Category Archives: Politics
Under Pressure
Emmanuel Acho on the Current Situation
Today is Election Day!
Just a reminder that if you happen to be a Canadian citizen, today is election day. Try to get out to vote!
If you missed it, I wrote a little piece a few weeks back about what it means to me and why I think it’s important for us all to vote.
Asking all Canadians to vote on October 21, 2019
At the best of times politics can be complicated and there are a lot of reasons to avoid its discussion online these days!
The 43rd Canadian general election will be held on Monday, October 21, 2019. Elections Canada has a very good website dedicated to information on a variety of topics including how to ensure you are registered to vote, what sort of ID is required, and how you can go about casting your ballot.
Frustration with Ottawa’s seeming inability to govern in a unifying manner and the divisive nature of modern politics leads to at lot of less than ideal outcomes. This situation has had the effect of pushing people away from the process instead of engaging the public with the issues that face us in the 21st century. I’ve always felt that one of Canada’s strengths is that collectively we are pretty reasonable people even when the political class and populist politicians engage in pointless and self-serving grand standing. Broad public participation is one form of insurance that our representatives in Ottawa remain engaged in the hard work and compromise required to maintain peace, order, and good government in the immense country, of not insignificant complexity, that is our inheritance and charge.
With this view I ask that you consider voting on October 21st.
Sincerely,
Gabriel
Tienanmen Square on r/AskHistorians
There’s an interesting thread explaining some of the internal politics that were underneath the deadly Tienanmen Square protests 30 years ago in Beijing.
It’s worth a read, if only to better place what happened in the Chinese context.
Of All the Dumb Things…
You have to think that any political movement that frowns on 20-something university students dancing in a joyous and somewhat creative manner is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas and slogans.
As a general rule of thumb, anybody who is criticizing people for dancing is nearly always wrong.
Brazil Is About To Show The World How A Modern Democracy Collapses
I’m at work so I don’t really have the time to comment on this, but I read this article at lunchtime today and it strikes me as a pretty important change that we’re barely aware of in the North.