<strong>Written By:</strong> Eleanor
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-01-26 10:29:00
<a href="/article/222921651-time-is-running-out-for-canada">Article Link</a>

I've been praying a lot for leaders to arise who can help our people to think about who we are and what is important to save about our country. But darn it, the leaders are there. It's just that the people don't hear of them. They work tirelessly at their research and writing and touring and speaking -- but only the same few people come out to hear them. Are they really being shut out of the media?

I've been praying about what needs to happen before another election rolls around. I was ill-prepared for this campaign. I wrote a couple of op eds in January, but too late to get them in the paper. I was too late in getting my thoughts and research together about missile defense, military integration, "harmonization" of our security systems with the US, etc. Too late in recognizing that the Tories actually might win -- and that the Liberals were already selling us out anyway. I did a bit of work for my NDP candidate, but even the NDP scarcely talked about these issues.

What needs to happen, by way of preparation between elections? The Council's campaigns of writing to MPs and circulating petitions don't reach many people. Is there a way we can break through some of the media barriers? By getting op eds and letters in the papers regularly? By getting on phone-in shows? By getting the leaders interviewed when they come to town?

One thing I know -- when there's an election on, at least one of us should be present at every local all-candidates meeting, putting Council literature on the table and lining up to ask questions. This should be organized locally, making sure that all the all-candidates meetings are covered. Literature suitable for distribution at election time should be thought of ahead of time and prepared. Pamphlets with a few hard-hitting points would be very helpful.

You know what's scaring me today? Everybody's saying that Stephen Harper won't be able to do anything extremist because he'll have to have the support of the other parties to govern in a minority Parliament. But NO ACT OF PARLIAMENT IS REQUIRED to give away our water, dismantle the Wheat Board, expand our participation in missile defense, or send forces to Iran or Venezuela (if, God forbid, the US starts further adventures there). The Liberals have been doing similar things, without the consent, or even the knowledge, of Parliament. It didn't matter if they had a minority. It didn't slow them down any. Once we put somebody in as prime minister, he governs like a president, and Parliament is just there for show.

Unless we have public organizations, not aligned with party politics, drawing the people's attention to what the government is doing behind closed doors, all the time, between elections, then disastrous things will be done -- signed, sealed, and delivered, faster than you can say "51st state".

We need some better tactics and methods of organizing. Time is running out for Canada.

What do you think? Let's start talking!


Eleanor Grant

Box 40052, 75 King S.
Waterloo, Ontario N2J 4V1

[email protected]





[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on January 27, 2006]

   

"Maude Barlow's diligent daily blogs may not have reached a very wide audience. Not once did I hear on CBC anyone from the Council of Canadians interviewed."

Constant, uninterrupted shrillness tends to get one ignored after a while. After the 5000th declaration that the sky is falling, people stop looking up.

"The issues they've researched just weren't out there. Same with Mel Hurtig. Never heard him or one of his supporters on a phone-in show."

Who cares what Mel Hurtig thinks anymore? How many variations on "America bad, social spending good" does one have to listen to? Besides, if you like that kind of crap, you can always read Linda McQuaig in the Star.

"David Orchard got a little bit of coverage because of his switching parties from the no-longer-Progressive Conservatives to the Liberals -- but he didn't really get coverage on the substantial issues."

That's because his only "substantial issues" are his anti-Americanism and his ongoing and tiresome outrage at being outmaneuvered by Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper.

"And who's ever heard of Connie Fogal and her promising work?"

Anyone who's been on this site. And yeah, that's probably about it. How much do you know about the platform of the Marxist-Leninists, or any of the other fringe parties? Cause guess what, CAP is a fringe party.

   

Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 10:29 AM MST
I have posted the time stamp to illustrate How a post addressing major concerns will sit here unanswered for many hours before or a response is given. Sometime there will be no response at all. At other times a mean spirited “opinion” bit will appear so counterproductive and insulting to the original post that the only value it carries is to be an example of greed and selfishness.

It isn’t a far cry to assume the children of posters of this variety are the one physically attacking the homes for sport.

The mindset of those detractors on either side of an issue offer little of value with their rants and in the case of this particular thread where a clear call for cooperative discourse was proclaimed we get instead the lead response to perhaps, set the tone.

Eleanor, I fully agree with you on your points of no exposure, or call-in or not having heard of.

I have volunteered time and energy to a candidate I fully support and the let down in public response is near enough to swear off the effort.

“What do you think? Let's start talking!”
I am open to talk
Anyone else?


---
"There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."
Kurt Vonnegut

   

Sorry folks,but canada is already gone.The stupid public simply does not want to do anything,least of all THINK.
A very dangerous and I fear violent man and party have been elected.The people of this country have sold themselves out.I do not know how many times I have tried to explain to people what is going on in this country.It is incredible how many times I have encountered people who do not know of,or even heard of NAFTA.Perhaps it is time to get out all the NAZI slogans,books,ideas,uniforms etc.

