Politics

I guess that for many people a blog is a politic voice, a chance to vent to the ether and campaign your causes. Or complain, as most do. I have thus far been steering clear of such rants, but given the recent happenings here, guess its time to add my little byte.

The Canadian government fell this week due to a no confidence vote brought about by the coalition in power falling apart. That has started the political process and such news dominates the airwaves. Airwaves I listen to a lot as I cruise control my way around the country. 2000km this week so far, but that is another story.

As an outsider it has not always been easy to work out the issues here and where the parties stand. Too often I hear one party slander another's point of view without placing their own beliefs squarely on the table. One thing I have worked out is that the conservatives are typical right wing retards and best avoided. Difficult in a provience so dominated by them, but then again Wen-shu and I are clearly not built from the same lumber as the locals.

Alberta is ruled by a rather Charasmatic and thoughltess man called Ralph Klien. As far a I can work out he is something of a popularist sitting firmly in the back pocket of industry and the mighty corporations. Clearly he would rather be American (and republican at that) but has made do with what he has and just behaves like an American.

Today on CBC there was a discussion about banning junk food from the halls of Alberta's school. Ralph Klien went on record as mocking the initiative and calling it the "chip cops". no doubt this appeals to his redneck, fat and uneducated electorate, but certainly every single soul who called in to the hour long show was in favour of the notion. After all what possible good comes from children eating junk food during the school day? The bad things will take a couple of hands to list, including obesity, diabetes, bad teeth, hyperactivity, ADHD etc etc. All things I very much doubt the average mother is happy to see in her children.
The fact that not a single person called in to defend their preimerie to me shows a number of things. Firstly, all those in favour of the Klienator are almost certainly tuned in to the local country radio channel and not something a bit more stimulating. Secondly dear old Ralph certainly has no idea what his electorate think, but stays around by handing out bribes in the form of "prosperity" cheques, despite the underbudgeted health care and education needs.
Lastly the whole issue of parenting comes up. Ask anyone who works with children (and I did for a number of years) the number one challenge you have in educating the kids is educating the parents. Clearly this is a case of the a clueless parent (I assume Ralph has spawned something) sprouting off about something he knows nothing about. Happens everyday in every place on the planet. Fortunately in most cases the parents don't have a public voice and their nonsense goes unheard by the world at large. Sadly not so with Ralph.
If all the parents out there were perfect parents (like our good friends Daniel and Lorida) there would be no need to ban junk food from schools. But most parents here in Alberta seem to be too young, too uneducated and too self centered to care about their childrens diet, so there is a need for the government to actually catch up the slack and educate the kids about proper choices and nutrition. Not easy to do when the most powerful public figure in the provience is ranting on about "chip cops"

Nett result of this rant. Looks like I will never vote conservative. Of course i could be wrong about this junk food thing, feel free to correct me.