Before I start beating up on people, I want to take a minute to go over what’s going on here. I know, this is basic
stuff, but it’ll become important later.
The way Canada’s national and provincial election systems work, you’re asked to vote for which of various candidates in
your riding you want to represent you in parliament. The candidate with the most votes wins the seat and a vote in
government. You’re picking your representative.
Candidates are generally affiliated with a political party. Parties are kind of a bundle of values and ideals and come
with their own histories and internal politics. I get the impression that most people completely disregard who the
people running are and vote for the party.
And in a way that makes sense. The party that gets the most seats forms the government and the party leader leads that
government. The leader has a lot of power, even though they’re not directly elected.
That kinda rubs me the wrong way. I have to think about who’s going to represent me.
Liz Whitmer (Progressive Conservative)
Ms Whitmer is the incumbent in the riding. She’s held it for 17 years. I have the distinct feeling she’s going to hold
it for another four.
Liz Whitmer really bothered me in previous election campaigns. Given my feelings about the Mike Harris government, that
probably isn’t that much of a surprise, but she came across as really smug and slimy.
This time, though, I’m not getting that vibe as much. I suppose running as the opposition is easier than running for the
governing party.
I’m still not going to vote for her. There was a time when I might have considered voting PC, but even though the
Conservative platform is a far cry from what it was in the Mike Harris years, I’m pretty sure their values don’t align
with mine. At all.
Louise Ervin (Liberal)
Disclaimer: I got involved in this election a little earlier than most. I am currently a card-carrying member of the
Ontario Liberal party. Dalton McGuinty sends me email. I signed up because a friend of a friend of a friend was running
for the Liberal candidacy. I actually thought he was pretty good, too. Better than Ms Ervin, anyway.
No sour grapes, though. I’m probably the biggest Liberal apologist in the world, and if they field a halfway-decent
candidate, I’ll vote for them. One of the things that bugs me about the Liberal party, though, is they have a tendency
of fielding less-than-decent candidates.
I’m not terribly impressed with the Dalton McGuinty government over the last four years. While they didn’t make things
much worse, I was kinda hoping they’d do something to try to fix some of the damage Mike Harris did, including and
especially start fixing the fiscal situation for municipalities. They haven’t. So colour me disappointed. They have
promised things I like, like an impressive public transit program. I don’t particularly mind giving them another chance.
I’d vote for the Liberal party if that was what I was asked. What I’m being asked, however, is who I want to represent
me.
I don’t want Louise Ervin representing me. She’s pretty awful. From what I can tell she doesn’t have any ideas of her
own. She’s a Liberal pit bull wannabe, and an incredibly ineffective one at that. What’s more, her main public service
credential–trustee on the Catholic school board–makes her outrage over John Tory’s proposal to fund private religious
schools hard to swallow.
I’m in Belleville for the long weekend. Having just driven in holiday traffic for three hours, I’m a little tired. So
bear with me.
I was going to write this as an introduction to my election post (which I keep talking about but have yet to actually
write). That’s coming, but I thought I should lay down some guiding principles first.
First, I hate politics. I am, however, a firm believer in the importance of good government and performing my duty as a
citizen in a democracy. Without getting all Jimmy Stewart, I think it’s vitally important to stay informed and do what
little is expected of me: vote.
I don’t think, however, that debating politics (especially on the internets) is often very productive. So I generally
avoid it. But I’m torn, because I think that by avoiding it, I’m contributing to a general malaise and cynicism about
democracy which I think is a huge problem in our society. (For the record, I have no problem with malaise and cynicism
about politics, which I think is natural and inevitable. However, I think it’s important to separate democracy, society
and governance from politics. They aren’t the same thing. The former is important and the latter is a retarded spectator
sport).
So I’m going to talk about politics, but in a particular sort of way.
I want to lay out the basis for my coming to a decision regarding the election, or elections in general. I want to do
this both to help me validate those thought processes in my own mind. I also kinda want to subtly encourage people by
example. Which is to say I don’t particularly want to slog out a debate about who’s the better candidate in the
comments. I’m not going to get into that. I would be very happy, however, to see others post about their own thought
processes. I like to read that stuff.
I am not going to stump for a candidate. I don’t think that’s particularly classy. If there was one candidate I was
enthusiastically ecstatic about (and there isn’t), that would probably show through. However, it’s not my goal to make
you vote the way I vote. This is mostly about me, but if I wanted you to take anything out of this exercise, it’s to
think for yourself, evaluate your own values and beliefs and cast a ballot for the candidate that you feel would best
represent you.
I think of an election like it’s hiring someone for a job. You need to have that position filled by next week, even if
all the candidates who’ve applied are horrible. That’s all you have to work with. It’s your job to pick one and move on.
Vexille (trailers): is a CG
anime from the people who brought you (the 2004 CG version of) Appleseed (which I keep meaning to sit down and watch.
Great visuals, cool mechs, big explosions… Vexille was pretty cool. For some reason, though, it didn’t do a whole lot
for me. Am I getting old and jaded or something? I’m sure my 17-year-old self would’ve thought this was the best thing
ever, but the plot stretched credulity and I didn’t end up caring all that much about the characters.
I think I had roughly the same feeling coming out of
seeing Wonderful Days. Not that that (or this) was a bad movie. I was
just… I dunno… unmoved.
I’d probably call it a rental. It’s worth watching (if you’re into CG mecha anime, of course). It’s something CTRL-A
could show without controversy. Maybe it just didn’t meet my expectations (whatever those were).
Vexille was the Midnight Madness showing on Sunday. I stayed over at Rin and Kyle’s Sunday, and Kyle and I went to the
Pacific Mall to kill time Sunday afternoon.
We stopped and had supper at the Great Khan Mongolian Grill in the
parking lot there, making it a Ghengis Khan weekend. It doesn’t look like it’s affiliated with the Waterloo Mongolian
Grill. Same general idea, although they had an additional buffet table, just in case you weren’t able to get your fill
from the grill. I think I preferred the layout a bit over Waterloo, although the differences were pretty small. Not
fantastic, but I certainly ate my fill (and perhaps a bit more than that as well).
I got home around 3:30 Monday morning. Staying awake for work on Monday wasn’t easy, but I managed to get stuff done. I
only had to go back and fix some of it on Tuesday, too.