How Shallow are we?

“Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.”
  - Chester Bowles

Almost all of the media coverage of the election race is focusing exclusively on the recently revealed pictures from 18 years ago that show Justin Trudeau at a theme party dressed up as the fictional character Aladdin (probably more accurately in Arabic as Al Ad Din).  This seems to be the rational that we are supposed to use to determine who we vote for on October 21^st.  Is he racist?  Is he disparaging Arabs?  Will this be a reason for us to lose favour with the rest of the world?  My answer is wsag (who gives a sh&t)?

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
  - Abraham Lincoln

If this is the reason we are going to use to determine the future of our country, we are a very shallow people indeed.  If the past is going to be used to determine our future, we really need to give our collective heads a shake.  

“Man is a credulous animal and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.”
  - Bertrand Russell

The stupidest political statement that was ever made was Kim Campbell’s comment that elections were no time to discuss serious issues.  Of course they are the time to discuss serious issues!  When else does the voting public get a chance to ask serious questions about policy of potential politicians?  Once a party is in power the decisions on serious issues are out of our hands.  The die is cast as the saying goes.  You next opportunity is the next election when, supposedly, we are again not to discuss serious issues.

One of the main issues we must face is climate change.  Last Friday, millions of young people from around the world showed us that this was their priority issue.  If we want to make a better world for the young, we better be paying attention to this plea and get serious about doing something significant about it.  One article in Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen recorded the failure of successive Canadian governments to do anything that has any hope of doing any good in this fight.  In the current election, there is one leader who has at least instituted a carbon tax (which too many provinces are wasting taxpayers’ dollars fighting in court) while the other has said he wants to pump more and more oil and gas into the world.  You decide what’s worth while.  Which of our leaders is going to show real leadership on this issue?  Real leadership is the courage to get people to do what they may not really want to do, but that is necessary for the betterment of all.

There are other important issues that should be discussed.  Foreign relations would be a good start.  How are we going to manage our relations with the US?  With China?  Will “getting tough” with China really work?

I’m getting sick and tired of each successive government trying to buy my vote with so-called goodies.  If I could find a party that would not try to buy my vote with my tax dollars, I would become a champion of that party. 

But as we all know, and as the press keeps telling us, the only really important issue in this election is Justin Trudeau’s blackface costume.  How shallow!

“Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies.”
  - Dalton Camp

It shouldn't be.