You wouldn’t know it if you didn’t live here but Canada has a Federal election on October, 21st 2019 (even I googled the specific date). The lower level of noise belies the importance of this year’s election; because as the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. We have five major parties today: The Liberals (currently in power), Progressive Conservatives (official opposition) and New Democratic Party or NDP, the Green party and Bloc Québécois. There are numerous fringe and not so fringe parties such as Marijuana party, Rhinoceros party (their platform is a literal joke), Communist party etc.
This post is not a civics lesson-although I do enjoy the subject perhaps more than I should- it actually is still my views and observations.
I am an issues voter with a strong party affiliation. What that means is that I am open to hearing out candidates from parties that I’d never vote for, if the issues they address are close to my heart. To that end, I disagreed with some of the late Mayor Rob Ford’s politics and shenanigans but I was all for building more subways as a longer term solution to Toronto’s gridlock [yeah yeah yeah, flying hovercraft may also be part of our future transportation means but my old fashioned brain can not think that far].
What I am opposed to is the parties that grab onto one issue and hammer it down their minions of followers, who are thrown into a frenzy of panic or fear about said issue and vote in for a party who’s overall views are against their own interest . That one issue lately seems to be immigration; perhaps we caught the cold from our southern neighour’s sneeze after all☹
Not just immigration in a general sense but that of “other” skinned individuals. The recently held mayoral races in Toronto and Mississauga, two very multicultural cities, in the very multicultural province of Ontario in Canada saw their 3rd and 2nd place respectively held by out and proud white supremacists who among other issues are very keen to reduce immigration and make Canada European again.
First of all, that’s a tall order because I don’t know how they intend to get rid of all the existing non-European Canadian Citizens [insert shudder here].
More importantly, I have never understood how one wakes up one day, and decides to push an agenda based purely on race. I noticed they are not even using the “old stock Canadian” line anymore because among the agitators are first or second generation Canadians, whose parents or grandparents came from somewhere else. It’s the said somewhere else that is now being used to pander to their racist views.
Civic lesson alert!
Immigration is not a free-standing issue; it is as a direct result of Economic upheavals in home countries. Some of this is caused by Environmental degradation which directly affects the sources of food and income such as tourism. Some of it is as a result of corrupt Governments, some that were “installed” by Global players [aka foreign Governments] who wanted puppets that they could control in their quest to have free reign access to natural resources.
Some are escaping wars and conflicts, that can be directly traced to Environmental, Economic, tribal/race, religious issues etc.
There is Economic immigration, where one’s skills and expertise is more valuable in a foreign country than in one’s homeland. Some immigrate for better or further education and are lured to apply their newly acquired skills in their host countries.
End of alert!
None of these and other myriad of reasons or causes produce better or worse immigrants but they individually and collectively explain the rise in immigration levels. Instead of having intelligent conversations about logical solutions, some buffoons with bullhorns shout, “invaders are coming!!!”, “diseases are coming!!!’ and whatever other craziness will electrify their audience to vote for the party that promises to reign in immigration.
In a country as multicultural as Canada, having negative feelings towards immigrants directly translates to holders of these views treating their Canadian neighbours and coworkers and our children as less than. You see, as long as they view good immigrants on the basis of skin colour or nation of origin, it doesn’t matter if you immigrated 10 days or 10 years ago; your skin colour is your only (dis)qualifier.
The recent shooter in El Paso, targeted Mexicans who invaded that part of Texas [completely ignoring the history of who invaded whom, but I digress]. He “very objectively” decided who the invaders were based on how they looked. In very real terms, pushing these kinds of narratives places those of us who don’t “look Canadian” at risk from such lunatics.
So as election time looms, I would love to believe that those who can draw the dots between the need for holistic policy views outnumber the single-issue voters. I would hope that we all open our minds to hear the other side, which would perhaps open opportunities for real, meaningful dialogue and perhaps changed minds. Most importantly, let’s not sit at home because every-single-vote-counts.
Check out all the parties and their platforms below and educate/align yourself [however, please don’t note for the Rhinoceros party though- or the joke may end up on you]
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e#neorhino
DiverseStay 