One Woman. One Blog.

Peterborough: Possibility City

"I'm so disappointed in Peterborough. Now I remember why I ran away when I was 16."
- A Peterborough voter commenting on the election results, quoted in today's Peterborough Examiner.

I believe in Peterborough and its potential to become something more. This is what I think about when I think about Peterborough and its potential.

Peterborough, the ethical city; Peterborough, the just city; Peterborough, the visionary city; Peterborough, the creative city; Peterborough, the innovative city; Peterborough, the eco-city; Peterborough, the multicultural city; Peterborough, the all-ages city; Peterborough, the hate-free city; Peterborough, the bullying-free city; Peterborough, the no-one-goes-hungry city; Peterborough, the barrier-free city; Peterborough, the entrepreneurial city; Peterborough, the healthy city; Peterborough, the active city; Peterborough, the sustainable city; Peterborough, the local foodbasket city; Peterborough, the welcoming city; Peterborough, the politically engaged city; Peterborough, the public spaces city; Peterborough, the indie media city, Peterborough, possibility city.

A lot of people are working towards these various ends.

And not all progress has to come through political channels.

We can take a two-tiered approach to working for change in our communities:

1. Add your voice to the loud chorus of Canadians insisting on democratic reform now;
2. Work for change through all channels available to you as a citizen.

Don't give in to cynicism or apathy. Let frustration fuel your resolve to work for change.

Ad Running in Peterborough Examiner in Support of Betsy McGregor

The following advertisement is running in The Peterborough Examiner in support of Betsy McGregor.

The ABCs of Smart Voting

I want to start out by wishing everyone the best with their campaigns, now that we're into a Federal election.

As regular readers of this blog already know, I will be backing Peterborough federal Liberal candidate Betsy McGregor and Federal Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion, both of whom I consider to be leaders of vision and integrity. (You can catch Dion's fabulous campaign launch via Scott's DiaTribes.)

That said, I also see a lot of good in the campaign messages of the NDP and the Green Party; and I would be happy to see either of them form a coalition government with the Liberals, if the Liberals are unable to form a majority government on their own. Progressive is progressive is progressive -- is not conservative.

My campaign bottom line?

A positive outcome for me in this election, both locally and nationally, will be what Danny Williams has been campaigning for since his part of the country was betrayed last year by a Harper government broken promise: "Anything but Conservative."

A - B - C.

It's so simple and so logical -- and so essential.

Here's why.

I hardly recognize Canada anymore -- this after just 2 1/2 years of Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) rule. Imagine what our country will be like if they achieve another minority or (I hate to even type this) a majority government.

We'd be handing them a license to continue on their current path -- a path that has seen them

• invest in corporations rather than social programs;
• scrap the first real national daycare program Canada has ever had in the works in favor of a $100-a-month cheque to parents (in before tax-dollars).
• strip crucial funding from the Status of Women Canada (the government cut Status of Women Canada’s by $5 million, which represented 40% of this federal agency’s administrative budget, on the grounds that “women are already equal”) and the Court Challenges Program of Canada (which gave everyday people the ability to launch challenges against the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and defined some key rights and freedoms in this country);
• change the mandate of Status of Women Canada;
• eliminate arts programs that allowed Canadian artists to gain much-needed exposure internationally (and alarm the arts community earlier this year about the potential for government censorship because so many discretionary powers to approve funding for particular film projects have been placed in the hands of the heritage and justice departments);
  etc. etc. etc. [ please visit www.progressivebloggers.ca and start reading if you want to bring yourself up to speed on the many ways that this government has taken Canada down a new and unfamiliar path ].

Many political observers have raised concerns about the Tories' future plans for the CBC (e.g. whether it will continue down the slippery slope to privatization (we've already seen the CBC TV have to resort to airing US game shows in the prime after-dinner time-slot in order to make ends meet and everyone knows that privatization is a sacred principle in neo-conservative circles); asked if the Tories still intend to privatize the food safety system in light of the listeriosis outbreak and deaths in Ontario; and wondered if we would be subject to more embarrassment internationally as other countries are left wondering what has happened to our country's traditional commitment to human rights, the environment, and global peace-keeping. Since the election of the Harper government, many Canadians have found it difficult to feel proud of our government and our country.

