How to motivate young voters

I'm a teenager, and I can say that many of my friends don't really care about politics. No more than ten know what's happening, and of those, only a few actually think about politics. So, why such political apathy? Because of a lack of education, and a lack of interest on the part of middle-aged adult voters. The more uninterested these voters are, the more uninterested their children will be. It is therefore not just the responsibility of young voters but also that of their parents to instill in them a sense of the importance of politics and government.

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Disunity shows it's time to pull plug?

It seems that Stephen Harper's Conservatives are unable to govern, as in the media they decide to contradict themselves on crucial policy regarding arms given to Pakistan. It may just be the time to attempt to pull the plug on this government before they mess up even more.

Oh, and watch as the Conservative spin machine tries to play this down, or play it up as some sort of evidence of cabinet freedom etc... They're willing to try anything. They're falling apart at the seams, and they're down in the polls.

Which begs the question, will Iggy pull the plug?

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Chalk River leak reveals who are the elitists, and no it's not Ignatieff

As was predicted by Linda Keen a year and a half ago, the reactors at Chalk River have run into a new series of problems, and being one of two sets of reactors producing critical medical isotopes, these problems are of quite a stature. A heavy water leak is the problem this time. And, much to Conservative anguish, this could have been prevented, by their government. If only they weren't elitists.

Who fired Linda Keen for informing government that the best strategy would be to renovate the reactors? The Conservatives. And when did they fire her? At 10 o'clock at night. The Conservatives look more and more awkward on this issue. They looked awkward then, but think of what they look like now.

They fired, in a very ungraceful manner, the person who predicted this whole fiasco. And now, either they implement the strategy that she suggested, or we are hit with another such event a few years down the road. Meanwhile, Harper will also face international pressures to bite the bullet and admit that Keen was right, as a result of the international reliance on this reactor.

Of concern here is that this is a trend in the Conservatives governing patterns. They continuously have proven to be elitist, arrogant and brutish, not accepting the advice of their civil service. So really, who is the elitist in Canadian politics at the moment. It could possibly not be Harper, but it certainly is not Ignatieff, and it's one of the two.

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"Harper, he's only in it for the attack ads"

Here's (the last one on the page, bottom right) one of Harper's attack ads that he unleashed today at Ignatieff. It says Ignatieff is only launching attack ads, at poor innocent Steve. That Iggy lacks a policy on the economy and that attack ads are his only policy.

Sound familiar by any chance. I should say it sounds more like His Innocence Stephen Harper.

Instead of "Ignatieff, he's just in it for himself", I suggest the Liberals hit back with "Harper, he's only in it for the attack ads"

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Fearmongerers are wrong: Electoral reform is not dead

The results are in, and BC-STV failed miserably, winning only 40% of the vote and failing to garner the majority of voes in 78 of the 85 provincial ridings. According to STV advocates, this has effectively killed any chance of electoral reform in BC, let alone the country, for at least a generation. These people are wrong.

They are being blinded by their commitment to STV. The fact is that they are assuming that all of those of us committed to electoral reform would vote for STV. Although I am not yet old enough to vote, in the BC student vote I voted against STV, and this for a perfectly good, reform minded reason. If we selected STV, it may have been a generation until we changed to a more proportional, less problematic system. The one I would advocate is MMP.

There is no reason why electoral reform cannot happen, and relatively soon. Carole James alludes to this, as she said that if the referendum were too fail, she was still committed to a referendum on MMP if we so desired.

So there is will on the political side of things to continue this process of electoral reform. Just because STV wasn't chosen doesn't mean we cannot advocate, and pass, MMP soon. We need to make it known that our will for electoral reform has not died, and that we want a referendum on MMP.

And, this time, why not bring forward the referendum to a separate day. There is no law that it must be on election day. Let's push for a referendum on MMP within two years, and that way, we can use MMP in the next election.

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Carole James: "4 more years would be too much"

Before all the Carole James supporters jump on me for this inconsiderate slur against their beloved leader, let me say that it is for no personal reason that I would call for Carole James to step down. She is a good leader, who has managed to consolidate once more the BC NDP vote after the disastrous 2001 outing. For this she is to be respected.

The fact is that all the act of consolidating this vote was done four years ago. The numbers that came out tonight are in essence representative of the status quo. So, in four years as Opposition Leader, she has not managed to lead the NDP anywhere nearer to the Promise Land. This in itself would be reason enough for her to step down.

