I like Democracy

I like democracy. But what is it really? When you hear a Canadian demanding their First Amendment Rights you know that somewhere down the line that person wasn't listening if they grew up in Canadian schools or even as an adult listening to the news. Americans have a First Amendment that they refer to quite often. To me, that is a total misunderstanding of our brand of democracy. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the majority rights; minorities do not rule but yet they get to let us know when their rights are not being regarded. Democracy isn't about you individually; it is about your country and how it can survive the ups and downs of the years. Life isn't always going to be easy and democracy doesn't guarantee you an easy life. You still have to work hard and follow the rule of law. I supported the Liberals 100% with the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act. A huge group of people in downtown Ottawa deserved to have their freedom back and the police forces did a perfect job of restoring their freedom and freedom for the rest of us in Ottawa.The NDP did a good job supporting the invoking of the Emergency Measures Act. When PM Mulrooney's Progressive Conservative government created the act it was for just such situations. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms did not foresee the difficulty of a protest gone rogue but his government did. It would be good to hear his thoughts on this legislation. It has been revoked now by the Prime Minister and the next election will stand on how people felt about the freeing of Ottawa I suspect rather than how COVID was managed. 

The Prime Minster has more important business now with Europe and how to respond to the invasion of Ukraine. How do the democracies rescue Ukraine without turning the country into a bloodbath? We share several thousand miles of Arctic Ocean border with Russia. I never thought of Russia as an aggressor nation really but this happening must make us think about it. Do the Russian people see themselves as world conquerors or is it just the separatist provinces of Ukraine that they would like to aid so they can be Russian? Tomorrow will tell us likely what will happen. With 190,000 men/women in the field plus all their air force and naval force Russian forces outnumber the armed forces of Ukraine by a huge amount.

For us in Ottawa looking back it just cost Ottawa $30Million minimum (likely much higher) to get rid of a group of people who came here to protest COVID restrictions, to ask the Governor General and Senate to force the Liberal government out and presumably call an election (worst time ever for sure) and one of the parties was very willing to support them. Why, in a democracy would a national party support a protest that broke all sorts of bylaws in Ottawa as soon as they arrived and threatened an entire downtown area and was asking for something that doesn't exist namely the Governor General and Senate forcing a government out. Do not tell me that they were peaceful; peaceful people follow the rules. Protests have come and gone these 40 plus years that I have lived in Ottawa; lots of good examples on how to have an effective protest. This was an occupation to try to force out a government that wasn't giving this group of people what they wanted. That is anarchy. 

We need to make our democracy work well so that all the people of the world see it as a valid system. It is a lot more work to make democracy work than to let anarchy run wild in the world.  You actually have to care that your country is running smoothly and not that your life is perfect. Country must come first. As a child one learned that as we recovered from the Second World War.

Russia surprises me in many ways. They suffered dreadfully during the Second World War; 50 million dead. They held the line against the Nazis for two years whilst we gained the strength to attack from the west although during those two years we did made inroads in Africa and the southern part of Europe and China moved west in their country so that they could build up the strength to drive the invaders from their lands (and we helped them too). Russia was an ally; China was an ally during the Second World War. We need to find common ground with these two large powerful countries. No they are not democracies but we all have to exist in this world and we need to show that democracy works well for her people. Shape up people; make Canada work. Stop causing trouble; look and see where your money to cause trouble is coming from; COVID restrictions will go hopefully speedily now as spring is around the corner beckoning us onward into that much warmer weather. It is minus 17 degrees celsius this morning but the sun is shinning.