Tunesday : Revolution

Revolution 

(Lennon-McCartney) Performed by The Beatles

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
All right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money 
For people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
All right, all right
Ah

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
All right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right

I'm feeling very sad about last night's Liberal sweep and the anointing of our new overlord Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. I wasn't a huge fan of Stephen Harper -- he turned out to be a control freak who, even with years in power with a majority government, didn't make any real conservative changes -- and although I've had to watch the media and pretty much everyone I know call Harper an evil dictator (yawn) for the past months and years, I don't think Trudeau is evil; just such a lightweight. Here's the whys that kept me up last night:

We can't ignore Trudeau's stance on marijuana, since just last week he said that legalizing the demon weed would be a high priority (tee hee) for a Liberal Government. "Legalizing" is a huge step beyond the "decriminalizing" that he began campaigning on, but I have no doubt that he's giving the people what they want with this one. I don't have a particular problem with this per se -- I think Harper totally goofed when he said a couple of weeks ago that "marijuana is infinitely worse than tobacco" -- but two things occur to me: David Brooks wrote this column a while ago that pretty much sums up my own views; that smoking weed is vaguely juvenile and that our laws proclaim what kind of society we aspire to be. By prioritizing the legalization of marijuana, Canada will be saying that we're a nation of stoners, and if that's not a label that I'd be proud to use, why legitimize it? When we went to the Big Music Festival last year, there were so many pot smokers in the crowd -- despite it not actually being legal yet and a big police presence -- and they were all lighting up and blowing it in our faces that I'm not sure I'd want to be in a similar crowd once it's actually legal. If those people wanted to drink, they would have needed to go to the licensed area, if a person wants a cigarette they need to go outside a building and remain three metres from doorways, but pot smokers are so mellow, man, that they do what they want, when they want, and if you have a problem with that, you're the problem, man. My second issue is with Trudeau's original story about having recently smoked pot with a friend, in his own home, when the kids were off at Grandma's (and that setup is so specifically scene-setting that it's about as believable as Bill Clinton's "I did not inhale" dodge). I honestly don't care what people get up to in their own homes, but since pot is currently illegal, unless Trudeau or the mysterious friend grew the weed themselves, they were enriching criminals by purchasing it -- and I think that's beneath the dignity and seriousness of a sitting MP, let alone Prime Minister. Yes, yes, the whole point of legalizing pot is to take it out of the hands of criminals and start taxing the hell out of it (and good luck with that when people can start growing their own without fear of getting busted), but with this as a highest priority plan, it feels like an adolescent snub to old fogey conservatives, not the most pressing issue facing our country. And parenthetically, I'll say again that every regular pot smoker I know is a low-ambition unachiever, and while that doesn't make it any worse than the devastation that alcohol has brought to so many individuals and families, it doesn't make marijuana, in itself, some social good that ought to be encouraged. (Of course, I welcome all medical uses and it's past time we explored a real hemp industry.)

I am also discouraged by Trudeau's hard line on abortion. I'm always defining myself as "Prochoice, but..." because I find it deplorable that Canada hasn't had any laws governing abortions since 1988, and at that time, the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to Parliament to shape new laws. It's not terribly surprising that no government has wanted to touch this hot button issue since, but many of us just want the debate that's been looming for three decades. (And this is one of the issues that I'm disappointed Harper shut down -- I understand that he wanted to appear moderate at all times but he had a majority and I just wanted a debate.) In a country where late term abortions are perfectly legal, where "family balance" clinics have an ultrasound in one room and an abortion clinic in the next just in case you're not carrying the gender you were hoping for, in a country where an abortion for any reason on demand is somehow now considered a human right and to be paid for out of tight health care budgets, in this environment how can Trudeau say that the debate is over and anyone who runs as a Liberal candidate must agree to vote against ever putting any limits on abortion? Once again, I see that many Canadians agree with this position, but since even my own mother didn't know that we don't currently have any laws at all, I don't think that these many Canadians have all the information. (And as an aside, I saw a thirty-something say to her friend on Facebook yesterday -- in the middle of election day -- "I guess I should go vote but I don't know anything about politics. Who should I vote for?" And the friend said, "Anyone but Harper." And these votes count as much as mine do. Sigh.)

