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Yesterday, on March 23rd, 2010 something very unusual happened in the House of Commons. The Liberals put forward a motion that clearly condems the Government's use of Ideology to make decisions that are better left to Science, among other things. Nothing wrong with that. Someone needed to say it and all three Opposition parties Agreed to support it Enthusiastically.
We all know the outcome though, It was defeated, 141 to 138. Never before has a Party defeated it's own motion while it held the Majority view in the House.
To have a closer look at the circumstances of this vote. Turn on the Tube. The Main Stream Media is all over it. The Vote is not the subject of this Blog.
I feel as if I am one of only a few Canadians still actually looking at the Contents and the meaning of the Motion itself!
If all we can see here is who won a vote (private members bills are not binding on this NeoCon Government anyway) and who lost a vote, instead of what needs to be done while a woman a minute is dying during Chilbirth, I worry about not only the MSM, but also the failure of those in Social Media. The vote is but a Very Shiny Object. Look beyond it.
Stop looking at the shiny object, that is this vote and get on board to expose the truth of the systematic and systemic use, by this Government, of Ideology instead of Science. They are not investing in family planning, they are not protecting the Vulnerable.If the vote had passed, this would be the news of the day, and something might have been done to stop these practces. But since it did not, we are distracted as if we were crows.
If you read the motion you may just discover that it discredits the Cons win or lose. They were asked to put Reason before Fantasy and to take the Church out of State business. They have refused. They were asked to form policy using available science instead of Ideology. They have refused. They were also asked to set policy in consultaion with Canadians instead of Copying and Pasting American Right wing Policy. In voting down this Motion they have also refused that.
Winning the vote does not change the fact that they are on the Wrong Side of the Question. They have voted to occupy the Moral Low Ground here.
Win or Lose, the Harper Conservatives (all 141 of them) Voted against Reason and in favour of Fiction. They may even, as they are apt to do take this result as a mandate to continue to adapt the World to suit there Ideology.
Their votes against Reason should have condemned them. Who cares who won it?
The Real losers here are not losing a non-binding vote in the House of Commons, they are losing their Lives, their Mothers, their Daughters, their Partners, their Sisters and their Friends.
Give this a little thought and try not to stare at shiny objects. The women of Earth need our attention. They will not be protected or respected by NeoCons. Protecting the weakest among us is the role of Progressives.
CONs have shown that they are not serious about protecting he health of women and children (yesterday's vote proves that). Personally, if you want to protect a woman's health, all available options need to be available and again, IMO, who am I to impose my will on a woman and her health?
ReplyDelete"Winning the vote does not change the fact that they are on the Wrong Side of the Question"
ReplyDeleteI like that Kim. They have been able to focus attention on Ignatieff and away from the fact that once again Religion trumps logic. Very astute.
Great points! I encourage everyone to re-read Kim's above words that desperately needed to be spoken. I would like to touch on how the main stream media is used to distract us all from the bigger issues, or the real issues all together.
ReplyDeleteThe motion that was defeated is just another example of how out of touch with reality some elected officials are. I could rattle off numerous similar instances where these obedient non-thinking ass clowns blindly follow the leader - who himself has no direction. But, I will save that for the next extended comment :)
Canada is in trouble. We all need to stand together and force the media to talk about what we want them to talk about. Same thing goes for the government. This is our country, and I am NOT going to let our great nation's image be continually eroded. The contempt shown daily by the Prime Minister towards 'our' Parliament should piss you off, if it doesn't then please look a little closer.
All too often great debates and discussions are silenced, by the next strategic release of policy, designed to divert our attention. Use the tools you are comfortable with and continue talking about what you are passionate about.
We shouldn't have to rely upon Hillary Clinton to straighten out our misguided Future Ex-Prime Minister... But I certainly appreciate the help Mrs. Clinton
I will leave you with this:
Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), American scholar.
"The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamour of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent."
Thanks Observer!
DeleteI must admit I was one of the ones sucked in by the 'shiny object' of the political theater that day. I didn't really 'get' what the Libs had done until I heard Hillary Clinton comment on the Harpercon's G8 proposal on maternal health. Then I realized how valuable it was to have in hand the result of that vote when Clinton was briefed for her Canada visit. Harper and his cronies voting in lockstep against even funding contraception - let alone access to safe, legal abortion - was just the bee to stick in Hillary's bonnet on her flight up here. I'll bet it takes a lot to get an item into a US Secretary of State's briefing, and the mere fact Harper had written an editorial supporting maternal health wouldn't have made the cut - especially with Cannon and Oda and Harper all contradicting one-another about what 'the plan' was. But the Harpercon's unanimous vote tally against a clear question of support for contraception was something that could be bundled into a line item and presented, presumably triggering the desired 'WTF?' from the Secretary of State. I believe THAT was the Liberal's goal in holding the vote, and if so, it worked like a charm.
ReplyDeleteBTW - did everyone catch the way Hillary smiled when she got the question about maternal health at the press conference?
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/ID=1455969954
Hill's basically becoming the Obama administration's pit bull, and she really seemed to relish the opportunity to deliver a good hard chomp on the nuts of Bush's Canadian avatars.