Anyone who has followed North American politcs and American politics in particular since 2001 shouldn't be surprised by this. Michael Ignatieff was often on American TV while he was a professor at Harvard talking about the invastion of Iraq. I've read a couple of his books. In one of them, The Lesser Evil, he took the position that democracies can morally torture temporarily in times of war and revert back to not doing so.
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What sucks about voting in Canada is I can only vote for the dude running in my riding. So if three parties are running and I don't like either, I'm stuck. Personally, I'd like to vote for an independent or libertarian but I can't. Man, even the Pirate Party speaks to me. In fact, their platform talk about issues I care about.
Example:
"What’s wrong? The internet is the most important development in the free exchange of ideas since the invention of the printing press, yet copyright laws remain in the 18th century, preventing the internet from living up to its full potential as a medium for the exchange of art and information.
What can we do about it? We want to adjust copyright to meet the needs of artists first, consumers second, and big business third. We’ll shorten copyright terms and reduce their scope to prohibit commercial copying only. Doing so will return to the original purpose of copyright: to protect the ability of an artist to make a living rather than to grant exclusive “ownership” of an idea for life. Ideas are too valuable to treat as commodities, and are at their best when shared."
Or I could look for the NeoRhinos on the ballot.
Think I'm kidding? I'm not. Canadian politics is more interesting than being reported.
Alas, I'm stuck with the usual. Some democracy. Vote for the leftovers.
Here's a complete list of candidates and parties campaigning for votes on May 2.
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At this point, only a drooling blinded partisan hack would consider President Obama as a purveyor of peace on the planet.
By extension, the notion that the Democratic party is somehow a party of "peace" is also nonsense.
Democrats have been just as willing to commit to a war as Republicans. After all, it was a Democrat who went into Vietnam and who sent Enola Gay to pay an explosive visit to Japan.
They just sell the same things differently.
It gets messier when you consider neo-cons are "disaffected liberals."
As for the Nobel Peace prize, I know he didn't ask for it, but I hope he doesn't take it too seriously because it would be quite the sham if he did.
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It's not all bad though I reckon. Obama is trying to reinstall the basic concept of using soft power in international affairs. To what degree and how effective it will be will depend on him executing it properly.
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Honestly, I don't get how Layton is so popular. Aside from the fact the NDP's basic premise is to promise the world paid for by taxes (I know. They're not "real" socialists like the Marxist-Leninist party. Yawn), does the rest of Canada understand he rubs elbows with separatists? I don't see how you can on one end believe in a united Canada and tolerate the crap the NDP pulls in Quebec when it comes to the language issue. The NDP clearly pander to it.
The NDP do frighten me because they'd confiscate more of my money.
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