Governing is Hard...

The job of the government of Canada is to govern for all Canadians. Not just the ridings that elected their MPs, but all Canadians. This is not a simple task. There are many complex and contrary moving parts. 

There are many conflicting needs and desires. Environmentalists and many First Nations have a different view of natural resource extraction and transportation from those in the oil and gas sector... 

There are wealthy citizens and companies who employ Canadians and some also contribute huge amounts to important causes. But there are also workers and poor people who have very different needs. 

There are cultural groups who need support to maintain their culture. There are those who feel their province or region has been discriminated against while others have had the ear of Ottawa too much. 

There are those who feel the performing/visual/literary arts are essential to maintain a Canadian identity and voice, and others who feel the arts should have to make it on their own in the open market. 

There are some who feel high quality education for all is essential for the future of our society, and others who feel anything beyond basic reading and writing and math and learning a trade is a waste of money. 

There are those who embrace diversity and want Canada to be part of the solution to the global migration problem, and others who want the borders closed to any who do not look/think/worship/love the way they do. 

There are those who see Canada's health care system as essential to our identity and future, and others who feel that they should be able to get better care than others, in a private system, because they can afford it. 

There are so many conflicting viewpoints. We have a vast and diverse country. Pressing issues in Cornerbrook are not the same as issues in Orillia, or in Trois Riviere, or Steinbach, or Weyburn, or High River, or Kamloops, or White Horse. Governing is complex. 

The Government is tasked with creating or revising legislation to keep up with ongoing social, economic and global changes, while ensuring that legislation is in compliance with our constitution and charter of rights and freedoms. 

In addition, the Government of Canada is also tasked with meeting requirements of international treaties, supporting Canadian companies wanting to trade elsewhere, representing Canada to the world. 

Meanwhile, the job of opposition parties is to ensure the government is fulfilling it's duties to all Canadians. But not only that. The opposition is tasked with representing their constituents to the government. And this is where things have become a bit cloudy recently 

Do you think Tommy Douglas' CCF was able to get the Liberal government of Lester Pearson to enact universal health care in 1966 by screaming at them in Parliament and placing attack ads in publications? 

No. It happened because the CCF was able to move regular citizens to support the idea. And also through prolonged consultation, lobbying, and negotiation. And they worked very hard on this because it was for the public good. 

Because ultimately, that is what a government of Canada is supposed to provide: public good. And the opposition may have different ideas about how to get there, but they used to all be working for what they perceived as the public good. 

We now have a party in opposition that seems to have no ideas beyond, they want to be in power. Power is not the same as public good. Their platform, such as it is, seems to reflect a very narrow view of the Canadian public. 

They seem to feel their role is to nay-say anything the government does, not because the government's proposals are not in the public good, but because they object, on partisan principle, to anything a party that is not them proposes. 

This is not serving Canadians. It is serving themselves, and their most well-heeled donors. If the government came up with an efficient, well-thought-out way to end poverty in Canada within a year, the CPC would oppose it. Because it is coming from the Liberals. 

Also, because they don't seem to care much about the poor. But the immediate and automatic rejection of anything this government does strongly suggests that the CPC are not concerned about the public good. Only power. 

If you ask me, that alone is reason enough to make sure they don't get elected. If a party cares so little about the public they are trying to get elected to serve that they cannot bear to work with the government towards the public good, they don't deserve our votes. 

Governing is hard. A government will never make everyone happy. It is a balancing act, & the best governments try very hard to make the scales balance as much as possible. But some people will never be happy, some will be disappointed that things did not go 100% their way. 

For the CPC, truth also appears to be hard. If a party deliberately misleads the population, they are unfit to govern. If we had a media that fact-checked all parties' public communications that might be easier for many to detect. 

If we look at Ford's PCs in Ontario we see an example of government by revenge. It seems to be his mission to eradicate everything the previous government did, regardless of any public good provided. 

