Canada: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Do we Canadians need a new vision for our country, our society?
I offer the following article as additional "food for thought" on this eve of our election day - touching off on points from this older post of mine:
I offer the following article as additional "food for thought" on this eve of our election day - touching off on points from this older post of mine:
Canadians, Let's Get Happy
Next PM needs to reinvent how our country measures success.
By Chris Wood
If you can, tear your eyes away from the meltdown in the fantasy world of high-finance derivatives.
The bigger threat by far is the rapid meltdown of the real economy we inhabit. The planet's top scientists are warning us that we are fast eroding the natural ecosystems on which our society and all its material and financial assets depend.
That's why the first order of business for our next prime minister should be reinventing how Canada measures success. Let me explain.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned us in 2005 that two thirds of the earth's natural systems -- from those regulating our water supply to those that provide us with wild and farmed food -- are being used up faster than they can recover.
The date on which scientists calculate that we ran through all of the planet's annual production of eco-services -- and after which we began digging into our stocks of past years' production -- came and went late last month. It has been moving earlier with every passing year since we first went into ecological overdraft in the early 1980s.
These are not simply pretty parks or iconic fauna we're talking about folks. This is our life-support system that we are actively destroying.
Are we having fun yet?
It might almost be worth it if we were actually enjoying the party at the end of the world. But especially on this Thanksgiving Day, we should probably reflect on whether we're really as happy as they say we are. Surveys of self-reported happiness show that in the richest countries on earth, including Canada, people are enjoying life no more today than in the 1950s. But indicators of distress, from rates of addiction to mental illness to marital breakdown to the daily struggle to find time for oneself or one's family, those have all gone steadily up.
(Keep reading ...)
Next PM needs to reinvent how our country measures success.
By Chris Wood
If you can, tear your eyes away from the meltdown in the fantasy world of high-finance derivatives.
The bigger threat by far is the rapid meltdown of the real economy we inhabit. The planet's top scientists are warning us that we are fast eroding the natural ecosystems on which our society and all its material and financial assets depend.
That's why the first order of business for our next prime minister should be reinventing how Canada measures success. Let me explain.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned us in 2005 that two thirds of the earth's natural systems -- from those regulating our water supply to those that provide us with wild and farmed food -- are being used up faster than they can recover.
The date on which scientists calculate that we ran through all of the planet's annual production of eco-services -- and after which we began digging into our stocks of past years' production -- came and went late last month. It has been moving earlier with every passing year since we first went into ecological overdraft in the early 1980s.
These are not simply pretty parks or iconic fauna we're talking about folks. This is our life-support system that we are actively destroying.
Are we having fun yet?
It might almost be worth it if we were actually enjoying the party at the end of the world. But especially on this Thanksgiving Day, we should probably reflect on whether we're really as happy as they say we are. Surveys of self-reported happiness show that in the richest countries on earth, including Canada, people are enjoying life no more today than in the 1950s. But indicators of distress, from rates of addiction to mental illness to marital breakdown to the daily struggle to find time for oneself or one's family, those have all gone steadily up.
(Keep reading ...)
5 POVs/Comments:
Strategic voting should have an entirely different meaning in elections now with the new financing laws. Where each party gets annual funding from the federal government based on the number of votes cast in the last election, every vote counts.
By accumulating votes, even in ridings where there is no hope of winning, Green Party and NDP supporters can ensure the future institutional capacity of their party to launch future elections and maintain a national standing and presence.
By accumulating only 1000 votes in every riding, the party would receive funding of more than $300,000 per year. This is substantial and could mean future success.
Strategic voting for the NDP and Greens means looking to the long term ... not just this election.
The long term scenario means squat to many if not most Canadians. Some 60% or more clearly distrust Harper and would like to see him out. Our FPTP screws them out of being able to vote with their conscience.
If Harper gets a mandate, whether through a majority or minority, he will change the political landscape so much that the ruin brought onto the UK by Maggie Thatcher will look like child's play.
Being in a better position to win four years down the road will matter little when the goal posts have been moved so much to the right that our most left progressive party will be no more enlightened than the US Democrats or UK Labour.
IMV, defeating Harper is the most important goal of this election. And judging by the tremendous amount of grass roots movements like ABC and vote swapping, there are many out there who feel the same way.
Giving Harper a minority did not help any opposition party at all in this election. The Bloc was the only party astute enough to go for the Harper jugular straight out of the gate. Accusations of desperation were thrown at Duceppe but it was the perfect move and I thank him from the bottom of my jaded heart. If his tactic served to deny Harper a healthy majority, he will be a hero in my books.
Hear, hear!
(even if I dislike the BQ ...)
;-)
right on, beijing. As Dion said (and many others) we don't have time. We need to act now.
I understand the banking money thing parties are going on about, but immediate action is needed to divert some of the disaster we face. Time after to build their parties up.
May didn't want to be the Ralph Nader of Canada. Nice words, I believed her until a few days ago when she started to go up in the polls and is now opposing strategic voting. She said she wants Dion to be PM - he's most committed to environmental issues and his green plan has large support among environmentalists - but she may help defeat him.
I know Libs aren't everyone's first choice, but they are the only ones who can beat Harper, and that's more important right now than building parties that have no chance of winning.
That is a good chunk of the reason why I ended up voting LPC today - however much I still have misgivings about Dion ...
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Please feel free to comment on APOV. However, remember to keep in check your tone and respect for all here. Let rational, reasoning, enthousiastic and passionate conversations and discussions rule first and foremost in our participatory democracy, so as to facilitate the free exchange of reality-based facts and ideas. In between, do not forget to have fun and enjoy yourselves ... in other words: keep on rockin'! - Mentarch