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.
Category Archives: Politics
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.
James Mattis Just Quit
For the first time since this whole saga began, I’m actually kind of worried. As much as I don’t agree with his ilk, I have every reason to think that Mattis is a serious man who thinks deeply and without animus.
The nature of his resignation is something I’ve never seen in my lifetime.
FDT
Aside from their political analysis, I really enjoy FiveThirtyEight’s other coverage. Their roots are in statistical analysis of sports and they tend to cover a lot of obscure topics from a statistical perspective. This article by Allison McCann is a great example of a side project, looking at the relationship between hip-hop and politics from a data perspective.
She includes some cool interactive graphics as well as a searchable database for political references in rap and hip-hop lyrics. Plus the article showcases a pretty cool video which is easily my favourite political song of the 2016 campaign thus far.
Where The Author Pleads With His American Cousins Not to Vote for the Demagogue
This morning I was unfortunate enough to come across the latest abomination Donald Trump has laid on us.
I’ve been thinking about what to say all day and I’m still not certain, but I think it’s important that everybody speaks out when people in positions of leadership act in intolerable ways.
I don’t agree with almost anything that Trump stands for other than perhaps his seemingly enlightened views on homosexuality, but it is my belief that there is a qualitative difference from many of his absurd views about the economy or the international order and publically documented sexually aggressive and misogynistic behaviour.
I even understand on some level his instinct to lash out and attack his victims, I don’t always hold some of his mealy mouthed answers against him either, there is some truth to the fact that when he talks he is not as polished as a professional communicator. You can’t do a retake on live television or on a debate stage. I can disagree strongly, but understand.
As a former teenage boy I even understand the concept “locker room banter”, but he crosses a line that can never be rationalized when he jokes about forcing himself sexually on women.
Donald John Trump must not be elected.
This might have been tolerable in 1966, I don’t know. I wasn’t alive then and I’m fairly happy that I wasn’t if this was normal, but it doesn’t matter because this is 2016. I’m glad to be part of a generation of men to whom this sort of behaviour is abhorrent. It’s not acceptable for this sort of behavior to be normative.
If you don’t agree that he is disqualified from the leadership of the Land of Liberty after hearing this audio then you need to listen to it with your daughter or mother or sister or best friend.
Seth Meyers
As a follow-up to: The Atlantic’s Endorsement of Clinton, I thought I’d share the article that drew me to The Atlantic’s website in the first place about the remarkable rise of Seth Meyers to become the foremost progressive comic satirizing this year’s presidential election.
I’ve not been a huge fan of Meyers until now, he’s certainly a good performer but I’ve not been an avid SNL watcher for a long time so I missed most of his heydey. But this year he has really done an incredibly job mocking Trump in his own unique style.
The Atlantic: Why Seth Meyers Can’t Get Enough of Trump — The Late Night host discusses the pleasures of satirizing the presumptive GOP nominee and the rise of topical humor on his show.
The Atlantic’s Endorsement of Clinton
The Atlantic: Against Donald Trump — For the third time since The Atlantic’s founding, the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton.
The Atlantic is a progressive magazine/website, however the editorial board have only ever endorsed two candidates for US President since its founding in 1857: one Republican and one Democrat.
Founded explicitly as an abolitionist magazine in Boston, it’s probably not surprising that they endorsed Lincoln in the 1860 election. A decade before my birth they would also endorse LBJ in his contest against Barry Goldwater. Goldwater for the uninitiated-non-Americans was an arch-conservative and United States Senator who had a deeply troubling platform and record on civil rights for black Americans, so far as to gain the support of the Ku Klux Klan.
But I won’t steal their thunder, it’s a damning indictment of Trump and it places him in the correct historical context. This is something the media has struggled and failed to accomplish until now.
Clinton is an immensely qualified candidate and would likely be a very effective president, she is also deeply troubling in her own ways and for me at least I find that she has a complex relationship with candour.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has more than earned, through her service to the country as first lady, as a senator from New York, and as secretary of state, the right to be taken seriously as a White House contender. She has flaws (some legitimately troubling, some exaggerated by her opponents), but she is among the most prepared candidates ever to seek the presidency.
Donald J. Trump is catastrophically unqualified regardless of what you might think of his profound moral failings, his countless social views which have no place in the 21st century, or personal financial success.
He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent.
I encourage everybody to read it, regardless of their personal views on this election.