Jason Kenney and Andrew Scheer will/would almost certainly govern the same way. All things the opponents did must be destroyed. Doesn't matter if those things actually made society better. It is the principle. Nothing made by non-conservatives can be allowed to exist. 

And this is my point, really. Governing is hard. So hard to balance all those different views. But any party whose sole mission is to be a wreaking ball without regard for the public good has no business governing. 

Othering: What it is and why it matters

Othering is the process of casting a group, an individual or an object into the role of the 'other' and establishing one's own identity through opposition to and, frequently, vilification of this Other.

When former CPC Cabinet Minister Tony Clement tweets like this:

He is using the term "illegals" to talk about people. Human beings. Sons, daughters, moms, dads... People. Just like you. Families. Just like your family. 

Othering is a linguistic and psychological strategy to make someone seem different from you. It is a technique employed when someone in a position of authority wants to make the majority forget that these are people being spoken about. 

Armies make up names for the enemy. "Jerry" "Huns" "Gooks" "Wops" "Krauts" "Nips" "Yanks"... Because it is a lot harder to kill a person with an individual identity, a personality, a family, a life story... And often, in wartime, that someone on the other side was more than likely just a kid, same as the kids in the army fighting them. Discipline would become a problem quickly if the soldiers meant to do the killing realised the person they were killing liked playing the same sport, or listening to the same music, or missed their Mom just as much... 

No. If one group wants to demean another group, possibly violate their human rights, they have to make sure their own people, their audience, doesn't get to see this "other" group as people with faces and families and favourite songs and comfort foods, and talents, and hobbies, and all the other things that make them more like us than different.

Now, prominent right wing speakers, from the GOP in the US and the CPC in Canada, are using the term "illegals" to dehumanise a group of people who have had a overwhelming lack of choice in their circumstances. Yes, they chose to flee rather than stay put and be killed. Or jailed. Or persecuted.  Although, that is not much of a choice by most rational standards. Some are fleeing war. Some are fleeing oppression because of sexual orientation, or religion, or ethnic group. Some are fleeing poverty and gang violence. But they have made the terribly difficult decision to move, to leave their homes and the lives they knew, because staying put was unsustainable. 

We cannot "other" people. We all share this fragile planet. We are all human, With glorious skills and tragic flaws. Every individual deserves to be evaluated as an individual. Not as part of some homogeneous lump of humanity. We are all different, and all very much alike. Resist those who stereotype or vilify based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, country of origin, skin colour, and all the other things we cannot change about ourselves. Look at people as individuals. Look at people with an open mind, just as you would like others to see you. 

Call out those who "other", who try to judge based on stereotypes, who want to turn us against people and divide us. Don't let anyone talk you into hating someone just because of where they are from, or how they pray, or who they love. Go ahead and be angry at assholes, at abusers, at those who prey on other people, those who revel in making other people miserable, at bullies, at those who hurt others... But do it on an individual basis. Because every racial, religious, ethnic, sexual orientation, skin colour, education level, socio-economic level group, every "group" you can think of, has people who can be identified as being in that group who are amazing, wonderful humans, and also those who are nasty, deceitful humans. And their group membership has nothing whatsoever to do with how they will treat you. That is internal and individual. 

Othering matters because it justified what happened to Jews in WWII. Othering matters because it is inextricably linked with gay bashing. Othering matters because there are people with free-range rage in their souls and they are looking for an anonymous group to vent it on. People who go into churches and shoot people in a prayer group because they are black. People who go into mosques and kill people at prayer because they are Muslim. And, yes, people who bomb nightclubs because the people inside are westerners. 

We have to struggle against othering because every single one of us deserves the right to be evaluated on our individual merits and flaws. We cannot let our fellow humans become faceless objects of revulsion and violence. 

History has shown that ignoring othering kills.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

We have a responsibility to call out our MPs, our media, our friends, neighbours, and family when they dehumanize people and label them. It is not ok. It is never just a joke. It is not "just words". If we do not speak up now, who will? 

NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN.