Tag Archives: politics

Election

No, I am not talking about the US election.  I am talking about the Canadian election.  Something I like about the Canadian political system is the election will not drag on too long.  From the moment the government announce the election, there is only one month before it actually take place.  So we will not bored by the ever lasting election campaign like in the US.  I wonder what’s the point of having pro-long election campaign?  Isn’t that most voter already make up their mind?  The political view of a party won’t change over night, voters should be well aware of what they expect to get from each party.  The candidate themselves are irrelevant, all politicians cannot be trust anyways.  Whatever they promise you in the campaign are lip service.  As long as there the politicians do not make any stupid mistake or involve in any scandals, the voters are pretty much voting for the party.

I used to vote for the Liberal in the past elections.  This time, I will switch to the Conservative, since it is the only party that is not anti-gun.  If I want to keep my toys, I better vote for them.  Other than this factor, the agenda of the other parties are pretty much loads of shit.  The Green Party is a joke, their policy does not make any economical sense.  The Quebecois is really a provincial party, their sole agenda is the independence of Quebec.  Only stupid Quebec people will vote for them.  There are three major party, Conservative on the right, New Democratic Party on the left and Liberal in the middle.  I never buy policy from the left, they always want to raise tax.  The Liberal suppose to be ok, but this time they dig themselves in a big hole by proposing carbon tax.  Tax increase is bad, period.  The Conservative seems to have the best policy with the usual small government and tax cut agenda.  I really admire the Conservative refuse to please the arts and culture group by denying them more money.  The reason is very libertariain, arts and culture are personal perference, the government should not spend tax payers’ money activities that most citizens don’t really care.  They make a very good point stating that those who really care about arts and culture, should just donate to their favorate arts or culture group.  It is unfair asking the general public to pay for their perference.  This kind of sound fiancial policy really win me over as a support for the Conservative Party.

Left or right

When I am searching for power socket format used in Europe, I came across an interesting article on origin of driving direction. Some countries drive on the left hand side of the road, which is Japan, UK and its former colonies, and the rest of the world drive on the right hand side. Driving on the left hand side actually makes sense and it can be dated back to pre-automobile days. Knights are usually riding on the left side on the road, so that their sword using arm is closer to incoming enemies. Moreover they carry the sword on the left hand side, so it is easier to mount or dismount the horse from the left. It is more natural to get off the horse to the side of the road rather than towards the center of the street. Thus riding and driving on the left hand side of the road is a symbol of the noble class, where the presents leave to walk on the right side of the road. When revolution came in France and US, the people want to distinguish themselves from the old royal system, therefore driving on the right became the rule. Sometimes illogical choices due to political ideology would stay and affect our life for a long time.

The article can be found at this link.

Florda teacher case

In the news, there is a24 years old female teacher in Florida charged of having sex with her 14 years old student. This news brings some discussion to the Lasallian email group. Someone us believe that she should be free of charge, something is seriously wrong with the US law regarding minimum legal age of having sex. It is out of question that her act is indecent and unprofessional. The school board should fire her for violated the teacher’s conduct. However citizen’s private life is not the business of the government and she shouldn’t trialed with criminal charges. Protecting the minor from sexual abuse is good, but in this case I don’t think that 14 years old boy was hurt in this incident. He is old enough to be responsible for his own decision of having sex with his teacher. I will have different opinion if the teacher is a man and the student is a 14 years old. The boy probably had sexual experience with girls at his age already. How his relationship with his teacher hurts him, and what does the law protect him from?

Flag

Today I bought two Canadian flags from Superstore at a discount after the Canada day. The flags are for Me and Pat to use in the World Youth Day. When groups of people from different country gather together, a way to identify yourself is by showing your nationality. I would display Canadian marks on my backpack when I try overseas. I feel proud of being a Canadian and the maple leaf flag is something I can associate with. Even though I’m Chinese and have a HK passport, I’ll feel ashamed displaying the Chinese flag. The five stars flag is one of the ugliest flag design and government behind it is even worse. If I have a choice, I would rather display the dragon flag of the Ching Dynasty. Then I tried to imagine what if I am living live in the States. Would I feel the same towards the American flag? People who associated with the US flag are usually stereotyped patriots. The word patriot has a negative meaning in my dictionary, which means people who are blindly follow the country without a critical mind. One does not have to be a patriot to love his country. Patriot is merely a label used by the authority to divided up its citizens. Every time I hear patriot in the news, either in English or in Chinese media, I feel really distaste towards those who mention this word.

Voting

Today is the election of the BC provincial government. As a good citizen, I did caste my vote. Fortunately, the candidate I support had won the seat in my riding. I know nothing about the candidate himself before going to the voting station, nor he had any advertisement targeted me. The only judgment I had is to vote along party line, support the party closer to my ideas. There is an independent candidate in my riding with the nick name “evil genius” in the ballot, who is a SFU student. I almost wanted to give him my vote as an encouragement for his courage.