This election campaign saw a lot of bile spewed on all sides about whether we're doing enough for the Syrian refugees and I watched silently as so many people posted on facebook about how they needed to unfriend anyone who was "racist" enough to propose limits to the numbers and kinds of refugees we might bring into Canada. One such rant had this picture:

Putting aside for the moment that a year ago Trudeau said that sending the refugees winter clothing would be the best use of Canadian "expertise", I have grave concerns about Trudeau's proposal to fast track as many refugees into Canada as possible, and to ease family reunification for new immigrants. The lifeboat meme is totally apt: Canada is a closed system with huge but ultimately limited resources and we have always been generous when we've seen people struggling in the water -- we have room for more and we're not against sharing our riches, but there are limits; should we take in 10 000 Syrians as Harper planned? 25 000 as Trudeau stated? Is it really "racist" to vet these individuals -- and especially when there have been so many reports of economic migrants from all over the Middle East and Africa trying to blend in with the legitimate  refugees in order to jump the queue to Western countries? And what about the family reunification plans -- how does it benefit Canada to bring parents and grandparents over -- people who never have or ever will pay Canadian taxes -- and have them draw from our expensive and overburdened health care system? The person who posted the life boat picture made some warm and fuzzy progressive statements about how it was simply an accident of birth that we all ended up in a rich and stable country and have no moral right to hoard what we have and I say nuts to that -- this country was built by my forebears and her forebears, and while I agree that we do have a moral duty to share, Canada was not built by accident; but it can sure be given away by accident. And don't even get me started about ending our limited combat mission in Syria -- I know that certain Canadians think that "combat" is an ugly word, but that's the only way to really help Syrians; to help give them their country back (and especially with Putin now backing Assad, Trudeau is totally out of his league with these thugs). Later addition: Apparently, a Canadian withdrawal from the ISIL mission was the first thing Trudeau told Obama when the president made his customary congratulatory call. My mother's Facebook comment on the announcement: The CF-18 jet's bombs don't discriminate between ISIS and the people they terrorize. I absolutely agree with Mr. Trudeau's decision. Just giving the people what they want.

I wasn't going to touch the niqab issue (because I'm honestly not a hateful person and attacking Muslims isn't anywhere on my agenda), but since Mark Steyn just wrote about it so beautifully, I'm inserting a late-in-the-day addition. Steyn writes:

Millions of complacent westerners genuinely regard Islam as merely another exotic patch in the diversity quilt, but I find it hard to believe that the leaders of liberal progressive political parties can be quite that deluded. Nevertheless, there was Justin Trudeau at his victory rally at the Queen Elizabeth in Montreal last night: 

There are a thousand stories I could share with you about this remarkable campaign, but I want you to think of one in particular. Last week I was in St. Catharines, and I met a young Muslim mum wearing a hijab. She handed me her infant daughter and said something I will never forget. She said she's voting for us because she wants to make sure her little girl can make her own choices in life and that the government will protect those rights. 

To her, I say this: You and your fellow citizens have chosen a new government that believes deeply in the diversity of our country. We know in our bones that Canada was built from people from all corners of the world, belonging to every faith, every culture, speaking every language. We believe in our hearts that this country's unique diversity is a blessing bestowed upon us by previous generations of Canadians who stared down prejudice and fought discrimination in all forms. 

In other words: Canadians voted to say no to hate! On CTV early in the evening, Jason Kenney popped up and pushed back against Lisa LaFlamme's suggestion that the niqab controversy had cost the Tories the election. He pointed out that polls showed some 80 per cent of Canadians opposed to new citizens being masked when taking their oath of allegiance to Queen and country: It had the unusual distinction of being a Harper policy with near universal appeal. 

But so what? M Trudeau's narrative is the one that will prevail - that questioning Islamic self-segregation is at odds with "Canadian values". And so no politician with an eye to electoral viability will ever raise the subject again. 

Most people want to think of themselves as "nice", and so it's easier to welcome the increasing presence of shrouded women on the streets of Canada as a deepening of our heartwarming embrace of self-affirmation-by-multiculturalism, rather than something that mocks any conventional notions of women's rights. Yet, whatever disquiet might be felt, they will take their signal from their politicians, and fall silent on the matter.

