My friend Farid is from Iran. This will be the first federal election in which he is eligible to vote.
Being somewhat of a sap, and knowing what a hard-working new Canadian he is, I was immediately moved by this notion. Surely, after a lifetime of persecution in Iran, after making his way to Canada with nothing, after receiving his Canadian citizenship, he would be overwhelmed with joy and excitement at the notion of exercising his democratic right to a vote.
No dice. He is entirely underwhelmed by his choices. “Rick, if it was a choice between PC or Mac, that I could understand; but this election, it seems the choice is one lousy PC and another lousy PC—why does it matter?”
Assuming the lousy PCs he was referring to were Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, I suggested that he should look at the NDP. “It was the NDP,” I said, “that gave us universal health care. They are passionate supporters of the working man and they fight for the little guy. Jack Layton is a good man,” I told him. “He walks the walk and talks the talk. He has solar panels on his barbecue.” I could tell by the look on Farid’s face that suggesting he vote NDP was akin to insulting his mother, his wife, or both.
I shouldn’t be surprised at Farid’s dislike of the NDP. While he did flee Iran with his life, he has an affinity for a stern hand on the tiller. During the municipal election in Toronto, Farid became a big supporter of now-mayor Rob Ford after Ford offered the opinion that there were too many people in Toronto and we shouldn’t welcome more. Farid’s pet peeve is road congestion, so he too would like to see a stop to anyone else moving into the city, especially from other countries.
Being a civic-minded Canadian, I informed Farid that Rob Ford could say whatever he wanted, but that freedom of movement was a fundamental Canadian right and that no mayor, no prime minister, no police officer, no person could tell any citizen or landed immigrant where they can and cannot live.
“Fine,” said Farid, “then pass a law saying any new Canadian moving to Toronto should not be allowed to own a car.” Irony is lost on the man.
I find my little chats with Farid distressing, but I wanted him to understand fully the importance of voting, and I wanted him to know that there are many other options available to Canadians. Sure, these other parties are less mainstream than the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP, but they are political parties all the same. One million people voted for the Green Party in the last election, and say what you want, that is exciting. And it wasn’t long ago that a handsome young Preston Manning announced the formation of the Reform Party and changed the political course of Canada forever. Farid was dubious, and so I logged on to the Elections Canada website to prove it.
In the last general election, there were a baker’s dozen of “fringe parties,” and their websites prove democracy is alive and well in this country. I learned a lot.
Did you know that Canada has not one, but two national communist parties? There is the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada. This is important to know in case you plan on sending a cheque to one and you get them mixed up. It’s a terrible feeling knowing you have put your hard-earned dollars towards the wrong communists.
Both have long histories in this country. In fact, the Communist Party slogan is “Celebrating ninety years.” Our current governing party has only been around for seven.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is somewhat of an offshoot of the original Communist Party; its leader had a falling out with the other, original group when China and the Soviet Union began squabbling in the seventies. They both took separate sides, and a divide took hold among Canadian communists that to this day is not healed. They are comrades no more. And like the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada of old, they continue to run candidates and split the communist vote, making their dreams of forming a majority government even more elusive. At present, both parties deny there are any ongoing merger talks.
Farid was fascinated to learn that the Bloc Québécois is not the only separatist party in Canada. Yes Farid, western Canada has xenophobes as well.
The Western Block Party is lead by Doug Christie, the same Doug Christie who has made a name for himself defending the rights of wannabe Nazis to be, well, wannabe Nazis. These days, Doug has other priorities—namely, seeing western Canada split and form its own country, and, of course, lower taxes. A visit to his website indicates that the first act of an independent western-block nation would be to stop spending money on sewage treatment plants because, and this is a quote from the party platform, “Nature already provides us with an effective, inexpensive and environmentally beneficial treatment system.”
It’s enough to give separatists a bad name; after all, the Bloc Québécois wants Quebec to separate, but they have never suggested an added benefit of sovereignty would be the ability to turn la belle province into a massive toilet.
Thankfully, Farid is an engineer by trade and was baffled as to why anyone would be against sewage treatment.
Personally, my favourite new party on the Canadian political spectrum is also the one with the snazziest website and best name: the People’s Political Power Party of Canada, which I’m guessing is not affiliated with anyone with a speech impediment.
Its platform is laid out in a very sophisticated website, and I would suggest that the founder and leader of the party, Roger Poisson, has perhaps the most honest and intriguing biography of any political leader I have read. It reads, in part, “For the last seventeen years, Roger has been working for no wages. He holds no bank account in his name and has no savings. He was learning how to father a nation.” I’d like to see Michael Ignatieff or Stephen Harper say that.
Mr. Poisson’s platform is extensive, but it does not appear to be fully costed. Unfortunately for the Peoples Political Power Party of Canada, that is a deal-breaker for Farid.
The link to the Marijuana Party of Canada at Elections Canada doesn’t work. I’m sure somewhere there is a well-intentioned young man who means to get around to fixing it, but with days to go until the general election, really, what is the rush?
When you track down the website, it turns out to be nothing but a number of sponsored links to indoor hydroponic growing kits, natural lawn care companies and the NDP. So I can’t really say what the Marijuana Party stands for, but I informed Farid that it was a safe bet that they are against the Harper plan of mandatory federal jail time for anyone caught with six marijuana plants growing among the tomatoes.
For those Canadians interested in these parties, there is a debate of the “fringe parties” scheduled to be held in Toronto on April 23. As I write this, it is not clear which parties will show up. One thing we know for certain is that Elizabeth May, after being shut out of the main political debate, has refused to attend. According to her, the Green Party is a mainstream movement and has no place at the fringe table.
As a result, Ms. May has announced plans to debate herself at some later date. I would suggest the first question she might ask is why she continues to run against cabinet ministers.
The leader of the Marijuana Party has agreed to attend, but only if someone pays for his ticket from Vancouver. I approached the publisher of this magazine, suggesting they pay his airfare, but they declined, citing the Marijuana Party’s position on corporate income tax reductions.
At the end of this exercise, Farid was more confused than ever but amazed that Canada allows such parties to exist. Again, the concept of total freedom is one we take for granted. There is a bit of a learning curve when you spend all of your life in a country like Iran.
So, when pushed, Farid decided that he was—like so many Canadians—an “undecided” voter. He would make his final decision on election day.
He admits that he likes Ignatieff and agrees he is a very smart man. “But,” said Farid, “he didn’t come back for me.” I didn’t bother saying, “How the hell could he? You just got here yourself.”
But my guess, if I were a magic vote compass, is that he is leaning towards the Conservatives, despite what he calls a lacklustre campaign. In fact, the only thing Stephen Harper has done to impress him thus far was having the RCMP pull the little girl from his rally because of her Facebook picture with Michael Ignatieff. “Why the big fuss?” he said with a smile.
“That reminds me of home.”
Like that was a good thing.