Custom user images often show up when an internet protest picks up steam. Think "I'm with Coco.".
You gotta love Canada. We are a humble people but we are also a deeply funny and self-effacing people. The latest political trend involves a deep fried ring of onion, a Prime Minister and the spicy dipping sauce of Facebook protest.
The aforementioned onion ring, a very tasty looking one I must say, recently became a star with its own FaceBook page entitled “Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper“. In case you aren’t familiar, a FaceBook is webpage on FaceBook meant to represent a person, product, party or any kind of entity that might have ‘fans’. Instead of joining a page, like you would with a FaceBook group, you become a fan of a page. The page can still contain discussion forums, links to videos and of course has its own FaceBook wall. A FaceBook page is almost like a new user in the FaceBook universe. A user that can message its fans and serve as a meeting point as well as a badge for devotees. This makes it perfect for the kind of passive protests and trends that wax and wane over the internet.
This kind of protest grabs a lot of interest and can quickly pick up supporters. It makes a statement in a fun way. And it can be the base for real action. The Canadians Against Progoguing Parliament protests last month showed that internet protests can get thousands of people out on the streets. The Onion Ring page is now declaring that it has more supporters than the entire Conservative party received in individual donors last year. They are asking everyone who supports the Onion Ring to donate $10-$15 to their favourite political party in protests.
In response to this article about the latest degradation of American democracy. One senator is essentially holding up all nominations for government posts in order to get special funds, called earmakrs, for his state.
I agree that if the Democrats capitulate and negotiate again like they did with Lieberman they have essentially ceded their majority power and their mandate. That doesn’t mean democrats shouldn’t vote for them or stay home during elections by the way. It means you should demand, I mean demand, your representatives and Obama to rule as they were elected to rule. Do whatever is needed to get rid of this silly 60 vote ‘rule’.
Canadians recently showed up on the streets in over 60 cities in unprecedented numbers to protest an abuse of parliamentary rules by our Prime Minister (he shut dow read more…
My comment on the Globe and Mails recent story:
Tories seek parliamentary extension
This is a non story, by casting it as some kind of tricky dilemma for the Liberals and NDP the Globe is accepting the Conservative game. You can almost hear the writer salivating at the dramatic irony of the opposition voting against more time in parliament when they threw such a fuss about prorogation!
Please, do you think we’re children? Harper apparently does, I expect better from the Globe and Mail. The problem with prorogation was not that parliament would not be sitting. It was that parliament was cut off during serious investigations into torture, a time of economic crisis and to deflect opposition attacks on the government.
Of course the opposition parties will agree to cancel their vacations. But its a moot point, because we should have an election before those vacations would occur anyways. Once the budget comes up for a vote, it should be voted down. This government has demonstrated they cannot be trusted with the reigns of power. This latest little trick is a side show meant to distract voters and the media. We’re not falling for it. I wish you wouldn’t either.
Today’s protests around Canada against the Conservative’s reckless abuse of power were a great success, look here, even the Globe and Mail is impressed.
So, how did a little ‘internet protest’ turn into over 25,000 feet on the ground in over 60 locations across the country today? Two reasons. First, Canadians are awesome! Second, Facebook is not some silly little internet toy in Canada. Di you know that around 45% of Canadians are on Facebook. That’s not 45% of Canadians on the Internet…its 45% of all Canadians! read more…
Throughout our land today,
we raise our voices for democracy.
We march in peaceful protest to send a message to you who claim to lead us, be you blue, red or orange.
The message: This shall not stand.
We raise our voices today to remind you that you serve at our leisure, not your own, nor the Queen’s.
You have been sent forth to uphold our values, the build a just society, to build a vibrant economy and to stand for peace and honour.
You’re power flows from us alone, so listen well to our voices, all of you.
Put aside your petty squabbles. You have been told to work together, and so you must.
You discard our votes, you ignore our wishes, you play your games with the checks and balances of power.
But you will not discard the traditions of centuries, traditions for which endless blood has been split.
We march today as defenders of the traditions you cast aside, of reason and debate, of parliament, the foundations upon which democracy, Canadian democracy, is built.
Our small but great northern nation has achieved so much through being guided by reason and tradition.
Reason and tradition led us, like almost no other nation, to freedom without war or bloodshed. Let us have these concepts restored to rule our democracy once more.
For be warned, though we grow weary of your games, do not bread apathy amongst us. Do not dare to use our cycniscm and weariness against us or we will cast you aside and wash the slate clean!
vive le Canda!
vive la Démocratie!
What make’s us Canadian? Its an oft asked question. Its unavoidable that whatever it is will be cast in some way relative to our neighbours to the south. But there is a core quality that Canadians have, that permeates our history and explains why we chose to structure our society and our democracy differently than Americans did. The quality is an overriding tendency towards being reasonable rather than emotional or idealistic. Its what makes us great, its what will save us, but we need to defend it.
