On Politics - Canadian and American

Who cares about Canadian politics? I'm Canadian and I don't. I care about politics but not as the word is applied in Canada. I used to think this was because Canadian politics is just so damn boring. We don't have completely insane people running for office anymore. We used to - W. L. Mackenzie King was certifiable. His top two advisors were a portrait of his dead mother and his talking dog. But since the economy just kept improving while he was prime minister, people just kept voting for him (a policy I approve of). Now we have sensible politicians running just to the left of centre and just to the right of centre. Not much to get excited about.

Most people I know are either vocally terrified or silently hopeful that Stephen Harper will win another election. I don't like Harper, I don't think his politics represent the best Canada but I can't get that excited about it. That he is a dick has been amply documented. He has no respect for the rights of citizens, his government has silenced scientists, jumped on every war America has suggested, and generally been for the wrong shit and against the right shit is well known. But still, who cares?

There is a reason no one ever talks about the Canadian dream. It's because the Canadian dream consists of only two things: a rational and reasonable government and beating the Americans at hockey. American politics is so wonderfully bizarre because there are competing and completely different versions of the American dream. That is doesn't matter at all who sits in the Oval Office is immaterial. It is theatre and it is entertaining. There is a Canadian election right around the corner and an American election a year away and still the American version is better. Where is the Canadian Donald Trump? Or Bernie Sanders? Or Michele Bachmann?

Also, I think I would care more about Canadian politics if the people running for office did more illegal shit. Americans have committed treason to win the presidency. No Canadian seems to care that much. If you want to be my prime minister, you should be willing to commit a capital offence to get my vote. I would like to see a story in the news about Elizabeth May having her staffers murder people to win more seats.

There is a kind of fatigue that sets in that saps the ability to care about problems when the answer is known to everybody but no one fixes them. For instance, first past the post vote counting. This is just stupid. Everyone who reads about alternate methods of vote counting thinks, "that's a great idea, we should do that." But no one does and so you just get tired of saying it and tired of hearing it. Similarly gun control in the US. Some people don't think it's right that some American citizens shouldn't be allowed to own semi-automatic weapons. Fuck them. Some Canadians don't think it's right that child porn should be illegal, we don't call for a national debate about it. So when the problems and the solutions are all out there and still nothing gets done all that is left is theatre. And Americans do that better than Canadians.