By-Election Blues - Candidate Correspondence

To Whom It May Concern

I mentioned in my first article that I was sending out inquiries to the Whitby-Oshawa by-election candidates to establish what their platforms were and to get a better feel for who they were as people. That was exactly one week ago, so I figure it's about time for an update.

Reserving Replies

I'm not particularly sure what was so complicated about my two questions (what the candidate's stance on the cost of post-secondary tuition in Ontario was, and how they feel about the salaries and expense accounts of MPs) but I seem to have stumped two of the "Big Three" party candidates, and I just discovered who the Green Party's representative was this morning, so no judgement's being passed on them just yet.

Of the three candidates contacted last week, the only reply came from the NPD's Trish Mcauliffe.

Now, I've never been much of an NDP guy myself. I've seen a LOT of terrible fallout from unions with too much power, and the NDP tends to be a more political extension of union values. However, speaking on a candidate-by-candidate basis, I appreciate and agree with Trish when it comes to the answers she gave to my questions.

Trish supports diminished pensions for federal MPs and mentioned reducing MP pensions as a good first step towards lowering the financial compensation for federal members of parliament.

She also said that she would support policies that acted to increase federal support to the province of Ontario for post-secondary tuition, and recognizes that Ontario is the hardest-hit province when it comes to tuition costs, and that this needs to be addressed.

Taking all of this worth a grain of salt, these could just be a bunch of pretty, campaign-trail provinces to garner votes, I accept that reality. However, in a world where each politician is as likely to lie to you as the next one, I'd prefer to choose the one with the lies that best align with my beliefs so that I have something to legitimately hold them to later on.

Get Involved!

Okay, the majority of these by-election posts will only directly apply to people living in the Oshawa-Whitby riding, and I get that. HOWEVER, there are certain themes and messages that apply to anyone and everyone reading this article and the main thing I want you to take from this is the importance of getting involved.

The democratic process is a wonderful thing... Okay, it's extremely flawed at times, and the current Canadian system is prone to inaccuracy and corruption, but there's only one way to change that, and I can guarantee you that simply being quiet and hoping for the best is NOT a tactic with any legitimate odds of success. If you want to change things, you need to get involved and make that change yourself either through getting informed and electing people that support your values, or by running for office yourself in the event that none of the candidates represent you accurately,

I'm just so tired of people sitting back, bitching and moaning about the state of things, but not taking any legitimate action to address the issues that they claim to have. If you've got the option to remove yourself from a bad situation, but instead choose to stay where you are and whine about it, then you've got no one to blame but yourself.

Until next time, keep'em honest!

Joshua J. Taylor - Polit-Tactical Creator and Lead Writer