I've always been of two minds on face coverings: if it's a religious requirement and a woman might not otherwise be allowed to leave her home, who am I to object? On the other hand, and despite me thinking of these women as visibly oppressed, immigrants ought to be willing to swear their Citizenship Oath uncovered -- I liken this to my friend Cora's parents who immigrated to Canada from Ireland but never became citizens since they refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the queen. That's fair -- if you have a conscientious objection to the requirements of the ceremony, feel free to opt out. Stay as a landed immigrant or shop for another country that's more suited to your views. During this campaign and the unending issue of the niqab, I read this article which states that while the wearing of face coverings is not a religious requirement for Muslim women, it's being taken up by the younger generation as a symbol of defiance. Whaaaat? If it's simply a poke in the eye to Canadian society, why are we being called intolerant for resisting? Know who I think of when I see a burka-clad woman? Omar Khadr's sister Zaynab, shrieking at news cameras from behind her black tent, cursing Canada while collecting her welfare cheques. I think of the sister of one of the Toronto 18 (can't find the original story I saw her in so can't find her name), also screaming at news cameras while her parents -- confused and moderate Muslims who don't know why their daughter has chosen the burka -- blame a radical Imam. Apparently, under Trudeau, there will be no further debate on the niqab: as the only candidate who supported a woman's "right to choose" (ahem) in this area, anything goes at the oath ceremony from now on.

As for the economy, I'm sure Trudeau regrets saying that "the budget will balance itself" since that was the tagline for so many attack ads against him, but he doesn't even plan to balance the budget. Ten billion in proposed deficit spending on transit and infrastructure to "kickstart" job creation -- sounds like the Liberal blueprint that has destroyed Ontario over the last decade. It's hard to know what Trudeau will do with the oil sands -- he supports the Keystone XL Pipeline but opposes the Northern Gateway -- but with a proposed cap-and-trade plan for carbon emissions, there will be some repercussions in Alberta. As a human who consumes oxygen, I support efforts to protect the planet, but if even David Suzuki calls Trudeau a "twerp", I don't know if he's the environmental warrior that the left's being waiting for. And I'm going to miss income splitting; such a fair principle that was a long time coming and only benefitted us through one tax cycle. As for other boutique tax breaks that Harper brought in, they were never in line with what I thought of as conservatism anyway.

Ultimately, I didn't need Tory attack ads to tell me that Trudeau is "just not ready". A "part-time drama teacher with a trust fund and a famous father" doesn't sound like the ideal resume for the leader of a serious country. When he was first recruited, I resented the Liberals for their cynical choice of party leader and I now resent my fellow Canadians for falling for the hope-and-change gambit. I do think that Harper should have stepped down a year ago in order to have a fresh and unencumbered leader to face off against Trudeau, but this is what we're now stuck with. I also need to acknowledge that it's weird for me to have a Prime Minister who's younger than I am for the first time -- there's always a chance that's why I think of Trudeau as too callow; I am prepared to be surprised. Just please no more verbal gaffes: no more "admiring China's basic dictatorship"; no more "Russia invaded the Ukraine because they were cranky over hockey results"; no more "the Boston Marathon Bombers blew up innocents because they felt completely excluded from society". It's time for big boy pants.

Personally, I was annoyed last night as the results were coming in and my mother started posting on my friend Delight's facebook wall: 

           Brenda : CTV just called a Liberal win.

           Like · Reply · 9 hrs

 Delight : Did they? Wow...well then. I guess it might just get interesting. I went Green, I always did like her  best 

 Like · Reply · 1 · 9 hrs

 Brenda: It's just a matter now, apparently, if it will be minority or majority. I went Liberal this time.

 Like · Reply · 1 · 9 hrs

With them liking each other's progessively proper votes and neither of them posting anything on my wall, that just perfectly exemplifies how completely shut out of the national conversational I now feel. Sensing a Liberal win, I made this lame meme yesterday morning and posted it on facebook: 

While not hilarious, I did expect some conversation around it. Nope. Two likes -- one from Delight and one from someone who probably didn't understand it, lol -- and no comments, and there we are: lambs to the slaughter; totally willing to be fleeced.

I was shocked when Cambridge went Liberal in the last Provincial election; less surprised when we went Liberal last night. I now feel totally disenfranchised from the community -- I am unhappy with my family, friends, city, province, and now, federal government. Yes, my fellow Canadians were writhing with hatred towards Harper for the past decade, and I support regime change -- it's not good for democracy to have one party in power for too long -- but why Trudeau? Because they knew he could win. I just need to breathe. He's not evil, just inexperienced. He's not evil, just inexperienced. He's not evil, just inexperienced.

Don't you know it's gonna be all right
All right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right