I think the time has come to have a serious, frank, and open discussion about mental illness.
I don’t mean bipolar, schizophrenia, or depression; I mean the ruthless drive for personal power and wealth without a moment’s reflection or twinge of guilt in that pursuit.
It’s clear to me our Premier and the BC Liberals, and our Prime Minister and the Tories, among others don’t care whom or what they harm or destroy in their insatiable quest for power, wealth, and perks.
Part of the insanity is that, as they destroy all that is good, as they pollute, wipe out, diminish, and erode public education, health care, transportation (i.e. B.C. Ferries), infrastructures, farm land, water and air, forests, and everyone and everything who lives in our piece of the planet, they, too, will suffer; but their overwhelming addiction to power and wealth means they don’t give a s**t. They haven’t given a s**t for a very long time, but not so long they remember just enough during election time, to say the things (and appear sincere) that will get people to vote for them.
Knowing where candidates purport to stand on all of the issues is no longer helpful, if their statements don’t actually reflect what they intend to do, re legislation, laws and policies. We need a sociopath and psychopath meter to measure these candidates, sort of like a lie detector test.
If a candidate, for example, declares herself a defender of public education, but her child attends an exclusive, expensive private school, that should be an automatic red flag.
In Canada, we need to learn to distinguish between politicians who really do have our best interests at heart, and those who only care about themselves.
As various elections come up I hope we will think carefully about for whom we choose to cast our votes. Increasingly, everything we hold dear depends on our making wise choices.
Helene Harrison
Shirley
