the united states of canada

Yesterday was Election Day. Unfortunately, in spite of endless scandals, illegal Americanstyle campaigning*, and being held in contempt of Parliament, The Conservative Party won a majority, striking a hot, dirty victory for the continued fast erosion of social progress.

What does this mean? No more neutral foreign policy or equal rights for gays and women, further destruction of our formerly balanced budget, the cancellation of the long form census, even more money pulled from social programs and arts and culture and given to the military and to build privatized prisons, (despite the crime rate going steadily down), (also related: jail-time for pot smokers), many, many corrupt and suspicious officials, including a Creationist chiropractor for Science Minister, no more guarantee of truth in the news, a stop to open, transparent government, an introduction of the RIAA’s DMCA laws, secret meetings about a Perimeter Security pact with the USA, The Government of Canada rebranded as “the Harper Government”, unsafe food laws, a repeal of abortion rights, and a government complicit with torture, climate change denial, and the debacle that was the G20 Summit.

I could go on, there are enough infractions against the rights of Canadian citizens to fill a small book, but it’s too depressing. As someone mentioned so succinctly on Reddit earlier, “The key part that so many people miss is that in a democratic system, it is not simply the will of the majority the prevails. In order for the system to work, the majority must protect the rights of the minority. That is what I think people are afraid of. That’s why I’m a little saddened by the results. Not because people have differing opinions from mine, but because I fear they will not protect the rights of all people.” Given all evidence, I completely agree. What about you?

*Register a complaint against Harper for breaking the law: commissionersoffice@elections.ca.

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