Here’s why. read more…
UBC is being visited today by the Liberal party road tour, Michael Ignatieff will be talking about his and our dreams for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017. I’m planning on going, hopeful there is room for questions from the audience. If so I’m going to ask him this:
Will your party commit to working with other opposition parties to address the democratic deficit in Canada? Fair Vote Canada recently sent a letter to your party and the others suggesting some ways to improve democratic representation in Canada. This is more important now than ever when we have to endure a Conservative minority government that was rejected by 60% of the population and who are willing to reckless abuse the constitutional powers of government to shut down debate and investigations.
So, Mr. Ignatieff, will you commit to working with the other opposition parties to ensure that Canada gets the representation that they actually vote for in Ottawa?
Thank you.
I’ll let you know what he says later…
Update : A Full summary of the event can be found here.
Update II: So as for my question, I didn’t get to even get in the room there were so many people. I did hand my question to one the organizers to ask on behalf of the “people outside the room” in the lobby. But I don’t think it got asked because there were a lot of questions and there was a little environmentalist protest in the middle of his speech. Which I get, I just think there’s a lot going on right now and it would be better to constructively discuss solutions than disrupt discussion. Especially when its someone who can’t actually do anything right now. The Liberals are very very guilty of not putting the environment first in the past, but you really can’t fault Ignatieff for that, since as his opponents so frequently point out, he wasn’t even here for that.
I did like his speaking style, except that he says “Interesting” about 10 times too much, which might make some people think he’s a bit of an academic, ahem. But he defended himself well and stood his ground on awkward questions. He also was able to make a joke or two. So he comes across well in these town hall style things, a bit stiff, but considering his competition that’s ok. He should do more of these. I’m dissapointed that there wasn’t more discussion about democracy and prorogation in the questions. He mentioned it right off the bat and said the most important thing to restore was public trust and involvement in democracy. So that’s great. But of course, he’s also very good at saying nice sounding things without being specific. And being Liberals we can’t expect them to make lots of exciting, progressive changes unless we absolutely force them to.
So, lets force them to.
My rating – Ignatieff:
Not as dull as you’d think, mike make a decent Prime Minister someday. Next!
Its clear that the with the prorogation of parliament the Conservative party has wasted most of its ‘benefit of the doubt’ support that was keeping it ahead of the Liberals. A new poll shows the two parties are neck in neck in national support. Just as clearly, this statistical tie has not come about because the Liberals have wowed everyone with their inspiring leadership. Most of the bled Conservative support is no doubt going to the Liberals but simultaneously past Liberal support has moved on to the NDP and Green parties. The Green party is now approaching 12% polling support.
The Globe suggests that the Liberals have yet to capitalize on the crisis to make their fortunes really rise. They suggest that people need to vote for the Liberals rather than just against the Conservatives. I agree.
May I suggest that the best way to distinguish the Liberals from the Conservatives, a way that you know they can’t steal from you, a way that addresses the current crisis, would show big thinking on the part of your party and really make a difference for the future welfare of Canadians as a whole?
Its simple.
Democratic reform.
The recent letter sent out by FairVote Canada offers some suggestions to the Liberals and the opposition parties of what needs to be done. These are good suggestions, but there are many options to improving the democratic deficit in our country. You don’t need to commit to a particular solution right now, you need to commit to find a solution and implementing it, with the cooperation of your opposition peers. This would distinguish the Liberals from the Conservatives in a way that Stephen Harper wouldn’t dare to emulate. The only democratic reform the Conservatives care about is Senate reform, which is only the tip of the iceberg and does not relate to the anger now rising from Canadian citizens about his prorogation of parliament.
This is an issue the Liberal party can stand behind, one that can get them votes and can serve them well into the future. The only explanation for why they haven’t realized that yet is pure, unadulterated hunger for absolute power and/or self-delusion. If the Liberals truly realize they have no natural right to majority rule in Canada then they must admit that their best future interest lies in electoral reform that gives them all the votes they deserve and would allow them to usually form either majority governments or minority coalition governments with the NDP and Greens.
The prize of champion of democracy is there for the taking. Look at that Green 12%, for example. Its travesty that they have no seats. But how would they vote in the next election if the Liberals promised true reform? They might hold their breath long enough to give the Liberals minority control to implement real change. Then in the new era of real democracy you’d have a party with 10-15 seats to work with (and remember the Bloc has less support than the Greens so they’d have less seats than that, starts to make coalitions look a lot more doable, no?)
Can anyone think of anything else that will really distinguish tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee that Harper can’t usurp as Conservative policy? I don’t.
