Who says elections and politics are boring?
The federal government campaign that concluded on April 28 proved how quickly fortunes can turn in a tumultuous world, and that all polls do not represent the gospel voters’ truth. Locally, Elizabeth May was rightly rewarded for her record as an MP and parliamentarian.
We’d like to hope the results are a sign that Canadians have resisted the worldwide slide to right-wing authoritarianism. For as much as veteran Conservative politician Pierre Poilievre tried to appear prime ministerial during moments of the campaign, quotes and images from his long political career made it clear he prefers using insults and division to get his results, much like the current U.S. president, and that he shares some of that individual’s anti-progressive views, as do many of Poilievre’s party.
On political discourse in general, it’s distressing that a large number of people think viciously insulting and threatening political opponents is acceptable, and that the bot farms responsible for much of the barbaric online vitriol seemingly cannot be stopped.
Citizens have been weaponized through “rage-farming” and groomed to be manipulated by fear and hate based on unfiltered information that taps into our basest selves. It is not that people don’t have a right to feel any anger about past, present or future circumstances; it is that they don’t have the right to express it with physically or verbally violent and threatening words and tactics. Something terrible has been unleashed in the world of political/social discourse in the last 10 years and it needs to be confronted, quashed, shifted or controlled in some way.
Political criticism and holding those with power to account are important parts of democracy. The use of sarcasm in critiquing an opponent’s position or actions is a fair tactic and can be considered a fine art. It’s not that we always have to be “nice.” But constantly gushing waterfalls of negativity and sheer crap do not contribute to a healthy democracy. Many good people have been discouraged from participating in politics in recent years due to the horrific treatment of themselves and their families.
One wish we have for the next session of Parliament is that it will be less acrimonious than its predecessors. Hopefully when Poilievre returns to the House of Commons he will have been humbled by the rejection from his own Ottawa constituents and encouraged to leave his “attack dog” persona behind.