Michaelle Jean has led a lot of people this way for some reason. She’s the Governor General of Canada and once ate a seal’s heart. I don’t what fact is more interesting.
I’m guessing it’ll be the latter.
I’m probably like a lot of Canadians. I don’t follow politics. I don’t pay attention to news regarding who’s in charge, or what scandalous events have the boys in suits screaming across parliamentary halls. Apathy: A.K.A 1minion.
I’ve just run across something interesting as I did a quick search for apathy and Canadian politics – Apathy is Boring, a blog designed to get people, young people in particular, more interested in the political whirlygig in this country. From their Aug 13 entry:
Young people in Canada are not disconnected from the political process because they are lazy, they are disconnected because they don’t understand the connection is between what political leaders are doing in Ottawa and the issues of concern to them in their communities. Young people are very active in their communities in ‘untraditional ways’, whether it be spreading the word about a cause they care about on Facebook or putting on a benefit show in their local community, but they don’t vote, because they don’t think their vote will make a difference. They don’t see the connection between making a difference and politics.
There do seem to be a lot of groups on Facebook related to events and issues and the like. Hell, there’s even one for the rat problem in Swift Current, Sk, which has been a hot button issue there all summer. CBC Radio One interviewed Mayor Sandy Larson recently, a woman who sounded like she didn’t have a clue or care about how to proceed in extermination tactics and was unable to offer up any city plans to avoid destruction of property because of the ridiculous influx of rodents. Apparently kids in town have taken to having rat parties by Safeway’s dumpsters and other places, taking sticks and beating the crap out of the things for something to do in the evenings. That’s another way youth deal with an issue, I guess…
Local politics suffer as much as national, that’s for sure. But heck, when even the mayor.. The community set up a big meeting to deal with the problem and invited the mayor to come and have a say. If you listen to the CBC broadcast, you discover that the mayor opted to have her own impromptu meeting a day earlier rather than face the ire and indignation of those angry local residents. At least this kerfluffle will ensure she’s not voted in next time around. When not even a Mayor gives a damn, that’s when you know interest in politics is a bigger problem than it seemed.
