That was FUN! – running as an NDP candidate in the federal election, that is…and realizing that there existed over 5,000 of my neighbours who felt the same need for change that I did.
Throughout it all, I wondered whether there’s be any backlash from the Sask Party and Conservative trolls who were previously badmouthing my columns, much in the same way Liberal candidates such as my friend Buckley Belanger is pummeled for his running under the party banner held high by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But – apparently not…at least, not yet.
This was supposed to be an election campaign in which Indigenous issues were to be front-and-centre, but you’d never guess that from the reaction of many in their leadership. This is the third time that PAGC voices faded faster than smoke signals in a hurricane. Were the steaks served in Edmonton’s Outback restaurant that appealing, or were PAGC chiefs in the Alberta capital enjoying local cuisine because Paul Martin wasn’t around to pick up the tab?
As for FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron, you’d think that the election would be a great time for him to bring forward his stance on major treaty issues, but no – just a deafening silence.
However, at least Indigenous women were having fun in this campaign; many are now lovingly referring to NDP federal leader Jagmeet Singh as “Aquaman”, a sure sign that Justin’s “sex appeal” is waning – and thank God for that.
The four band chiefs in the Prince Albert riding were politically active, but the laissez-faire attitudes of fellow leaders cost Indigenous peoples many voices they desperately need in Parliament, Buckley Belanger and Harmonie King being but two – COMPETING, no less – such individuals. Then there was former Metis Nation – Saskatchewan president Robert Doucette losing to CPC economic illiterate Brad Redecopp in Saskatoon West.
Equally annoying, for the third time the File Hills Qu’Appelle contingent of First Nations refused to consolidate its votes behind NDP candidate Annaliese Bos, thereby allowing CPC Manchurian Candidate, Andrew Scheer, to remain Regina-Qu’Appelle’s embarrassment.
Having now spent $650 million on thinking they could form a majority government, the Liberals have left us with a dog’s breakfast mess of problems that should prevent Mr. Trudeau from getting writ-twitchy in another 18 months. And so, let’s introduce the now in motion 24/ 7/ 365 continuous campaign, the fetal afterbirth caused by politicians too mesmerized by their own sense of self-worth that they can’t just try solving some of our political issues, instead of drafting more meaningless “policy” papers.
As for how we voted in Saskatchewan, I can’t help but ignore Maverick leader Jay Wall’s opinions, if for no other than the fact that his record needle is stuck in the “We hate Justin” groove. He’s as boring as was Preston Manning and already guilty of plagiarizing Reform sermons, and his WEXIT buffoon musings have Indigenous chiefs itching to feed him the Cream of Treaty Law soup they used in Quebec to finally stifle the air flow of the province’s “separatiste” movement.
Of far more interest to Saskatchewanians was the 6% of voter support the Peoples Party of Canada picked up, supplemented by the fact that NO riding in Canada felt sufficiently inspired by their message to elect any of its members, and its leader, Maxime Bernier, was thus left to cower in Saskatoon while voters in his home riding were denying him a third opportunity to return to Parliament.
It’s unfortunate, but the magnitude of the PPC vote is a testimony to the depths of mediocrity our educational system has plunged. The debasement of Civics is particularly sickening, in that the PPC’s propagandist references to human “rights” and “freedoms” bear no relationship to their importance in defining the civic responsibilities of Canadian citizens. Even the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights notes that our societies must place limits upon these so-called “rights” or “freedoms”, particularly when their provisions threaten a nation’s health, economic position or even its prevailing moral code.
Much of the debasement of these two words originates from the battle now being waged by the most ignorant in our society, now overpopulated by an “anti-vaxxer” or “anti-mask” crowd that believes that Covid is just another flu. They, in turn, are goaded into further extreme by the FOX News holy trinity of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, all who know full well that former Emperor Donald J. Trump wears no clothes nor does God’s bidding, but still fills vacuous heads with his inanities on the pandemic hoax, and regularly quote from his Bible of Gibberish.
As a mathematics teacher, I’m always intrigued by the “what if” of providing supplementary resolutions to any problem. For instance, what if the world were suddenly deprived of the quack conspiracy theorists, evangelical flakes or snake oil salesmen who steadfastly maintain Covid is nothing more than the flu, but is instead some New World Order’s attempt to monitor your movement by polluting your bloodstream with nanobots controlled by Bill Gates? How stampede-like, then, would be the rush to be the very first in line to receive the Ebola vaccination, developed by a group of CDC specialists sent to Africa by President Barack Obama to find a cure before it hit the shores of North America – in less time, incidentally, than Big Pharma came out with its own traditional and mRNA versions now holding the Covid virus’s many strains at bay?
We’re all growing sick and tired of having restraints placed on our true freedoms and rights by an anti-Science collection of illiterates quaffing horse medications and cough syrup-like placebos because they don’t know the difference between a germ and a virus. Parliament has to find a way to eradicate the threat of Covid once and for all, much as Science all but eradicated smallpox, polio and the Spanish flu, and remediate the economy of the damages its war placed upon its fiscal future – just so we can finally face the true threats to our economic futures.
You’ll note that I have yet to reveal the lesson that I learned while out campaigning – that our most daunting battle will be reversing the now apparent effects of climate change – and re-educate the most stubborn within our agricultural community that crop yields determine their operation’s continued existence and profitability, not some “carbon tax” fixed cost on our spreadsheets.
Enjoy the campaign….
