The “NONE OF THE ABOVE” campaign

The other day I received an email from one of my kids. My kids are all adults now – thank you Jesus!!! – and they often share their adult reflections. Anyway, he sent me a link to a Progressive Conservative website http://www.ignatieff.me/ and I want to pass it on to you as an example of what we really don’t need in Canadian politics. I don’t disagree with all of the content, but I’m so sick and tired of this snide, nasty, pretentious nonsense. If we have a concern lets make it known in a respectful way. Wouldn’t it be nice if this sort of thing were beneath us.

My father was a politician during the E. C. Manning era (1940s to 60s), so I grew up in a political family. This sort of crap was our life.

- People used to call Ernest Manning a benign dictator, but the truth is he was just benign.

- They attacked him for religious bigotry, when he was actually a loving, caring, tolerant, narrow fundamentalist.

- They called him an ignorant hayseed, when he was actually a good-ol', intelligent, Saskatchewan-born, Alberta farmer.

- They insisted he was an uncaring capitalist, when he was actually a compassionate entrepreneur.

It was this kind of personal attack that propelled Aberhart into power in 1935, and kept Manning there till 1971. And what happened in '71? Peter Lougheed came along and, respectfully, without any of this crap, proposed things that the people wanted and weren't getting from the Socreds. The Conservatives have now been in power longer than the Socreds were and they will be toppled by whoever comes along with better ideas and none of this bullshit.

There have been lots of people to criticize, mock, belittle, disparage and vilify, Ralph Klein, Don Getty before him and now Ed Stelmach, but this stuff is toxic and only reduces voter turnout. And when it works in a democracy, it works like cross-checking, tripping, slashing, and charging work in hockey. These things are an attack on the game itself, and if the people call this stuff the parties that indulge in it will play short-handed, i.e., from the opposition side of the house.

These days about 40% of Canadians vote for none of the above. And, of the 59.1% of eligible voters who did cast ballots in the last federal election, I suspect most voted against the others, rather than for anyone.

I am not apathetic. In fact I'm a recovering political junkie. But I value the right of citizens to vote, and to not vote, and I have exercised both options in the past 40 years. When I exercise the latter I generally do not do it by staying home, but by going to the poll and spoiling my ballot with "NONE OF THE ABOVE". I wish more people would do this, and I wish the system was required to report the % of ballots spoiled in this obviously intentional way.

We need a NONE OF THE ABOVE campaign in this county. Perhaps we could kick some of these folks out for a game or two, and suspend some for a season or even for life. Let’s get the goons off the ice so the real players can play.