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Written by -- Associate news editor Rodney Venis
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Wednesday, 01 October 2008 |
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JEAN CHRETIENSTEPHEN HARPERSUPREME COURTSTEPHANE DIONJACK LAYTONPAUL MARTIN
The line's not original -- it's the title of a UN report on climate change -- but it neatly sums up that worry in particular and the sentiment that seems to be permeating the news lately that some rough beast's hour has come at last.
Nor is it unique to this time and place -- indeed, there are no doubt people around the world, from Iraq and Moscow to the Darfur and China who feel it's about time the so-called West felt the sharp, short end of the stick.
But it all still feels grossly unfair.
No one here voted for George W. Bush nor had a say in appointing the Supreme Court judges who elected him. No one here crashed a plane full of people into a U.S. monument to prove a theological point or signed the Treaty of Washington that forced Canadian troops into Afghanistan. Yet everyone has to live with the consequences of those choices from the minor irritant of having a bottle of mouthwash seized at the airport to the vaguer concern that our government doesn't really care if any of us ends up being tortured in some faraway land.
As the TV show The Shield said recently, we had a lot of choices once, we made them and now we've got to live with them. Afghanistan is a classic example. Parliament voted last March to extend the mission until 2011 and that means two more years of war because neither Stephane Dion nor Jack Layton are in a position to change that.
Stephen Harper likely won't and, more to the point, he's fairly certain to remain prime minister because of Liberal governments past. No one here took part in the sponsorship scandal, no one here stoked the enmity between Jean Chretien and Paul Martin and few asked for the Gomery inquiry. Yet, thanks to those events, the current sorry state of the Liberal party and the hard Tory-blue nature of Prince George's ridings, there will be nothing to vote for Oct. 14; Canada's latest election will be a blind mathematical exercise that will either give Harper a minority government or a majority.
The list goes on, of choices made by other people whose consequences will affect every household in Prince George from sub-prime mortgages to environmental ignorance and the end of cheap oil. Somehow they bought what we're paying for.
One of the few significant choices the people of this area, collectively, will have left in the next few years will be made on Nov. 15. One mayor, eight councillors and seven school trustees will be elected, along with seven directors in the regional district.
Those thrust into the role of school trustee will find their task even more thankless, with an ever shrinking demographic of school-age children, tighter budgets and the larger question of preparing a generation to compete with their peers in China, India, Brazil, who take far less pay for far more work.
Much, much more will be asked of council -- the days of idly bickering over hockey enforcers, RV boondocking and wondering just how bad the air is are over. This city council faces a looming recession, rising anger over the downtown, a still-simmering gang war and an economic base that is dangerously rickety.
All nine had better show up to work in December with a hard hat, a flak jacket and a plan.
Whether they do so is up to you. The Citizen will do its best to inform you but no newspaper can hold the pencil when you enter the booth.
So this Nov. 15, cast your vote wisely -- because it will be a choice whose consequence you at least had a say in.
-- Associate news editor Rodney Venis
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 October 2008 )
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Harper and Bush's goals are very similiar, and we will suffer if he gets a majority this term.
http://www.voteforenvironment.ca/