by Klaus Rohrich
June 10, 2004
I’m thinking that there is something in Toronto’s drinking water that’s turning the brains of many of its residents into mush. The scenario that seems to be emerging from the Big Ugly is that the majority of votes will go to the Libs and the NDP. My question is: what’s happening to their minds?
Did someone erase their memories, incapacitate the neuron paths inside their brains, and render them inoperable? Or maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m imagining that Paul Martin took $2 billion out of healthcare funding as finance minister and it really is Mike Harris’s fault that uncle Elmo is having to wait four years for his hip replacement. Maybe the liberals really didn’t squander billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on the HRDC boondoggle, or the billion dollar gun registry boondoggle, or the $100 million dollar Quebec sponsorship boondoggle. Maybe the NDP didn’t really run Ontario and damn near bankrupt us in the early ‘90s and my memories of it are some Matrix-like chemo-cyber induced reaction.
But when I talk to other Canadians, even in Toronto, they all have the same memories as I do, so the chances that all of us have had our brains tampered with are slim. What’s perplexing me, however, is how so many people can be so unastonished at the stuff coming out of Paul Martin’s mouth. Instead, they’re babbling about Stephen Harper and his ultra right wing, anti-female, anti-gay "agenda".
Maybe I’m not reading the same papers or watching the same television stations as they are, but I have yet to find any evidence of the above. On the contrary, I recently heard an interview with Harper on Toronto’s CFRB radio station and I was truly amazed at how reasonable and rational he was. Harper was asked questions about everything from gay marriage, to abortion, to the military and I found his answers very refreshing.
On the issue of gay marriage, Harper said that he personally preferred the traditional definition of marriage. He was, however, prepared to put it to a free vote in the House of Commons to let the country decide in a democratic manner, something that Paul Martin is not prepared to do. On abortion, Harper stated that he had no plans to introduce legislation on the subject. When pressed about his personal feelings on abortion, he forthrightly stated that his views were not in the extreme at either end of the spectrum.
Yet, the following day on the same radio station, a plethora of callers condemned Harper as a Cro-Magnon social conservative. What does a guy have to do to qualify as properly politically correct in Toronto? Does he have to march in the Gay Pride Parade? Does he have to have a boyfriend? Does he have to slag Caucasians and change his diet to ethnic foods? Perform volunteer work at abortion clinics?
The reason that parties like the Liberals continue to remain in power is because the electorate doesn’t have its priorities straight. In the grand scheme of things, just how important is what one does with one’s genitals? If you cast your votes on the basis of whether someone agrees with abortion as a method of birth control, then you likely have an intellectual as well as moral deficit. There are issues a whole lot more pressing than gay marriage and abortion. Both are soft issues in terms of their overall importance to the survival of our nation.
Part of the reason our nation is in such decline is that many of us are totally preoccupied with trivialities and we have lost the ability to tell what’s really important. We cast our votes for who will lead our country with the same sense of gravitas with which we cast our votes for Canadian Idol. Our frame of reference is based in reality television and our moral compass is in dire need of recalibration.
If we ever expect to have a meaningful change in the way this country is run, we must be prepared to change our paradigm. The old saying that "if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same thing" seems to be lost on Torontonians. It’s a foregone conclusion that the Liberals will do best in Ontario because of Toronto. But I can’t seem to find anyone on the streets of Toronto who is happy with the Liberal government, provincially or federally. On the contrary, there is a pervasive mood of dissatisfaction that is almost palpable. But my prediction is that like Lemmings, the voters of Toronto will go to the polls in three weeks and vote Liberal.
Doesn’t this smack of a co-dependence syndrome between abuser and abused? "We’re going to give Paul Martin another chance because this time it will really be different. He will keep his word and we will be happy." Do abusers ever change? Rarely, and then only if they really want to and they get serious counseling. Finally, there is a case to be made for the fact that abusers and abusees seek each other out, as each seems to derive a level of comfort from the abusive relationship.
This, it appears, will be the case with the voters of Toronto. all I can say is: how could you do that?!