Recently I've said some things that are critical of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, and a bit against Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party. I haven't really talked about the other parties either, but I have my issues with them too. But today I'm not going to be critical of any politician in particular; I just want to make a couple of points.
First of all, I don't believe politics can really solve the problems in our society. It can do a lot of good and a lot of bad, but it can't truly fix things. If violence, oppression, other crime, and inequality are going to go away, better laws and government programs can help, but ultimately it takes an attitude change on everyone's part. If we all just put our own interests first, no amount of rules or government programs can fix these problems. Do you really want police and politicians who only care about their own interests? That's a recipe for corruption.
Mentioning corruption brings me to my second point. When I was in China with my wife recently, I heard a few stories about corruption. High-up officials will routinely "negotiate" discounts in restaurants after eating and getting the bill, and if the restaurant staff refuse, government officials could find "health violations" in the restaurant and shut it down. A beautiful tree in a park, covered in flowers, disappeared one day. One of my wife's relatives commented that only a government official could get away with stealing like that. I'm sure there are far worse examples than these. These stories of corruption make me appreciate democracy more. Democracy doesn't make government corruption impossible, and as I said in my first point, it can't really solve our problems. But it gives everyday people like you and me the ability to do something about government corruption. You may debate whether it gives us enough of a way to eliminate corruption, but at least it's something. So if you're a Canadian citizen, please vote tomorrow.
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