A blog to give a voice to our concern about the continued erosion of our democratic processes not only within the House of Commons and within our electoral system but also throughout our society. Here you will find articles about the current problems within our parliamentary democracy, about actions both good and bad by our elected representatives, about possible solutions, opinions and debate about the state of democracy in Canada, and about our roles/responsibilities as democratic citizens. We invite your thoughtful and polite comments upon our posts and ask those who wish to post longer articles or share ideas on this subject to submit them for inclusion as a guest post.
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Sunday, December 23, 2018

Ho, Ho bloody Ho

This time of year is not my favorite season, yes its nice to visit family and catch up with both their recent activities and their plans for the future but the whole clamor of what is now largely a retail opportunity leave me less than enthusiastic. For far too many folks it is an excuse, or is that a perceived obligation, to spend money they cant really afford on items that have a good chance of not being used or useful to the recipient who similarly feel obliged to return the 'favor'. Me cynical and a grumpy old man? Yep!

That said I do feel 'obliged' to wish those few folks who read these pages, some of whom even take the time to comment upon my ramblings, seasonal greetings and wish them a happiness and contentment in the upcoming year. Just because I do not embrace those feeling this time of year does not mean I would wish such on others, if the state of our world locally, nationally and / or world wide both politically and environmentally bothers you, as it does me, then I suggest you do NOT read on for this is not going to be an uplifting creed.

It may make for bleak reading, but of the 162 countries covered by the Institute for Economics and Peace’s (IEP’s) latest study, just 11 were not involved in conflict of one kind or another. Then there are countries which are involved in no actual foreign wars involving deaths whatsoever - like North Korea & China – but which are fraught by the most divisive and entrenched internal conflicts. The number of authoritarian regimes that suppress their own citizens or the ethnic minorities who they consider interlopers is also considerable whether included in the above or not. The few that do not fall within those parameters are far from trouble free, much of Europe is in disarray between fending off Russian aggression and trying to agree to disagree with neighboring countries not the least of which is GB where the whole Brexit thing can only be described as the largest Cluster Fk since Cromwell's days.

North America is not immune to the political induced madness that is spreading across the globe much of it caused by individuals who seem to think they are democratic leaders but are in fact the exact opposite or quickly heading that way. Whilst the current U.S. 'leader' is perhaps the best example of such thinking where due process is just something to be ignored or circumvented and any opposition is demeaned or suppressed it is far from the only one who thinks that way. Which brings us to our own impending CF here in Ontario where the newly elected premier is cutting a swath though the checks and balances previously thought to be unassailable starting with the members of Toronto's council and a number of other 'cuts' seeming made with little or no input from the folks that citizens chose to represent them, flawed though that process may have been.

Across the country it looks no better as what appears to be an increasing division between those who do not believe in climate change or simply put the almighty dollar ahead of the ever increasing destruction of out atmosphere and life as we know it. We will not change thing overnight and the use of oil to power our economy will not substantially reduce in the short term but it should be clear by now that increasing its use is simply not on. I will leave it to others more eloquent on the subject to detail the dangers but polluting large areas by taking tar from the ground, adding more pollutants to it to send through aging pipelines to then ship it out of country where after processing and creating more pollutants much of it will be sold back to us make zero sense to me.

That our current federal leader, whom we thought was somewhat moving away from the excesses of the previous regime, seems to have been blinded by the rhetoric coming out of one particular province and bought said aging pipeline (for many mega dollars when the owners who had made their millions whined that they were pulling out) is 'disappointing'. To add insult to injury we now learn that further millions are being given to the diggers of tar because no one want to buy the crap and actually 'digging' it up and flogging it to distant suckers is no longer financially viable. In short between the world wide political situation, the idiot in charge next door to us and our own ever increasing divisions both politically and environmentally we are screwed.

Merry bloody Christmas eh.

IF I can find the fortitude (and that is highly debatable at this point) I will return sometime in the new year to cobble together what will no doubt be a long list of the questionable actions undertaken by the Ford Regime in the short time since they came to power.


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