Shut Up And Listen 135

Conservative Canada
Well, we’re fucked. They’ve reconciled and Canada is fucked come election time. Ah well, we had a good run, eh?
	That’s right, there’s no more Progressive Conservatives. There’s no more Alliance. There’s just the Conservative Party of Canada now.
	For what, the past fifteen, twenty years or so, the conservatives in Canada have been split between two parties: the traditional PC and the Reform (later renamed Alliance) Party. And this has allowed more centre-to-left-wing parties to get more votes and a better chance at winning. Hell, it’s probably why the Liberals have done so well in the federal elections the past three times. The conservative vote was split and they just ended up cancelling one another out. Those days are over, because earlier this week, Tory leader Peter McKay and Alliance leader Stephen Harper announced that the two parties have finally agreed to “unite the right” for good. Now, of course, this is a bad thing.
	People have been talking about a “return to democracy” and all that shit. Essentially, the conservatives are celebrating because now they actually have the means to challenge the Liberals and return this country to the glory days of Mulroney and his ilk. So, yeah, we’re fucked.
	I think that now is definitely not the time for this to happen. You know, I’m not the type of guy who wants to automatically shut down anyone who disagrees with me, but seriously, now is not the time for Canada to go conservative. Right now, the nations of the world, in my mind at least, are choosing between two paths: progressive or status quo. The US has obviously chosen the latter, as have a bunch of other countries like Britain, France, Germany and such. I would like to see Canada go with the former as it looks like it has been. You know what? Gay marriages will happen at some point. Decriminalized and legalized marijuana will happen at some point. Choosing healthcare and education over the military will happen. Working through multinational organizations and not acting unilaterally will happen. Multiculturalism will happen. I’m sorry, but they will, okay? They’re inevitable. Hell, ask most people and they’ll tell you that eventually that will all happen. So do we want to be lumped in with the backwards-ass generations who suppressed those things or do we want to say that we recognise that it’ll happen ad thus embrace it? I think we should embrace things like gay marriage, legalized marijuana, multinationalism, extensive funding for social programs and multiculturalism. And you know what? Fuck what the US thinks. Fuck them. Let them stay the backwards little nation they seem to want to be. Who cares if they have a larger economy? So what? Money isn’t everything and the world only works the way it does because people say it does.
	The Conservatives will try to make Canada more like the US. That’s a guarantee and it’s one that scares me. The funny thing is they essentially say “To avoid being assimilated by the Americans, we have to act just like them.” That’s not what we fucking need, okay? To be blunt, that’s retarded. That’s why I liked the Tories and the Reformers/Alliance separate. Sure, I don’t like the Liberals that much, but I know they’re not going to back away from what makes Canada Canada, you know? The Conservatives will, though, I think. Canada was referred to as the first post-modern democracy in the mid-nineties, and while I hate the term post-modern, I do think that’s a very important label to have. And I just don’t want us to go back on it in favour of what looks to be a culture and nation that will not survive beyond the twenty-first century (at least not as the world power it currently is). How many times have we seen nations or empires built on militarism and xenophobia and flat-out-bullying tactics crumble because that way just doesn’t work? Do we really want to mimic that?
	This all may sound like America-bashing and unrelated to what I set out to talk about, but believe me, it isn’t. I am seriously worried by this. Especially after having Chrétien actually acting like a person rather than a politician for the past year-and-a-half. To go from that to a Conservative government frightens me. We’re on the right track to become a world leader after the current era ends and instead, we may sacrifice that just so we can fit in now and be fucked over later.
	A return to democracy indeed.