An unpaid political message from: PLEASE DON'T VOTE LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE, THEY'RE BOTH ACTUALLY NO GOOD
The Canadian election is tomorrow (as long as today is still October 20th, 2019) so I figured I would make one last pitch on what I think the real “strategic” voting strategy should be for all of Canada:
It seems to me that A LOT of people either really don't want the Liberals to win or they really don't want the Conservatives to get elected (and A LOT of people don't want either in charge). Literally the only thing EVERYBODY agrees on at this stage seems to be that at least 1 of those parties, if not both, are absolutely no good for running our government anymore.
Which seems to me like a very big sign that NOBODY should vote for either party this election ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I mean, how many more 4-year cycles of the same 2 parties arguing about how much worse the other party is are we really gonna do here?
CBC poll tracker, October 20th
Worryingly, the polls say that we're probably heading towards ordering another round of the same dish that keeps making everyone a little bit sicker (although polls often feel more like attempts at leading the jury, so try not to let them sway your vote, instead let them light a fire under your arse to go have some of those awkward/difficult political conversations before all the ballots are cast).
The Thing About Established Political Parties
There's an old Bill Hicks bit about how Americans get to "choose" between voting for the puppet on the left hand or the puppet on the right hand (spoiler: both puppets are controlled by the same person/interests), well, the Liberals and Conservatives are the two worn-out puppets in the Canadian version of that scenario.
And yes, the other parties on the Canadian standing off stage might very well do a reverse-Pinocchio once they are given power, but right now they at least feel like real humans. So let's try one of the humans this time and see what happens. Because if we keep voting for the known puppets, we're going to keep getting theatre instead of effective public service (which is all government is supposed to be - boring important work done for the benefit of the public as a whole).
RELATED TANGENT ALERT:
* when I was looking for a link to that old Bill Hicks bit I ended up finding a puppet show video somebody put together for a few Hicks’ bits because internet
So how about this election we all agree to mentally cross 'Liberals' and 'Conservatives' off of our ballots and choose the best option out of whoever is left?
The real work happens outside of the parliament buildings anyways (but a new mindset at the top will make working together easier — and there’s a lot of work to do).
Plenty left TO choose from
And the good news with what is left after we disqualify the Lib/Cons is that TWO of the other parties are pushing for Full Universal Health Care (which is great because EVERYBODY has bodies and needs health for living) and they are planning on doing that by raising taxes on people who make 20 MILLION DOLLARS OR MORE a year (which is great because that is probably nobody that you know or will ever be because 20 MILLION DOLLARS a year is so much exponentially more than what you probably earn for all the work you do in a year that it is actually kinda wild that more people aren't more upset about how bad the wealth disparity is).
And there'd even still be a party to vote for if you genuinely don't think unfettered Capitalism is the cause of whatever societal problem you want to pick from (climate change is just the hardest-to-keep-ignoring red flag waving in our faces).
I made some American comparisons for our Canadian parties if you feel your brain is more clogged up with the deafening political noise always emanating from our neighbours.
Because, after all, that's the nice thing about living in Canada: we have more than two parties to pick from. And this year, more than ever, it really feels like we need to collectively exercise our other options.
So, fellow Canadians… how about this election we ALL agree to send a message to the two parties that have collectively disappointed EVERYBODY in a myriad of ways throughout their decades of back-and-forth politicking?
How about this year NOBODY vote Liberal and nobody vote Conservative?
How about this year EVERYBODY votes for something else?
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*PS - this blog post is an expanded version of a Facebook rant, which had started off as a Tweet, which is all part of a new 4-step writing technique I am trying out called #TweetFaceDraftBlahg™