Today I am grateful for our Canadian election process. It may be flawed BUT:
it is less contentious and mean-spirited; less expensive (holy smokes, the Americans just spent $3 billion - enough to fund a small nation); more issue driven than personality driven (but that can get terribly twisted and distorted); less media influenced (but can I tell you how much I've enjoyed Saturday Night Live? Of course, Lorne Michael's is Canadian!); less divisive (after all, I live in a country that has never had to legislate the equality of women - this statement is in reference to Title 9, 1972. Clarification for CindyMN*. ); and, blessedly SHORTER!
I do hope my American friends head out to vote. Have a say in the process. The last thing either of our countries need is a low turn-out and then a bunch of second-guessing taking over the airwaves until the next election.
As a Canadian, there is one candidate who would be good for us - our economy, our world relationship. The other would be disastrous and no doubt will change the relationship between our two countries irrevocably. I guess we'll know our course by tomorrow morning.
*As for the point stated in the e-mail received about "alot of facts wrong" (yes, I know how to spell, I'm quoting directly) they are not: both Canadian women and American men had less rights than American men with land and all black men after the end of the American Civil War, 1865. Canadian women, with land, always had the right to vote - funny how many women in this country continue to find themselves on the title of their property ... those without property won the right to vote in 1916 in Manitoba with all provinces in agreement by 1925. The Americans passed the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920. (As an aside, America became America in 1776 and Canada became Canada in 1867 - almost a hundred years later. Were just adolescents!)
3 comments:
I wish our process was different too. It is a silly marketing process. I wish more people were informed about issues rather than just wanting their guy to win, but it is what it is.
We are still very lucky to live where and the way we do!
I'm grateful to live in a country where I'm part of the process...even with its flaws.
Sorry lee, but I think you have alot of your "facts' wrong.
"Women in what is now known as Canada could vote before Canadian Confederation if they owned property, but after Confederation in 1867 they were legally barred from voting. In 1917, women were allowed to vote if they met an exception for military personnel stationed abroad. "Bluebirds", nurses caring for wounded soldiers in Europe in World War I, were the first women to vote legally in a Canadian federal election. In 1918, women had the same voting rights as men in federal elections.
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