Take for instance, the fact that the majority of Torontonians (60-65%) think Rob Ford got what he had coming to him when he got turfed from office. At one time, a majority of Torontonians were at least willing to give Ford the benefit of the doubt. But now, after two years of incompetence, buffoonery and self-inflicted crises, ordinary Torontonians are saying "Enough."
Or take the turn towards the NDP after 30 years of neo-liberal failure. It wasn't just in Quebec, where the move could be said to have had more strategic motivations, especially since social democracy is the majority opinion there.
I think people will turn to us if we can get them the information they need.
12 comments:
The big problem we have though thwap is that there is just enough of the population that would vote conservative even if their MP drank $13 orange juice or "forgot" about procurement procedures in government contracts. That's the sad reality and the only hope we have of ridding ourselves of the filth that is the right wing is by running on "1" progressive candidate in key ridings come 2015, without that, we're stuck in this never ending rut.
BC Waterboy,
Check out yesterday's post!
:)
oops
Aw, it's okay!
An interesting thing about the NDP is that they take policy seriously - to the detriment of focus on 'leaders.' People still fall for the 'personal image' projection - and that is why I think it was Layton that was strong...not the NDP.
They have been around a long time without catching necessary support - which is why some went to the Council of Canadians to inform people and others went more Marxist....the Waffle.
Opit,
I thnk the NDP needs to rediscover its ideology. It's a victim of the dumbing-down of politics as capitalism relies more and more on marketing and public relations to maintain its hegemony.
I'm not so sure, Thwap. I'm a political animal too, and lately I have spent a lot of time living in the Northern Gateway Pipeline debate. I have done a lot of reading, researching, looking at the proposal, checking out some of the directly impacted communities, and listening to and reading submissions to the JPR. I can't see any long term benefits at all, and neither can a lot of other people, but the message we are now hearing from the government as well as Enbridge is that they think they have not "sold" the project well enough. They think if they could just get the opposition to see how good this is, we would embrace it.
I think there are people to whom money and stuff are simply not part of their worldview. I am one of those. And then I think there are people to whom stuff and money are the most important things in their lives. And I cannot get my head around that. It doesn't matter how anyone sells the project, as far as I am concerned, the possibility of human error and the capriciousness of nature make the possible consequences just too dangerous for me to support. But I think equally, its supporters will never see the value of salmon in the Skeena River (for instance) as a benefit. I don't know how to bridge the two world views.
Karen,
I think people like you, who care about things like the environment and human rights enough to get active and spend time that could go into everyday things, are in the minority.
I also think that the people who value money and "the economy" over such things as breathable air or drinkable water, are an even smaller minority.
I think the bulk of the population that concentrates on their own immediate concerns and distractions are capable of being brought around, more so to our positions than to those of the greed-heads and war-mongers.
Yeah, I guess maybe you're right about that. I am kind of surrounded by people at the two ends of the spectrum, so I tend to think in the two extremes.
Karen,
I have to think it's so. Or else there's no point to most of what we do.
I still keep 'my ear to the ground' somewhat at Care 2. To the best of my knowledge, it is the largest group of environmentally concerned people around. The newsboard there tends to be quite a resource centre and the cached articles are searchable.
21,141,273 members doing good!
http://www.care2.com/
Thanks opit,
I'll put it on the blogroll.
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