The Canadian election is coming up on October 21st (2019), and since HI54 is a Canadian blog, I figured I'd break down our 🇨🇦 political parties by their closest American comparisons — because politics in America is so loud and extra that us Canadians are often more tuned in to what is going on below the border (or at least those of us who use Twitter):

📗 Green Party of Canada = Bernie Sanders (ie. our most openly left option, and by 'left' I mean they openly talk about how this corrupt capitalist system we keep getting conned into is killing all but a few—in a variety of ways, not just climate change—so how about we don't?)

📙 Canada’s NDP = Elizabeth Warren (ie. just about as openly 'left' as the Greens, but always presented as the slightly more realistic/capable 'if we absolutely can't talk you out of wanting stuff like Universal health care & taking immediate action on the environment' option in the media and by a lot of those on the left)

📕 Liberal Party of Canada = Joe Biden (ie. the media/mainstream backed modern centrist who thinks they are acting 'left' but, because things have been pushed so far to the right, they are actually standing right of centre giving a ‘🤙’ into the wrong camera; someone who just wants us to go back to those times when it wasn't so obvious how much of a grift the upper class / corporations were doing on the majority of society)

📘 Conservative Party of Canada = The Republican Party (ie. the party that aggressively pushes policies that continue to enrich the rich by tricking poor & middle class people into thinking that it's always the OTHER government that keeps making things worse for everybody; will often put on a 'Christian Values' hat when appropriate, but always ignore the fact that Jesus was kind of all about helping the poor & marginalized; Scheer gives off an 'if Ted Cruz & Mitch Mitch McConnell climbed into a Paul Ryan skin suit' vibe).

📘 Peoples Party of Canada = The Tea Party would be the best comparison if staying in America, but I feel like UKIP across the Atlantic is the much better fit (ie. stoke the people's dark shadow of nationalism & racism by blaming 'all those immigrants' for all our problems, always oblivious to the irony of white people talking about how people should go back to where they came from — they may steal some votes from Conservatives, but they also push the whole political spectrum further and further right until, oh look… the Nazis are marching in the streets as if we didn't all agree many years ago that they were 100% the baddies).

But these are just the observations of some guy with a blog that mostly shares music/pop culture stuff, so please make sure you go have a look over EACH parties platform for yourself and really have a think about what things you would actually like to see in the society you/your family/your friends/your neighbours will be living in.

Pay attention to which policies are based around compassion and equality and whose language is based around division and distraction. Remember that political parties are not sports teams that we're supposed to continue backing no matter what because we just want 'our side' to win the big election match (although, in some true 'people just root for the same old sports team' confidence the Conservatives don't even have a platform posted on their website as of 11 days & counting from the election). And try blocking out all those pre-programmed talking points/other-peoples-opinions that get immediately triggered whenever you think about how nice it would be to have head-to-toe universal health coverage & to not be actively working ourselves straight into a climate apocalypse.

Remember, government is a public service that is supposed to be there to work for all of us, not just a few. It’s time we start showing them we demand better and the only way to do that is to not keep voting for the same ‘1 step forward, 2 step back’ game.

So please don't forget to vote with what your heart/gut is telling you… but also please don't put off having those 'awkward' political talks with your family/friends/neighbours right up until the vote on October 21st. Not only is it important to speak up & communicate what is important to you, but also talking out loud (or writing something you share with others) is a good way to actually work out what you really want/believe/feel + it will also help you see all the areas where you actually don't know all that much and are just repeating surface-level things you've heard someone else say because you don't want to sound like you don't know anything / have an opinion (which is one of the many things we all have in common with each other, myself included).

And finally, because I am a music blog, let's close this Canadian political rant off with a sweet all-Canadian playlist that you can listen to while thinking about the kind of Canada you want to live in / come visit after October 21st:

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Jeremy / @HI54LOFI

*PS - this blog post is an expanded version of a Facebook rant, which had started off as a Tweet until it got too long, which is all part of a new FREE 4-step writing technique I am trying out called #TweetFaceDraftBlahg™