The mere timing of this election raises further concerns and questions. Was this election called in a hurry in the hope that the current government would be returned to power before the U.S. election results come in? (A wave of change in the U.S. might not bode well for a Canadian Conservative government.) Is the government concerned about the outcome of the ethics committee hearings, the follow up to the Schreiber, investigation, and the outcome of the Harper "misappropriation of personality" trial (a.k.a. the Cadman affair)? It's clear that what has brought about this election was a sense of urgency from within the Conservative Party to seize the day (and potentially deplete the funds of other political parties, according to a recent rather Machiavellian op ed piece by long-time party advisor and pundit Tom Flanagan) rather than any grassroots groundswell of desire to head to the polls by average Canadians.

Here is my plea to everyday Canadians at this crucial juncture in our country's history.

• Refuse to allow yourself to be swayed by all the vote-buying of recent weeks and months. (Here's where the vote-buying tally sat as of Friday. Pretty incredible, huh?
• Take time to research the record of this government and this Prime Minister. I was going to direct you to the House of Commons website www.howdtheyvote.ca, which tracks the voting records of all MPs, but all versions of that URL have mysteriously ceased to function. Very mysterious, in a 1984 kind of way. I mean if ever there was a time for this website to be available to Canadian voters, it's right now.
• Look beyond the smoke and mirrors of elections advertising. Do your homework and vote with your brain rather than allowing attack ads aimed at CPC opponents and political ads starring the PM as Super-Dad in Utopia to do your thinking for you. You may be more chilled than thrilled -- and you may be less likely to buy into the PM's "just an ordinary dad" pitch and persona (unless your idea of an ordinary family guy is a family guy with neo-conservative roots so deep no hair-dresser could hope to cover them) once you've done some independent research. Seriously! Prime Minister Stephen Harper was one of the founders of the Reform Party of Canada and headed up the right-wing think tank the National Citizens' Coalition before that. So people -- write this on your garage doors so other people get the message: Steven Harper may be a Conservative, but he's anything but progressive. There's no such thing as a Progressive Conservative in Federal politics anymore. They went the way of the dinosaur after Mulroney had his way with the party. It's a shame because there were some really good people in the PC Party of yesteryear. But those days are gone.

Related:

IMC Winnipeg: 10 Good Reasons Harper's "Conservatives" Should Get the Boot

Anytown, USA

You'd think I'd be avoiding politics like the plague (at least as an entertainment vehicle), given that we're in sudden death overtime in the Liberal nomination campaign here in Peterborough.

But Anytown, USA caught my eye in the Film Festival Award Winners rack at Blockbuster yesterday, what with its promises of "quirky characters, dilapidated infrastructure, and impassioned citizens." The fact that the movie is a political comedy is what sold me, of course. I don't think I could sit through anything deadly serious or overly earnest right now. I'm simply not in the mood.

Anyway, Anytown, USA was just what the political psychotherapist ordered: a hilarious romp through the underbelly of a political campaign. What's amazing about the documentary is the way the camera captures the character of each candidate, for better and for worse.

"We didn't go out of our way to make [Steve Lonegan] look bad," Fraga said in an interview with The Trenton Times ("Anytown Puts Trenton on Map") following the film's release. "But if I aimed a camera at you for months, you'd forget it was in the room too."

The result is a remarkably real-to-life look at political campaigns. But instead of feeling slightly cynical or let down by the world of politics when the film ends, you'll feel inspired. It's a pretty amazing movie: one that can restore your faith in people -- and possibly even politics, too.

Given that we appear to be on standby for a federal election, you may want to treat yourself to a copy of this movie ASAP. Whether you consider it a training video for what you may face in the campaign trenches as you work on behalf of your candidate (that's the reality component) or as proof that there are still good people going into politics for the right reasons (that's the inspiration part), Anytown, USA has plenty to say to anyone campaigning in Anytown, Canada, too.