ARE POLITICIANS TOO AFRAID TO LOSE?

             The behavior of many of our politicians could be described by many different words. All of them bad. 

           Before I go on I must say that there are many honorable politicians. The idiots get the publicity. Hard working politicians do not get the credit and notice they deserve. 

         If I was a politician, I'd find it very hard to lose an election. It would crush my fragile self image. As a result I have not run for any kind of position which requires an election. 

       Many politicians seem to be interested in only one thing and that is to get elected. As a result they spend all their time and money for the purpose of getting elected. No stunt is too wild to gain attention. Twist their words and other politicians words. Truth goes out the window. Defend all the looney ideas (oops, they don't have any ideas)  antics they come up with. The wacky behavior is to try and get elected. 

     Our premier has recently been caught contacting the justice system regarding certain people who are facing criminal charges. The justice system is not to be influenced by politicians. There's a separation between the two for good reason. Politicians would make very poor judges. 

      So I think that many of these people are terrified to lose an election. Their egos are fragile. That's all they have to offer. They don't have ideas. They've never heard of the government setting up systems to help people. 

THE CANADIAN ELECTION IS OVER

      On Sept . 12, I wrote that we were having an election on Oct. 21 and that I wasn't going to say anything about elections on this blog. I kept that promise so it's my time to say something.

      Well the election is over. Some how or other most people are unhappy and some people are downright angry. I don't understand why. We live in a very good country. We have a strong economy, lots of employment , some awesome social programs and some people are so angry that they want to separate from Canada. 

     We elect 338 parliament members. We have a first past the post system . So whoever gets the most votes wins. We have a proportional representation. 

   We have three major parties and two small parties. 

   The campaign was disgusting...too many outright lies.  The parties didn't do much to tell us what their policies would be although I didn't follow much.

    The incumbent party (Liberals) won the most seats but not enough for an outright majority so we have a minority parliament. The conservative party of Canada came second. The liberal party will have to walk a fine line and get support from other parties to govern. Sometimes minority parliaments get lots of good things done because they have to cooperate to stay in power and besides people don't want another election right away.

    People are really whiny . They all seem to want their own little goodies and the hell with anyone else.

     So political junkies are having fun talking about what may happen. 

     What should happen is that many parliament members need a good push to come to their senses and do what benefits the whole of Canada.

PERSPECTIVES

    Since a very nasty and divisive political campaign came to an end yesterday, it might be time to look at the situation since it's the morning after.

      I  look back in time to see strong dynamic leaders who led good governments.  Today I dislike the  governments we have. I look forward to getting a better more perfect government in the future. 

     I look back at presidents who I admire: Carter, Kennedy, Obama, Truman. I look back at Canadian prime ministers such as: St Laurent, King, Diefenbaker, Trudeau Sr. I even got to like Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien. I think I would like  Eisenhower or Roosevelt.

     So when we look back things don't seem so bad. 

    However, today we have a different political climate. The characters we have today don't seem to have any concept that there is a country and that they serve that people. Policies should be crafted that bring about benefits for all and to make a strong country. Leaders today play fast and loose with the truth. Voters don't seem to be able to make these devils pay for not telling the truth or leading  country to strength and goodness.

    For tomorrow I'm optimistic. I hope there will be honorable great leaders step in to lead government. I hope that our governments will see the light that certain things have to be done to have a good country. They could start by seeing that something large and very concrete has to be done about climate change like yesterday.

    For me, I'm influenced by perspective. I wear a number of different colored glasses. 

    Do you have leaders from the past who you think were successful in moving the country forward. Who were these leaders? What were they like?

   Do you have hope that in the future we will have honorable people step in to lead a country for the good of all or should I say most?
   

Alberta Provincial Election Today

       Today Albertans vote for 89 Members of the Legislature (MLA) who will serve for the next four years. As far as I know there are five parties organized for this election. There could be one or two more that are very small and running only a few candidates. 


       Albertans tend to keep the same party in power for long periods of time and then change them abruptly. The Social Credit Party was in power from 1935 to 1971. Today only one or two Social Credit candidates ran for election so the party is basically just an organization. The Progressive Conservatives (PC) have been in power from 1971 to 2012. During all these years the opposition was very small for most terms so the ruling party had a huge majority. The last few years a split in the PC party has been taking place. A party called the Wild Rose, which was organized about three years, ago is challenging the PC party for the majority. So this election campaign has been hot and heavy with the two conservative right wing parties fighting it out.  For a change the results of the election are not a foregone conclusion and it will be a close race. 


      Albertans seem to always want to vote for a winner no matter what the party may be. They seem to size up who may win and everybody votes for that party. 


     I have never got on the band wagon. I usually vote New Democrat (ND). I like to vote for policy rather than candidates. The Nds are a social democrat party that puts people issues first . That means that their emphasis is on health, education, seniors, children. They also have a business tax schedule that has lower tax rate for small business and a higher tax rate for large business. Some people may accuse the party of being a socialist group which is not so. It can be described as left of center. Now this party may not be perfect but I'm sure others suffer the same judgement. 


     These days parties tend to bash each other rather than present their policies. Worse than that, parties try to promote wedge issues which enable them to get a majority easier. Sometimes parties misrepresent their policies or misrepresent other party's policies to the point of lying.


    So this evening will be interesting as we await the counting of the ballots to see if the old party is thrown out  and how many seats the other parties get.