “third party” thing  ­- there are some files on which the Liberals clearly own the way forward.
So I'd like the next government, whether coalition, NDP, or Liberal, to steal some of those ideas, please, and implement them.
For me, infrastructure support for cities lines up right behind affordable child care. The Liberal plan to go into more debt while the interest rate is at an historical low so that the federal government can get involved in city infrastructure spending makes more sense to me than obsessing with “balancing” the budget, which is always a mugs game anyway. Over 80% of us live in metropolitan areas, and conditions are not improving, especially in the larger centres. Furthermore, such spending, it has been demonstrated repeatedly, is good for the economy, which just happens to be tanking under the careful ministrations of the Conservatives.
Win-win, in other words.
Then there's the Senate, our expensive, ineffective, but unfortunately necessary albatross.
I'm for abolition, of course, so it's easy to vote for that. But I'm also realistic enough to know that Prince Edward Island and Quebec, among others, will never agree to abolition. They have their reasons, and they're not illegitimate. Abolition also means opening the Constitution, and, having watched both the Meech Lake and Charlottetown debacles, I'm not prepared to go there again. For me, that's off the table, which means that reform is the only realistic option. The Liberals just happen to have implemented what I think could be the most transformative reform possible: they've removed Liberal senators from the Liberal Parliamentary Caucus, and have promised to reform the way senators are appointed.
Let's have more of that, please.
And finally, the drugs file. The Conservatives have been disastrously wrong about this, and any of the opposition parties would improve matters dramatically. But the Liberals are correct to press legalization and control, which is a far better option than the decriminalization the NDP is proposing.
I was watching some of our very middle-class neighbours sitting out on their deck with some friends, chatting and  overlooking the pool the other night. They all looked to be in their 50's. I was busy doing the dishes, and happened to see one of the guys smoking what appeared to be a cigarette. He didn't appear to be exhaling smoke; I then saw him pass that cigarette to the woman next along. I couldn't see the others, but eventually the cigarette came back to him and the process was repeated.
It's not news, but Justin Trudeau is on to something when middle-class Canadians sit calmly on a deck of an evening, evidently totally unmindful of who can see them, and pass cigarettes around!
Just sayin'.

News: Conservatives want to warn us about change!

A few days ago my sister-in-law, Marion, sent me and a raft of others a link to an article in the New York Times called “The Closing of the Canadian Mind” by Toronto writer Stephen Marche. It's perhaps a little over-the-top but makes a good case, seasoned with a dose of acid, for why we desperately need a change in government; I recommend it.

You will undoubtedly already have read it.

Consequent to this, in my email inbox this morning, I received a copy of a letter from one of the others on the raft. It was addressed to Marion, and titled, “Be careful what you wish for...” It claimed to be based on a reading of her blog.

It clearly wasn't. It was a reaction to her recommending the New York Times article. But OK.

What struck me, however, and what I cannot get rid of, is the smugly condescending, even chauvinistic tone of the title: as if a successful semi-retired businessman from Penticton knows more about the needs of the country than a retired judge from Toronto, and feels free to point out the errors in her thinking!

As if.

I'm guessing he votes Conservative.

In reaction, I thought I'd compile a little list of my top 10 political wishes for implementation after the campaign ends, just in case anyone has forgotten why we need change.

I want...

1.  an electoral system that doesn't reward 39% of voters with all the marbles.

2.   a government that respects and obeys the law, particularly the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

3.   a government which isn't in perpetual election mode and doesn't game the system for partisan advantage.

4.  a Senate (if, as appears almost certain, there must be one) that actually applies “serious second thought” to government bills

5.  a Security apparatus that is supervised by either an independent or a multi-party political board

6.  parliamentary committees that actually consider the bills and issues before them, and are free to report to Parliament on the evidence, in a non-partisan way

7.  a Ministry of Defense that respects its service men and women, and proves it by looking after the injured

8.  non-partisan judicial appointments

9.  an end to partisan advertising on the public dime

10. a foreign policy that is about more than unconditional support for Israel

There is, of course, an entire litany of other issues: support for the CBC, resuming the long-form census, answering questions in Question Period, loosening the rules for charity political involvement...and I, just like you, could go on and on. In fact, the Tyee compiled a list of 70 outrages so we don't have to try to remember them all.

The case is depressingly clear; it's no wonder Conservatives want to warn us about the dangers of change.
Because it sure is tempting!