No longer a “we” thing… - Oh Canada!?!

No longer a “we” thing… - Oh Canada!?!                                                            May 15, 2012

I’m baffled!  I also like to take pride in my great nation of Canada.  It has always felt good to travel abroad and when asked where I am from, tall and proud, without ego, exclaim “Canada!”  With a smile and comfort knowing full well people around the world see Canada as a place of great balance, understanding and friendship, I could be proud.

That is all changing.  I feel let down. I feel as though looking someone in the eye and saying “Canada!” with a jubilant glow on my face would lead to a bucket of tar sand being hucked in my face for the ignorant, straight-faced, false pride I have just mischievously tossed their way.

I mean, after all, as a “world leader” isn’t Canada supposed to set the stage for understanding in areas such as environmental and atmospheric concerns, political function, social structures, education, democracy, respect and all the things that make our world turn, happily?  I see our nation as a “we” situation, but lately, I am leaning towards “us”: the people, and “them”: the “government”.   There is no damn way I can comfortably group myself into the “we”.  It’s just NOT how I feel, nor what I believe.  As it is documented, proven and admitted that the Conservatives have lied, mislead and cheated throughout the election system, I cannot and will not see this current system as a democracy I want to live by. It is “us” –vs- “them”. Sad isn’t it?   I now refer to my Canada, when speaking of the government and ruling people as “they”. I do not see myself as a valued part of it.  There is no “we”. SAD!

Back in 2011, when the federal election bought the conservatives (majority @ 39%) into power, my gut reaction was “We’re F$CKED!” Why? Please tell me, that as a Canadian, before I go further here, I’m not the only one that feels that we’re f$cked.  Surely, as we the people were lead to believe there was an economic recession and we had to run our nation like a business. People had been told they needed a government that would create jobs and make money.  Money, money, money! Harper’s platform was based almost exclusively on finance.  And people love money! 

What is “finance”?  Complete disconnect from reality, that’s what “finance” is.  I know I probably lost most of my readers right here.  Most people can’t see the forest for the trees at this simple, elementary concept of disconnect from reality; nature.   HINT: It is not money that keeps us alive, it is our environment.  There is nothing natural in money.  Heck, money doesn’t even carry a true value anymore and here we are pitting our hopes and dreams on a crew of henchmen ready to “lead” our country based on “finance”. Oops!

Anyways, I was sure things would get ugly for Canadians, (and they have and are getting worse weekly) however, being as how I have faith and take great pride in Canada, I thought our leaders would do the right thing with their 39% “majority”.  As I pondered the final results, and inspected the character of the individuals in “power” it took only days to shift my feelings.  I thought, here were a bunch of “leaders” that were going to f$ck it up completely in the name of greed, money, and personal gain at the expense of the people of Canada. What I hoped was that maybe, being as how they are “leading” a great country, they will drop their egos, listen to the people, build an even better Canada, take a healthy approach and make Canada proud!

They have not! We’re F$cked!  The world sees it and I’m disappointed.  We Canadians have literally had our lives sold to industry and our children’s right to a healthy environment erased.  The government is currently receiving great resistance from people and organizations who really care about one another, from all facets of society including non-profit organizations, small businesses, environmental groups, social charities, health care sectors, unions, artists, individuals and everywhere in between. And so they should. This is not the Canada that is supposed to occur. We were not supposed to be bought and sold to industry by a government who cheated its way into office with only 39% support without transparent disclosure of their motives across the board.

This government is short sighted, narrow-minded, unidirectional and bent on profit through massive, destructive, polluting industry.  As long as profit for Canada comes in the form of industry, Canada is all for it.   Our government has decided the complete sell off and mass extraction of our natural resources is paramount to “success”.  Our government is currently wiping out any and all laws, rules, regulations, organizations, people and review processes, within environment, charity, social structure, fisheries, first nations and the government itself, that may in any way attempt to protect, value, respect, cherish, or stand up for what we should value and support as Canadians; life and the environment that supports it.

Private prisons are being built, health care is being eroded, undisclosed military and fighter jet purchases are being made and voters are being misled in campaign ridings.  First Nations values are being ignored, election campaigns are fraudulent, environmental organizations are criminalized and lies about oil pipelines are being marketed and sold to the public.   Family men are seeing no other ways to support their family than by going far away to work in Cancer-ridden, industrial wastelands suck as the Alberta Tar Sands and BC’s northern, natural gas, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) sites. 

If the current Conservatives have their way, soon, we will all be quiet, happy workers in oil patches far from our families, devoid of clean water and gardens and I think it’s SICK!  If the current Conservative government has it’s way, Canada will one day soon be a chunk of land they laugh at from afar, rid of trees, covered with industrial wastelands, devoid of clean water and wildlife, gushing with dirty foreign-shipped oil, with nothing more than roughneck grunts installing more, faster pipelines and bigger, more catastrophic oil tankers shipping raw resources out of Canada as fast as possible.

You laugh!

You think I’m cynical!

I ask you to do some research of your own and make public what you find.

The results will scare you shitless!

Ohhhh….Canada!?!