steve kwan user experience designer

Canada descends into a state of anarchy

(November 29th, 2005 - 9:44AM)

You know what I miss? The government.

Not that I'm a big fan of career politicians, but it's nice knowing that someone is actually in charge of the nation. For my American readers (I'm actually not sure if I have any), Canada's government was dissolved yesterday through a no-confidence vote. We're going to have an upcoming election in which we'll wind up with about the same configuration we had before, so we're basically wasting our time and money.

I'm a bit torn as to who I'm going to vote for, but I'm leaning heavily towards the NDP. They get a lot of flak these days because people think they would be incapable of managing our country's finances, but as far as I know they've never held a federal majority so any criticism is really just speculation. I like what they stand for and I'm a big believer in unions, so they'll probably get my vote.

Why is everybody so against unions, anyway? Yes, unions do some stupid things sometimes, but they have such a positive impact on people's lives that it's hard for me to look down on them. When you are in the upper-middle class wage range, it's very easy to downplay the importance of unions because they probably don't affect you. However, for many people their union is the only thing preventing their employer from trodding on them and paying them minimum wage. Regardless of your opinion of so-called "unskilled" labour, nobody deserves to be paid minimum wage.

Anyway, vote with your mind and heart, but whatever you do DON'T VOTE CONSERVATIVE. Having Stephen Harper in power is no better than having George W. Bush in power.