03 5 / 2011
Freedom is in Peril, defend it.
Following the 2011 election results in Canada, I think it is safe to say that Michael Ignatieff’s call to Canadians to “rise up!” went unnoticed in the majority of the province of Ontario.
The election of a Conservative majority will mean a few things for Canadians, none of which are desirable. The fact of the matter is, 60% of Canadians voted IN OPPOSITION to a Conservative government. That is something that the conservative party needs to take into account when implementing their policies. With the surge of Jack Layton’s New Democrats, primarily of which was seen in Quebec, the political atmosphere in the country has changed drastically. It is my contention that this change is for the better.
Where do we go from here? What do we do? I know that many Canadians, especially Canadian youth were involved in active political protests and showing up in hundreds of numbers at universities across the country in votemobs. This type of political action must not dwindle in the next four to five years. If we are to continue to oppose the contempt Harper government, we must start at the grassroots mobilizing local Federal party ridings regardless of the party affiliation. This mobilization will be as an effort to maintain support of the opposition party and the Liberal Party.
Knowing that the NDP holds the opposition status and seeing the historic crushing defeat dealt to the Liberal party, I can only imagine what is going through the minds of the Liberal MPs who withstood either the Orange crush or the Blue tide. There has to be restructuring involved in order to rebuild the party and ready it for the next federal election.
Although a majority situation was one that I was not favouring it is what us New Democrats have to deal with. As an opposition party our mandate should be to ensure that the voices of our constituency is heard within the confines of the house and, more importantly, ensure the Conservative government is held to account. We should move to ensuring that the Conservatives will not avoid the issues like the Afghan detainee scandal, or the issue regarding the illegal altering of a document which granted Kairos International federal funding as it was an NGO.
Our fight for representation, democracy, better health care and a strong economy is not over. As a citizen you should continue to hold your MP to account, regardless of which party line they tow.