   

Hey Spud,
I enjoy readin your stuff
and agree with a great deal of it
I'd like to see Jesse Dr Caleb the Rev and a few more jump in on a proactive stance Wehave hadour moments and may have more, nothe less when not distracted by aggravating posters (OK Me!!) mental shifts can occur



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"There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."
Kurt Vonnegut

   

You people haven't even given Harper a chance.....you are also forgetting PM is a hard job and that Harper will be under a lot of pressure.

I never did love the guy but a least give him time.....IIRC he already had a real (or staged) spat with the U.S. ambassador over us wanting a bigger military presence in the arctic.

With a minority, Harper is much less dangerous so relax....and I keep telling people, unless a nationalist party adopts ideas against immigration like the National Front in France and British National Party, they will never win.

---
"A Liberal is someone who refuses to take his own side in a fight".

-Robert Frost

   

I agree with you Eleanor. We should begin organizing for the next election right now. The major media will not publicise meaningful arguments which show what the ruling class (their bosses) have done and are doing. That leaves us with the internet and word of mouth. Now is not the time to shut up. There will be plenty of time to be quiet when you are dead, now is the time to come to life.

There is no need to give any politician a chance, we need to be on them every step of the way . They have sold us out too many times and they do not deserve our unearned respect simply because they won a first past the post race. I am not saying that politicians are all the same but I am saying that the majority of them have been corrupted. We need to watch over our elected representatives to ensure that they are not bought in to some stealth robber baron scenario.

We need to define an intelligent proportional representation voting system and we need to publicise it and the reasons why it is necessary have it. We need to call upon the people to get ready to assume the burden of direct governing of the country by referendum. Corporations have always found it economical to buy or destroy the small number of politicians that run a country but they would not be able to buy or destroy the entire voting population of the country economically.

Yesterday at work, a teamster announced that all politicians were the same, namely corrupt. This is usually the signal for everyone to agree and to provide a few examples of the current administrations corruption and then shift the topic to something they consider non political. So I pounced on his words and told him that the problem was not that they were all the same but that the people couldn't tell the difference between them because they were not doing their homework. If you ask someone for directions and they ask you where you want to go, and you say, some where better than where I came from, and they say, where did you come from, and you say, I don't know, then you can't really expect to get good directions. I told him that there was a wealth of good information to be had on the internet and that he should investigate and see for himself. I gave him a few urls to start him on his voyage of discovery.

We need to run our own stealth campaign starting now so that we are in better shape for the next election. Get the core ideas out there. Show how the banks manufacture money. Show how the governments hand over the goods to corporations and present the bill for these goods to the working class. Show the global agenda. expose the treaty-itus and how it is infecting countries world wide. We can do this. Lets start now.

There are many ways to run a stealth campaign. Fire up your printers and put truth on paper. Post is on bulletin boards, bus stop shelter windows, street poles and anywhere else that people congregate with nothing to do but wait. What ideas do you have? Anybody can have a good idea.

   

Well said Milton. And yes we need not give any more chances to politicians. If the media actually did their job to report facts instead of acting like private PR agents for the corporate elite than Canadians role in Afghanistan would have been a hotly debated election topic. The ruling class will allow us our "supposed" democracy but on the big issues of foreign policy, Canadians need not get involved.

Harper can make all the announcements he likes about Arctic sovereignty and bigger military to patrol, but It's just scoring political mileagege appearing to be independant of US policy while increasing funding to the military to better able us to support US policy in Afghanistan and beyond. If Harper had the reigns, we would have been in Iraq. He was very vocal in his critisism on the decision not to go.

If my memory serves me right Milton, you posted that Iran and Syria would be the US's next targets for invasion way back before Iran or Syria were even on the lips of Washington. I guess you weren't as paranoid as some accused at the time. Good call.

   

YES!!!
VERY good Milton!
While looking fora web definitionod
"Vigilatia" :ever watckfulI came across this,

BANKRUPT
Money lenders and money changers were early bankers. They would originally offer their services in public places, where they would set up a bench or a table. If they were unable to repay their creditors or invested unwisely and had no money left, the creditors would break up the bench to show that the banker was no longer in business. In Florence in the middle ages this was known as "banca rotta" or broken bench. The Italian "rotta" gave way to the Latin "ruptus" or "rupta" and hence bank-rupt.

My point is this ,It appears as we have lost our abilities to communitcate as decribed in the Dumbing Down process.

Milton,
You have moreof that ability tocommunicate inthis one post than it has beenmy pleasure toread in a long while
Thank you
Dio

---
"There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."
Kurt Vonnegut

   

Once upon a time, the CCF (now NDP) was a fringe party. Nothing is impossible. But yes, the media is exclusive. But that doesn`t mean you can censor good ideas forever. The genie has been let out of the bottle. The CAP is coming!

---
Dave Ruston