In three days the Canadian public begins to write the final chapter of a long, weird, nail-baiting novel called The Canadian Federal Election. I like to think of it concluding volume in a trilogy I want to dub The Harperman Chronicles. It’s the ultimate Canadian story about a country trying to find a soul after finding pieces of it missing. The final battle will not find itself fought with guns, but with fear and scapegoating against hope and compassion.
It seems the Canadian electorate began to fight back at the polls. I, like many others, voted in advance on October 9-12. I noticed an unusually long line up at my polling station. It seems everyone had the same idea:
Canadians Assemble!
The list of programs cut or defunded by the Harper government would produce its own blog post. However, I always defer to political bloggers, or journalists. Dennis Gruending compiled a list of groups in his 2011 post. (His blog continues to be updated.) Call it a hit list, call it coincidence, but I say if you see a pattern it’s not a coincidence.
In fact many journalists wrote about Harper’s dislike of democracy. Crazy I know. The more I see the phrase, the more this speech in The Avengers starts to come true:
I do believe we need a Hulk. If we can’t get a Hulk, Mark Ruffalo tweets a lot about environmental issue. If he can’t physically toss him like his fictional alter ego, at least he can toss the Harper government in 140 characters.
Misbehave on October 19th
Last election I wrote on my Facebook if Harper won a majority, I would have my own Firefly-class ship and take to the skies. It’s a joke of course, but much of Harper’s run reminds me of ‘The Alliance’ on Firefly. The rhetoric used by the ‘big bad’ in the Whedoneverse sounds the same. The Alliance, much like Harper’s government, believes they will make Canada better, but the fear and nativism actually makes us worse. We turn into the very people we don’t like, the ones distrustful of our neighbourhoods, and divided so much we can’t begin to work through out problems.
Many news outlets around the world wondered what happened to Canada? I have a theory: We are way too polite. It doesn’t mean be rude, but it means do something and not wait for some magical way for things to change. Let’s get real. Let’s vote. Take a page from Malcolm Reynolds:
Unpaused Life 