"Don't Look Back In Anger"

I have read a lot of blog posts over the past few days and a lot of them are using similar language. 2011 was the worst year for Canada in a long, long time. It all comes down to the nightmare we woke up to on the morning of May 3rd, the day the Reform Party's wildest dreams came true. We ended up with a Prime Minister that just a few short years earlier had been relegated to the fringe of Canadian politics where he and his opinions belong. But slowly over the years, culminating with the merger of the Reform/ P.C. Party, the political pendulum swung wildly to the right. It wasn't that most people agreed with the policies of the Reformers, the opposite in fact. For the Conservatives, the less people knew about their roots and history, the better. Problem was, after 12 years in power the Liberals had become the target of voter discontent and no one suspected that the alternative could be as bad as the Liberals and their misdeeds. They were wrong. Man, were they wrong.

And we tried, in vain, to warn the people of this great country of the impending danger of allowing this fascist (there, I said it) to have the unfettered majority that he craved for years. But those of us on the left have been so conditioned to support our "team" that we'll allow a monster to take the reigns in order to stop the free fall of our beloved tribe. Well it didn't work. The monster is in power and Team Liberal is in shambles. How anyone can blindly support any government in the face of historical facts that show that ALL governments work against the good of their own people is beyond me. The NDP, who has about a snowballs chance in hell of ever governing this country now makes up the opposition. Big business would never let a party with socialist leanings govern a country. Wall Street, with the help of the CIA has stamped out this trend wherever they could since the end of WWII and to think it couldn't happen here is just plain naive. Ask Bob Rae how easy it was to be Premier of Ontario with big business and money interests stacked against you.

But alas, it wasn't Stephen Harper that killed the Liberal Party. It was their own sheer arrogance and complacency that killed their party. A lot of people might disagree with me, but after 12 years of being the top dogs in Ottawa they seem to have started to believe they were untouchable. But just like the liberal free fall, and the crash of the Kim Campbell's P.C.'s in 1993, there will come a time when we will have an opportunity to turf these Reformer's and their ilk and take our country back, but it will take time.

I think 2012 should be the year that Canadians start thinking for themselves, not accepting any political party at face value. Sorry Liberal fans, but Chretien and Martin paved the way for Harper to behave the way he is. No amount of moral high ground will allow us to excuse ourselves from responsibility that we bear for allowing "our guys" to do things that were less then honourable while in power. Nor does that excuse the Cons misdeeds or the direction we are going in under the Harper cabal.

But as we turn the page to 2012, lets not forget where we've been in the past year. And what we should have learned. No party will put the people in front of business interests. Sorry, it's just a fact. As Danny DeVito said in Twins, "Money talks and bullshit walks."

Oversight is a key to any free society. Unfortunately the oversight of the people has been reduced to the likes of Packers and Lions fans arguing over who's team is better (we all know the Lions are, but I just can't help but love the ownership model that Green Bay has). Liberal supporters were no better then the Con-bots I see flooding the message boards and forums of news papers around the country by defending their team, right or wrong. Case and point, the Toronto G20 fiasco. Two parties, one in Ottawa, one in Toronto, both showing a blatant disregard for the rights of their citizens. Harper got blasted by Liberals who seemed oblivious to the fact that it was McGuinty that used the Public Works Act to curb civil liberties. Both were in the wrong and I don't care what party they represent. We all should view politicians as we do used car salesmen, with a skeptical eye.

Wrong is wrong no matter how you spin it. Unfortunately for us, we will no doubt be seeing more wrongs then rights in 2012. Time to unite and fight back against the fascists, the corporatists, the militarists in all parties. Liberal, NDP, Conservative... you are all accountable to us, the people of this great land. Never forget that the real power is in the hands of the people. All the people, not just the 39% of the 60% of eligible voters who voted Conservative.

Happy New Year everyone. Let's make this one better then the last.