It is like suddenly the truth found its way to the surface like a festering boil and a whole lot of ugly wounds were uncovered and given oxygen last week.
Does this mean healing will be close behind? I’m not convinced.
In the ongoing Senate scandal there was even more finger-pointing as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is unsuccessfully trying to contain the mess being made by Conservative senators he appointed and their respective spending mishaps. Senator Mike Duffy was pulling no punches and pointing the finger squarely at Harper himself while being questioned.
A story in the National Post described young people lining up to watch question period in the House of Commons, something unimaginable not long ago. People were being turned away in fact.
Does this mean people are becoming engaged with the democratic process and Canadian politics in general – not likely, but it still may be a good sign they’re perking up a little and paying a little more attention than before.
Scandal makes everything so much more interesting, after all, don’t we all love a little drama, and Harper has until now been able to dodge some of the opposition’s scrutiny by shutting down Parliament at times when he felt a little uncomfortable.
But this time it appears he may be getting his feet held to the flames for a little longer than normal, and it is somewhat reminiscent of the Liberal Party of Canada’s sponsorship scandal which left the party in tatters at the next election.
Whether or not Canadians feel there is enough evidence against the party and a viable alternative amongst the opposition when they head back to the polls and the Conservatives end up in the same boat as the Liberals, well, that is yet to be seen.
Then Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s infamous video is apparently recovered to some degree. Ford has consistently denied the existence of a video which reportedly showed Ford smoking from what appeared to be a crack pipe and making racist comments. While the Toronto police restored the video as part of another investigation of a afriend of Ford’s and they are disclosing the existence of the video, there is reportedly not enough evidence for a conviction of any crime at this point. Ford isn’t saying much yet.
Ford is going to have to work pretty hard to brush this off and still keep his promise to run again in 2014.
Interestingly to me, these major revelations came the same week a video of Russell Brand being interviewed by the BBC went viral.
In the video, the star actor comedian calls for a revolution to overthrow the current political and social structure.
In it, he defends the choice not to vote in the current political system.
“It’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy,” he said. “I’m not voting out of absolute indifference, and weariness, and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and has now reached a fever pitch, where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass that is not being represented by that political system, so voting for it is tacit complicity with that system.”
Hmmm, perhaps he has a point. Seems like Canadians might agree with his analysis of politicians at the moment. How many choose to return to the polls in upcoming elections and look for a change within the current political system will only be revealed with time.
Personally, I’ve been a voter.
In the past, I have always disagreed with young people who said they chose not to vote because all politicians are the same and there’s no point. I always maintained there are alternatives and if enough people want a change, it could happen within our system. But enough people have to believe in that system for it to work.
Perhaps too many have become jaded and disenfranchised by what they are seeing. I definitely think things like hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars potentially misspent on undeserved expenses won’t help the cause of democracy in this country.
Or mayors smoking crack.
I’m not sure I agree with Brand just yet that the system we have doesn’t work at all, but he did make some good points, so perhaps I will take the next election into consideration.
I’ve got some time to think on it.
