Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Social sterility...

I understand people who don't like to vote or refuse to for whatever reason.

Part of me gets it; that despite who's turning the crank, the wheel keeps spinning no matter what and that the actions of people in high-office don't really change your daily life too much. Not enough for some people to care or even sometimes to notice. After all, true anarchy is everywhere and a law in some book isn't going to stop someone from doing what they want.

But another part of me wants to infect those people with some deliciously debilitating disease and then talk about health care while they uncontrollably shit out their lungs.

There is a bigger picture to voting and sometimes it's not about how great one leader will be, it's about how bad the other ones are. It's also about shaping the direction of your country, your neighbourhood and taking some responsibility for the world around you.

Stick around for ten minutes and watch my second favourite Aussie. Even though he's talking about the American election, it applies to every democratic election. He's right. And he swears almost as much as I do.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Election erection...

I love elections if only to study the psychology of our country's officials. But beyond that, they're usually exciting and it gives voters the feeling of actively helping to shape our country.

I've always felt that it's important to vote and if you feel strongly about not voting, it's important to state the reason's why. But in either case, it's ultimately important to know a thing or two about what's happening.

The way the party leaders talk and the way they're discussed on the news, it's easy for young or uninformed people to think they get a hand in voting in the big party leaders. When I first voted in an election, I was surprised when I didn't recognize any of the names on the ballot and I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to vote for who I thought was running. So I had to vote by party, not knowing anything about the person I just decided I liked on a whim.

If you're interested in understanding how you can better learn politics, don't look at the leaders. They're just distractions and spokespersons for party policy. Think of big parties like a band. Sure, the frontman is flashy and loud, but without the rest of the band he's just a crooner.

So it's important to know your riding and who you can actually vote for. Luckily, I'm in a fairly important riding which is currently held by CPC member, John Baird. It's important because this man is also the Minster of the Environment and we all know how big the climate change issue is this election.

Honestly, my riding excites me more than the entire federal election.

Nothing much on the Hill is going to change. I'm predicting the same Conservative minority this fall. By far the biggest surprise has been the Green Party. Elizabeth May will finally get a chance to debate and they've seen a (relatively) big jump in popularity.

My riding of Ottawa West/Nepean has a cool voting history for anyone who gives a shit. And I do.

The area has become more right-leaning over the past decade;

Some quick federal election stats for Ottawa West/Nepean:

1997
Liberal - 29,511 (votes)
Reform - 11,601

2000
Liberal - 22,607
Alliance - 14,753

2004
Liberal - 23,971
Conservative - 22,591

2006
Conservative - 25,607
Liberal - 20,244

I find election results over time fascinating. It's like watching the piece of Canada you live in grow and change over time. To me it's a notch on the door frame of your neighbourhood measuring the growth of a community.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Dead-lines...

I work at one of those jobs where more is never enough and I'm on the giving end. I could spend 10 hours a day there and still it doesn't seem that everything would get done.

Almost every day is a race from an office chair working on computers that barely work with programs that can make Bill O'Reilly look reasonable.

Every week I get one writing assignment and every week I get so excited to work on it. To write.

And then I write.

With the already short amount of time at work, I never really get to have fun writing. I paste together bits of news releases and wikipedia into a sort of mosaic of information with no real direction or purpose. Nothing I'm very interested in anyway.

When I have to write something I'm not interested in, or spend most of my time staring at the clock waiting for the deadline instead of focusing on how cool this information could be if I weren't so distracted, that's when I feel bad about what my final product will be.

Luckily for me, or not depending on how you look at it, there's not much of a bar to raise in terms of writing for a bunch of American geriatrics who would probably get offended if I included words like nipple, underwear, poop, bum, Obama or moist.

Whenever I work with information I don't necessarily care about on an already stressed timeline, I turn into a monkey packing shit together like it's going to save my life.

Remember Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters when he was using his fork to frantically plaster a mountain of mashed potatoes on his plate? And he looked at his wife and said; "This means something."

I'm him.

And sometimes it's just so hard to convince myself that this means something.