Vote for Canadian Democracy and Autonomy

What I’ve written below began as a way to process my anger and frustration with current events. I struggled whether to make it public and the decision to do so was not made lightly. Not that I have much of a readership, but my reluctance to anger and offend family and friends gave me pause. However,  I’ve read many accounts of the holocaust throughout my life and the one thread that was woven throughout all the stories was the damage of silence. If my writing encourages two to speak out and those two encourage another two, our voices grow exponentially.

You may take umbrage with my words, but I can’t let that silence me. My anger towards the current situation is evident and some of my metaphors are hyperbolic, but the connections I’ve made are not taken from thin air. There is a common theme and it can be verified easily. 

I post this for my kids and grandkids. I want a future very different from the one I see unfolding in Hungary, Russia, and the USA. I want a country where we look after the disadvantaged and needy rather than enrich the wealthy elite. Where we don’t claim rights for ourselves while stripping the rights of others. 

So – big breath – here I go. 

Respect is earned not commanded. I have enormous respect and admiration for President Zelensky because he has demonstrated his strength and character through unrelenting commitment to his people and country. I have nothing but disdain for Trump as his actions are self-serving and his treatment of those who don’t bow to him is despicable. He is the trumpian with no clothes. 

Trump has turned the Oval Office into a den of thieves. He sits behind the Resolute Desk and hawks gaudy products. He gives the keys to the government to the richest civilian in the world. Lies drip continuously out of Trump’s mouth like water from a leaky shower head while his minions frantically scrub his words in an attempt to hide them from his followers. He unabashedly dismantles aid to the poorest of poor, while bolstering the accounts of the richest of rich. He berates Zelensky for not bending a knee to Putin in pursuit of peace, yet threatens Mexico with military action. Nevermind his endless expansionist verbiage toward Greenland, Panama, Canada, and Gaza. With no compassion for the people of Gaza, he seeks not to help them rebuild, but rather he seeks to steal their land, demanding neighboring countries take the nearly two million lives he would so casually displace. He even posted an AI rendition of his dream. The gold-gilded resort city. A gaudy shrine to himself. 

This man is not fit to lead. Recently someone spoke how each president brings the flavour and skills of their background to the Oval Office. Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer. Clinton and Obama, law professors. Biden, a lawyer. Trump brought reality TV and marketing. His comment after he directed his barrage of insults at Zelensky was, “well it should make for good TV”. He cannot differentiate between ‘reality TV’ and real life. 

The Gilded Age

With dollar signs dancing in his eyes, he longs to recapture the gilded age of unbridled growth. One way he proposes to accomplish this is by selling ‘Gold Cards’ to the world’s wealthy elite. He salivates over the $5 million each card will bring, along with the economic fortunes through investment and development. Can you imagine what will happen to land prices amid a flood of wealthy elite? He dreams not of 10 people, not even of hundreds. No, he dreams of millions buying their way into the USA. Are there millions of wealthy elite in the world who want to move to the U.S.?  If he and the oligarchs who surround him are a sampling of who they’re trying to attract, these will not be the crème de la creme. The majority will be opportunists looking to grow their wealth. The USA has a lot of land and a large workforce, the perfect combination for a certain variety of wealthy elites.  Purportedly they already have 250 000 applicants ready to pay.

Meritocracy

The worship of the meritocracy ideology is baffling. Maybe visages of the feudal system still lurk in people’s psyche. Romantic notions of castles and crowns and armies of white knights, where the king is the chosen of God, the wealthy are favored by God, and the working poor are but vassals to serve the higher order. A system designed to control the masses and enrich the coffers. Then in the 1970’s, the Health and Wealth Gospel emerged as mega-church preachers riffed off meritocracy, and foregoing the teachings of Jesus, preached that health and wealth were signs of God’s favour. Not compassion, or love, or service to others, but money and power. 

Ahhh. 2025

 Finally, a president who understands that a country can’t function if government attends to the needs of the masses. Only the wealthy elite deserve to rule. Only the wealthy elite deserve a voice. Only the wealthy elite deserve to prosper. The rest, nothing but vassals who should be thankful for every breadcrumb that falls from the table. The gilded age has begun. 

Here’s the truth about the gilded age Trump is so eager to restore.   

Trump and his enclave of oligarchs care nothing for the average person beyond what they can give them. Votes, taxes, and cheap labour. My hope is he’s stopped before he does irreparable damage. 

Vote for Canadian Democracy

And my hope for Canada is that we stand united against the reality unfolding in our country before it’s too late. Through his role as chairman of the IDU, Stephen Harper worked to get Orban and Trump elected. That’s part of the IDU mandate. To get Right-Wing Conservative governments elected in every country of the world.

By the actions of Orban and Trump, it is quite apparent that the democracy Harper and the IDU profess to uphold is very different than the democracy we have valued since the inception of our country.  Hungary is now considered an ‘autocratic democracy’

Currently, Harper is stepping out of the shadows in an attempt to get Poilievre elected. Poilievre who preened in the light of Musk’s endorsement. Musk who waves about a chainsaw as he brags about cutting essential services to the needy, while attempting to sign himself up for yet another multi-billion dollar project. This with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration who, if they carry through, will have to pay a penalty for breaking their contract with Verizon.

Musk not only openly endorsed the AFD (the far-right Alternative for Germany party known for its extreme right-wing views) on X, but also used the platform to spread lies and disinformation in an effort to manipulate the election. As he did in the U.S. election last Fall. To say nothing of the 200 million+ he gave the Trump campaign, thus buying his way into the White House. 

Amid assertions that he’s a Trump kind of guy, Poilievre claims he’s more a JD Vance than a Trump. As though that’s reassuring given that just prior to Germany’s election, Vance met with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the far-right (AfD) party known for its extreme right-wing views.  Both he and Trump praised the AFD, which isn’t surprising given Trump and Vance’s support of Putin. 

The Truth is Right in Front of us

You may say I’m overreacting. That’s what right-wing media and MAGA Americans said last Fall in response to warnings about Trump. Trump showed his hand and people chose to ignore it. Poilievre has shown his hand. We need to trust what we’re seeing. The connections are too obvious to be ignored.  

I leave you with this quote from the new German chancellor Friedrich Merz: “The interference in the German elections by Elon Musk and Trump’s Washington was no less radical and outrageous than that of Moscow.”

We need to be prepared Canada, because that same interference is already in action. Protect Canadian democracy and autonomy. 

P.S. Vote strategically this time around. We can’t afford the luxury of voting along our usual party lines. Check out smartvoting.ca. It tells you which party in your riding is the strongest against the right-wing Conservatives who unfortunately have no party to split their votes, while the others do.

P.S.S. May each new day bring you moments of wonder.