There's Always a Bright Side, If You Look Hard Enough
Admittedly, with a minority Conservative government that wants to incarcerate 14-year-olds for life, close down safe injection sites because their ideology doesn't allow them to accept that harm-reduction works, no matter what the damn scientists say, allow industry to continue to pollute as long as they do it less intensely, privatize health care, generally follow the Bush pattern for running a once-proud nation to $#17, and which was allowed to continue in power only by a combination of having half the voters of Canada stay the hell home (damn their rotten souls to North Korea) plus a 19th-century first-past-the-post system, you have to look pretty damn hard.
But I have found one:
With the minority re-defaulted into power, we are at least finally spared the incessant Harper refrain: "Under the previous Liberal government ..."
Labels: Angst, Celebration, Corruption, Funny, Heroes, Life and its funny little ways, Names, Picanthropii, Politics, Power, Responsibility, Sickening, the art of the blog
posted by Metro @ 12:42 pm
4 Comments:
Well, I'm glad you found something.
Life sentences are for first-degree murder only. How many 14-year-olds get convicted of first-degree murder (in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada)? And how many life sentences are fully served in Canada?
That has to have been the biggest non-issue of the election.
Of course, the next time a juvie intentionally kills someone, someone somewhere will demand that he/she be tried as an adult.
Barb
That's definitely digging for a bright side, but it made me laugh. Now if only we Americans can get our stuff together and elect somebody decent.
@WC:
Word of wisdom from Monty Python:
Always look on the bright side of life (whistle, whistle, whistle)
@Barb:
So it's still okay to bang up 14-year-olds for life? Sorry, I don't agree with you there. The same thing already exists in the US, and it's a monstrosity.
Moreover, it's not just a single issue--it's part and parcel with a Conservative philosophy that seems to value some sort of imagined revenge over justice.
Want to bet that if the Opposition don't sink him over the crime bill, Harper will shortly propose mandatory minimum sentences? And maybe a three-strikes-you're-out law?
You're right that not many kids get convicted of first-degree murder, in part because we recognize that kids think differently from adults.
Lastly, I'm not certain Harper restricted this to first-degree only. I believe that the phrase rebounding about the election campaign was "the most heinous". A loverly phrase which could equally describe many CPC policies.
@Silverstar:
At least you guys have one clear and inspiring choice. We have:
A party whose stated aim is to tear the country into three bits (Quebec and a bit on each side), and who don't campaign in most of Canada.
A party who are so used to being passed over in elections that they make up fantasy platform planks (NDP).
A Green Party that has a powerful dream and no chance of seeing a seat.
And a party whose leader has inspiring ideas but communicates so ineffectively that the best he could manage was to hang onto Loyal Opposition status.
Oh, and we have the Reform Party, sorry, I mean the Alliance Party, sorry, I mean the "Conservative" Party of Canada, essentially Canadians who gaze enviously at the Bush administration and wonder how they can achieve the same thing here.
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