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17
Jun
2022
Sunday May 29, 2022
Yet another school shooting in the U.S. Nineteen children and two teachers dead -- plus the shooter himself.
As I write this column, authorities are still trying to fathom the teenaged shooter’s motives. Was he influenced by extremist ideologies? By prejudice? By social media?
I suggest that the terms we use, in examining motives, are themselves part of the problem. Traditional interpretations of “right” and “left,” liberal and conservative, get in the way of understanding.
We need to start again.
Try these definitions on for size. The right worships the individual. The left worships the group.
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: politics, labels, right/left
13
Oct
2019
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. It’s also just nine days away from a federal election. One of the things I’m thankful for is that Canada is not mired in the political lunacy in the U.S.
So far, about the only thing the various Canadian parties and candidates have been able to agree about is that the other side has more flaws than they do.
I suspect that if our ballots had a “None of the above” box, we’d elect a non-government with a huge majority, made up of members who didn’t get elected.
In today’s elections, traditional labels don’t work. A conservative is not necessarily a Conservative, let alone a Progressive Conservative. And a Liberal is not necessarily liberal, especially out here in B.C.
Tags: politics, parties, labels, election
11
Dec
2016
A week ago, outside the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, we had a rather un-Canadian event, eh?
A crowd had rallied to protest Premier Rachel Notley’s proposed carbon tax. As former federal minister Chris Alexander spoke from the steps of the legislature building, the crowd – many of them bused in from Red Deer and Calgary for the occasion – began chanting, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
Clearly, they were mimicking the “Lock her up” chants against Hillary Clinton in the Trump presidential campaign.
That’s just not what Canadians do. Eh?
Tags: politics, courtesy
Jan
Tags: politics, mindsets