Why? Well, because Gordon Campbell, in those four years, gave her even more ample ammunition with which to puncture his "it's a big job" bubble. He has been repeatedly arrogant, and has failed even more in his policies. The only one in which he has effected positive change is the carbon tax. Quite a few options for Carole James.

To compound the problem, this election was of great importance. As the leader of the NDP says in her ads "8 years is enough" Let me posit that "12 years have been torture" be the new slogan. I think we all know the torture being described: lack of hospital beds, corruption, low minimum wage, government for my friends etc... And it is thanks to Carole James that we have to adopt this slogan.

With such an important election, James needed to win. The fact is that she didn't and let down BC. She has stalled for four years. She failed to win a crucial election, or for that matter to increase her seat count. Next time we need to be able to beat Premier Campbell. Next time, it is sad to say, we need someone other than Carole James.

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What is the link between Stephen Harper's ketchup choice and small government?

I assume everyone knows about Mustardgate, the latest political scandal. Apparently, when one is in politics, the choice of condiment on a hamburger tells all, from your attitude towards the social classes to your stance on Health Care. After all, is that really as much of a stretch as claiming, from Obama's choice of Dijon mustard, that he is an elitist.

This absolutely mindless and stupid argument is driven by conservatives who've got nothing better to criticize.

I mean, if Obama's mustard says so much about him, let's check Harper's ketchup choice. He probably uses Heinz Low Fat, showing how he likes small government. Which of course is true, but you don't need to examine his choice of ketchup to know that. To look at whether Obama uses French's or Dijon really doesn't mean anything, and it would be welcomed if for once, we looked at the policies of our political leaders, instead of their personalities, or, if all else fails, their taste for food.

Get real.

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Harper sees the grand scheme of things to everyone's benefit, for once

Yesterday, the European Union announced that it would be putting a ban on products from the seal hunt industry. According to the EU, this practice is inhumane and unacceptable. This has obviously raised the ire of many Canadians as it is an industry on which many in the northern parts of our country rely on.

At the same time, a free trade deal between the European Union and Canada is being negotiated by Harper. Today Harper made the sensible move, evaluating the importance of the seal hunt and economic relations with the EU and coming up with the right conclusion.

Although the seal hunt industry may be important in some parts of the country, the economic benefits of free trade with the EU are much greater. The decision was clear.

Canada is being offered a chance to trade with Europe's economy like no other nation worldwide. It would be depressing to lose this opportunity over a conflict about the humanity of the seal hunt industry.

Harper's clear intent of brushing the seal hunt obstacle aside led to an interesting use of terminology. The whole disagreement on that issue is being termed merely "philosophical".

Although this is not the case, it is clear that confrontations that would prevent the unprecedented agreements being negotiated would be unwanted and detrimental.

Harper is finally showing some understanding of the whole scheme of things. In fact, maybe he realizes that a successful deal would be a useful election tool. For it most certainly would be.

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Economic restructuration and the environment

We know that both the economy and the environment face difficult times ahead. Our economy has started to shrink, while global climate patterns become ever more erratic.

However, there may be some hope in this situation. Experts such as Bill Rees, an ecologist at UBC and creator of the "ecological footprint" concept, maintain that if we are serious about saving our environment, we need to reduce our economic growth.

In a way, this would seem to make sense. Economies are based on resources, and the more we develop our economy, the greater the toll on the earth's resources. Even the so-called renewable resources are suffering. To illustrate, in 2008, we used all the resources the earth would renew in a year by September. This mean that for a quarter of last year, we were drawing on resources that would not be renewed this year.

If this trend goes unchecked, eventually we will run out of resources. So, with a reduction in economic growth comes relief for the planet.

Whether or not we need to go into a planned economic recession, as Rees suggests, is another matter. It is possible to restructure the economy so that it depends less on non-renewable resources and resources in general. In addition, we can recycle and reuse that which we have already produced, meaning that we need not take some new resources from the earth.

The environment is in dire straits, as soon the ever melting ice in the Arctic will show this summer. In fact, the melting of the ice is almost a whole century ahead of schedule.

Clearly, we need to take serious action on the environment. Forget about green this and that. Eventually, economies cannot grow anymore. It is foolishness to think that economic growth is infinite.

It turns out that the environment is an even more complex issue than thought, for we need to restructure our economy as well. We cannot reduce environmentally harmful economic growth by harming the livelihoods of millions of people, turning them out of work. It will take real courage and innovation, and a willingness to take this issue seriously.

If we do not act decisively, it will be too late.

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