How I see it

The NDP :(/:)

The unanimous decision today in the House of Commons made me take a second glance at my party. Although I support the social democrats of the New Democratic Party, the vote to extend the mission in Libya comes at my surprise. More concerning was the recognition of the Libyan rebel forces provisional government as the true government of Libya. How can Canada recognize a force that we know little about as the true governing body of the Libya?

Politics aside; in my view, the current crisis in Libya is one that should be dealt by the Libyan people. The rebel groups striving to remove Gaddafi forces from Tripoli is a Libyan movement that formed at the grassroots, eventually extending to the higher echelons of the underfunded Libyan military. Their weaponization has been a result of defecting military officials and those who left their military outposts. If removing Gadaffi is such a priority to the Canadian government, why aren’t other dictators, across the globe being bombarded by NATO allies? For example, in Burma the military government has subjected its people to cruel treatment and ranks 176th out of 180 countries worldwide on the corruption perceptions index.

Although I was surprised at the NDP’s decision to vote with the Harper government, I do applaud their urge to the Harper government to increase humanitarian assistance to Libya and use Diplomacy versus bombs to ensure the transition of power from Gaddafi to the rebel forces. Moreover, their staunch opposition to the deployment of ground forces was also commendable.

Finally Action is taken.

Finally! The wait is over. For weeks, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used violent measures to quell democratic protestors within the country. Innocent protestors, expressing their discontent with his 11 year Presidency have been killed in clashes with police.  700 people have been reported killed by the violent force police forces have undertaken.

Unemployment, inflation and a corrupt government have all been cited as the petitions the people have regarding Bashar’s management of the country. Moreover, it could also be stated that the people’s revolt could be influenced by the earlier democratic revolutions as seen in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in the middle east.

I began to grow with much hope for this situation. As we saw in Libya, the international community was quick to stop and prevent more deaths by implementing a no fly zone over the country. As such, I saw precedent to seek some form of behavioral check, if you will, on the Syrian President’s actions towards his own people. Unfortunately it has taken this long for the international community to take action. Nevertheless I must commend President Obama for his passing of sanctions on Syria. Hopefully other countries will follow suit.

The Plight of Canadian Democracy

Every election cycle, the youth turnout is rather dismal. If anything, this turnout signals the disinterest felt amongst Canada’s youth. More importantly, there needs to be something done to ratify this issue. Why? Well, it is clear the Canadian political parties have noticed the disinterest and have decided to omit policies which would be in the interest of Students and young people (With the exception of Canada’s left of course).

http://leadnow.ca/ is trying to rectify this issue by running a campaign that is curtailed to getting youth out to vote through “vote mobs” at various Universities across the country. This noble stride is something that is worth commendation.

Canada’s youth won’t be heard unless the current youth do something about this. This is why I encourage my fellow young Canadians to get out there, vote and make a participate in a political system that people in different parts of the globe are striving to achieve- democracy.

We owe it to those who are currently fighting in Yemen and Tunisia, to show them that Democracy is WORTH fighting for, dying for and that we WILL NOT take this for granted.