First off I have to admit my bias. I’m a sorta crunchy, leftist daughter of hippies. Really.
I believe we live in a society of over-consumption. We. Consume. Too. Much. Of everything. I am guilty of it. I try not to but I do. I get suckered in regularly. Even though I don’t need it and can’t afford it. Sigh.
My point is that we ned to evaluate our values as a society. What is really important to Canadians? Can we agree on some values?
Here’s what’s important to me.
Time for Family
Health
Childcare
Education (reformed)
The Environment
The Economy
Equal Rights (which we technically have but…)
Time for Family means not having to work so many hours to provide a comfortable lifestyle that families don’t get to spend time together. Children need their parents. Both of them.
Health means a strong universal health care system that includes a holistic approach. Healthy diet, exercise, vitamins, stress relief as well as traditional medicine. Without wait times. Without a doctor shortage.
Childcare should be universal. Available to all for free.
Education that suits the needs and interests of all students.
Environment: Industry and government that doesn’t seek profit at the cost of our home. Protecting our children from toxins.
The Economy. Sustainable.
Equal rights for all. Although our Charter guarantees these rights, it is not so in reality. Women are still paid less than men. Women are still abused at a much higher percentage than men. Race is still an issue. Being gay is an issue. Being fat is an issue. I could go on and on.
My job now is to find out where all the parties stand on these issues. I’ll even read the Conservatives platform. 🙂 I also need to figure out if they can actually follow through on their promises, that is the hard part.
In my classroom we are doing Student Vote. It’s a non-partisan programme to help educate young people about voting.
Rick Mercer seems to be galvanizing the youth vote. It started with his Rant and has spread to #votemob s across the nation. Go to YouTube and type in vote mob. The results will astound you. Watch this one at McGill for starters. Watching it fills my heart with joy and excitement about this election and this great land of our. Truly.
Erin, I love all of these vote mob videos I have been seeing online, particularly the number of young women in them (maybe even more than their male counterparts???).
I have to say that I am a bit envious of all of you in Canada (I think I voted once in Canada before I moved to the US). From start to finish this election will have spanned less than 2 months, whereas I get to spend the next 18 months being inundated by constant primary/election noise. Living in New Hampshire makes it only worse (there were 4 potential Republican Presidential nominees here the other day for a “Tax Day” rally), as this tiny state becomes the epicenter of the circus. I’d take the Canadian election process any day over this craziness. And people wonder why the youth are so disenfranchised with the political process!?!
I did it yesterday, it is interesting. If I do it with my class, and I think I will, I’ll have to do it with the mobile lab and the questions on the smartboard so I can explain them. Grade 7 & 8 students will not have the background knowledge for most of the questions. I’ll try it today and comment or post again.
That is one of the the #hashtags for following tweets about the election. Another is #momthevote.
#elxn41 ??? Can you tell me what this means…I’ve seen it in other sites as well.
Did you and your students try the CBC Vote Compass survey? I found it very interesting, not as much for what it said about me, but the graphs at the end showing where each of the main parties stands on the topics surveyed. Cuts through all the attacking and arguing we see in the media, and goes to the real policy questions.