Okay so here’s the deal, I don’t often talk about politics because my mom is heavily involved in the NDP. This means that I am often privy to information that I cannot share with the public for legal, and political reasons.
I decided a long time ago that this website would never endorse a specific candidate, because I don’t think the focus of this website should be on politics, but on mental health, but the thing is that politics affects my mental health, so here we go.
Recently a man in Ottawa decided that he was going to throw the country into an election and now of course we are surrounded with television ads, internet tweets, and Instagram posts about how bad and terrible everyone is except for the person who is the focus of the commercial or whatever fucking stupid ass “I’m better than this guy,” ad.
You know what my major problem is with Canadian politics? There are so few women, and no one is talking about this. At all.
Sure on the streets, in the middle of our small local communities there are tons of women, but on the big stage? Not a single one to be found EXCEPT for Annamie Paul, whose focus is not directed at things that matter to me.
The Green Party has never been about mental health, protection for victims of sexual assault, homelessness, and poverty. These are the issues that matter to ME, and unfortunately these issues are not the top of ANYONE’s list, least of all the Green Party, whose focus is mostly on the environment, which is great. They do great things for the environment, but I, as a Canadian voter, need a party whose focus aligns with the things that affect my life.
Right now, the environment is not on my list, I am too busy trying to survive the mental mindfuck that is my mental health, and so that’s why I can’t vote Green, but who does that leave?
Justin Trudeau? Whose constantly making promises that he can’t back up? Whose constantly proving that he doesn’t give a fuck about women and children? Who made pot legal without really understanding the consequences of that decision for the patients who need the medicine the most?
What about Erin O’Tool? Leader of the Conservative party, a party that does not support LGBTQ2+, that does not support people living houseless, a party that has habitually refused to protect women from their abusers? A party that specifically denies support to the most vulnerable?
Or the NDP, led by Jagmeet Singh, a man I’ve had the pleasure and honor to meet more than a few times. Yes, the NDP is more aligned with my values than any other party, HOWEVER, they still do not cover all of the things that matter to me, and that’s because in large part they will never fully have the vote of the entire country, especially in this decade, when their leader is a man of color, specifically an Indian man, and let’s face it, racist as Canada is, he’s never really going to have a real chance to lead the country unfortunately.
And then there is Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Québécois, whose ONLY focus is on what happens in Quebec, because he like the rest of his party forgets that the Prime Minister is supposed to lead the ENTIRE country, not only the part you approve of.
When you go to the polls, your job as a citizen of this country is to vote not just for yourself, but for your community, your country, and that’s a big responsibility when you have partners, and children, who need you to vote for them, when your vote depends entirely on who is going to do the best job for your family.
This country is in it’s entirety, a fucking mess. There is racism, sexism, classism, and poverty in every single corner of this entire country, and yet each and every one of us Canadian’s look to America as if they are the major problem in this world when in reality we are all to blame.
There are Indigenous communities filled with kids who have never been to a movie theater, who have zero access to clean water, who have never once even considered the idea of becoming Doctors, Lawyers, or Teachers, because, and only because, of the way that they are forced to live. They don’t believe that they have the right to dream bigger, because they are too busy trying to survive, and yet you want me to sit here and tell you that each of these parties are filled with great people who want the best for the country.
What they want is what every single politician on the planet wants, they want power, they want to be able to touch the golden statue and say “I did it, I’m the one leading this country,” but that’s not what matters. What matters is what you DO with that power.
When you go to vote over the next few days, ask yourself which person, from which party, is going to be the best person to lead this country into the next phase of it’s evolution, I don’t know if it’s Singh, O’Tool, or whoever else, but what I do know is that I am not confident at all, that my vote is going to matter.
And the only way that it’s absolutely going to matter, is if we start making a concentrated effort to actually participate in the job that we as voters are granted.
Voting isn’t enough anymore. If you want to REALLY help make this country great, then make time to volunteer with organizations and platforms that matter to you. If you REALLY want to make this country great, hold your local politician’s accountable for their words.
If Justin Trudeau makes promises, MAKE him keep them, same goes for the rest of them. We keep thinking that the only power we have lies in our vote, that’s not true. These politicians live and die by the amount of volunteers and support they have so what the fuck are you waiting for?
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 