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Even as we appreciate our own good fortune (and perhaps somewhat because of that), it's easy to become discouraged and depressed about the state of the world, from the desperate plight of the people of Haiti to the political situation in Afghanistan and especially its impact on women and girls, while here in Canada, we see wildfires out west and up north and a lack of clean drinking water and egregious human rights abuses in indigenous communities.
Discouraged, depressed, guilty... and ultimately relatively helpless. So this week, in the wake of an election call that few of us seem to want, I decided to put my money where my heart is and donate where I think I have a chance of at least making SOME impact, to the campaign of a local federal candidate.
This time around, she is running in Ottawa Centre but two years ago, I supported her in my own riding of Ottawa West - Nepean. I enjoyed our doorstep chat back then and felt she definitely would have made an excellent MP. But in that area, she had little hope of winning. In Ottawa Centre, I'd say it's a distinct possibility.
So here are my priority issues for this campaign:
1. Get rid of the winner-take-all, first-past-the-post electoral system and implement some form of proportional representation, something Trudeau promised to do back in 2015 and then backtracked on.
2. Implement some form of Universal Basic Income. Again, this was supposed to be one of the Liberals' top priorities coming out of their leadership and policy conventions but we're hearing precious little about it now!
3. Restore door to door mail delivery. OK, so it was the Conservatives who started the move away from it and while the Liberals paused the implementation of it, they insisted they were not about to "put the toothpaste back in the tube" and reverse the process in neighbourhoods where it had already been implemented. The result? Inequities which pit neighbourhood against neighbourhood and are based upon historical missteps rather than any rational consideration of the impacts!
This is of course not an exhaustive list of everything I'd like to see accomplished. I could add many, many policy directions I'd like to see in the areas of health care, seniors' issues, financial reform and indigenous issues and climate change, though some of these are hampered by constitutional constraints, executive federalism and plain old personal and jurisdictional infighting.
Still, the first two of the above priorities are very macro-level. Reform the electoral system and right away, you make the country more democratic and participatory and you involve a greater diversity of stakeholders. Put a Universal Basic Income in place and right off the bat, you've taken a giant step towards eliminating or at least mitigating poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, plus a number of health issues that stem from these problems.
Discouraged, depressed, guilty... and ultimately relatively helpless. So this week, in the wake of an election call that few of us seem to want, I decided to put my money where my heart is and donate where I think I have a chance of at least making SOME impact, to the campaign of a local federal candidate.
This time around, she is running in Ottawa Centre but two years ago, I supported her in my own riding of Ottawa West - Nepean. I enjoyed our doorstep chat back then and felt she definitely would have made an excellent MP. But in that area, she had little hope of winning. In Ottawa Centre, I'd say it's a distinct possibility.
So here are my priority issues for this campaign:
1. Get rid of the winner-take-all, first-past-the-post electoral system and implement some form of proportional representation, something Trudeau promised to do back in 2015 and then backtracked on.
2. Implement some form of Universal Basic Income. Again, this was supposed to be one of the Liberals' top priorities coming out of their leadership and policy conventions but we're hearing precious little about it now!
3. Restore door to door mail delivery. OK, so it was the Conservatives who started the move away from it and while the Liberals paused the implementation of it, they insisted they were not about to "put the toothpaste back in the tube" and reverse the process in neighbourhoods where it had already been implemented. The result? Inequities which pit neighbourhood against neighbourhood and are based upon historical missteps rather than any rational consideration of the impacts!
This is of course not an exhaustive list of everything I'd like to see accomplished. I could add many, many policy directions I'd like to see in the areas of health care, seniors' issues, financial reform and indigenous issues and climate change, though some of these are hampered by constitutional constraints, executive federalism and plain old personal and jurisdictional infighting.
Still, the first two of the above priorities are very macro-level. Reform the electoral system and right away, you make the country more democratic and participatory and you involve a greater diversity of stakeholders. Put a Universal Basic Income in place and right off the bat, you've taken a giant step towards eliminating or at least mitigating poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, plus a number of health issues that stem from these problems.
