(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

近年科技日新月異, 資料的立時傳遞, 事情剛發生, 就能在第一時間內, 傳播至世界每一角落。 互聯網誕生只十多年, 就帶來了 EMAIL, BLOGGIMG, FACEBOOK, U-TUBE 等社交網絡。流動手機的大行其道, 更引進了 TEXT MESSAGING, TWITTER 的新科技。

古語有云: 「當夫獨居斗室, 左圖右史 (對現代人来説, 就是坐在電腦機前), 宇宙之大, 古今之奇, 心領神會, 彷彿見知, 所謂不出户庭, 能知天下事矣。」但又有誰會想到, 這卻引起了人們對知識需求量的大增; 一方面, 引至了世界旅遊的狂熱, 人們除了閲覽電腦資料, 更要親歷其景, 「真人秀」先睹為快。另方面, 各類偽造的假資料, 山埃貼士, 也突然湧現, 充塞了互聯網這 INFORMATION SUPER-HIGHWAY。這等虛假訉息, 尤以醫療知識, 為害最大, 嚴重者可以害已害人, 置人於危。

最近和朋友爭論, 一篇電郵的正確性。電郵云: 「如果閣下不幸遇上中風, 應立時針刺十個手指頭, 放血。」朋友就立即轉傳這電郵, 給各親朋戚友, 以為是行一善舉, 造福人羣。我立時抗議, 認為廣泛傳遞這假訉息, 山埃貼士, 是百害而無一利。

朋友認為, 那可能是失傳了的中國醫術秘笈; 我卻認為, 那只是武俠小説的橋段。朋友又認為, 手指放血, 是額外措施, 不妨礙中風治療, 但我認為, 十指流着血到急症室, 會混亂視聽, 導至診斷錯誤, 阻慢了中風的緊急救援。

最後朋友頂了一句, 你又不是中醫。

訉息超載 (INFORMATION OVERLOAD), 山埃貼士, 以假亂真, 似是而非, 奈何。

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Judgment day has finally arrived.

The science-fiction disaster-drama “Deep Impact” was on TV this weekend. Is that telling us something?

A 7-mile wide “comet of dictatorship” is hurling towards us, at a disastrous and alarmingly fast rate.

We felt helpless.

Our rescue mission is actually on the threshold of success, with the surge of the NDP, giving us hope. But at the same time, without strategic voting, this can split our rescue into two sections, and the “comet of dictatorship” can just come through the middle and hit us, wipe out our great parliamental system and push us back to an undemocratic dark-age.

身在福中不知福, we don’t treasure and value our democratic political system. People of many countries in this world gave up their lives fighting just for this, but we are going to give it up too easily. If that happens today, we only have ourselves to blame, falling into and believing the sweet talks of Harper and simply ignoring his contemptuous, deceitful and dictatorial behaviour. As others said, he won’t get away with these, eventually will caught up with him and history will judge his misdeeds justly and accordingly. But until that day comes, tough luck, we will suffer.

Today is judgment day. People will decide.

We have no choice but to cast our vote and watch silently, this fast hurling comet.

Is it going to hit us? Or will we escape the deep impact of the dark-age?

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses

Sunday, May 1, 2011

An incredible openness to strategic voting by progressive Canadians was revealed in the results of Saturday’s Angus Reid poll:

Many pundits focused on groundbreaking numbers solidifying for the NDP while at the same time showing the Harper Conservatives polling dangerously close to majority territory. Most importantly, there was significant data indicating that May 2nd could be a watershed moment for co-operative voting. Half of all NDP and Liberal voters are now indicating they are willing to vote strategically in this election to prevent Harper from achieving a majority government.

From Angus Reid:

“more than a third of Canadians (36%) are considering voting strategically in order to reduce the chances of a specific party forming the government, even if it means casting a ballot for a candidate they dislike. More than half of Liberals (55%) and more than two-in-five NDP supporters (44%) are pondering this option.”

Check ProjectDemocracy.ca to see if vote-splitting is a factor in your riding and make your voice heard on May 2nd. We can restore our democratic traditions if enough concerned Canadians elect to work outside strict partisan structures to defeat Harper Conservative candidates in key contests.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDl-S81faZs

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Daycare for adults

by Shirlee Engel

The other day Michael Ignatieff’s Chief of Staff Peter Donolo asked me if I was the only reporter to have been with the campaign since day one.

Geez, I thought. I am. While other reporters have bounced around other campaigns, or spent part of the election in Ottawa, I have spent every moment on the road with the Liberals.

“You’re one of us now,” he chuckled.

I shuddered at the suggestion. Any reporter concerned about Stockholm Syndrome in a political campaign would.

“I most certainly am not!” I affirmed. We both laughed.

Later, on yet another bus ride to yet another rally, I thought about it. And before you declare me a closet Liberal, hear me out.

There is a sense of “us” on a political campaign.

What develops is a feeling that you’re all in this together – not in a partisan way, but in a human way.

We all endure the same unforgiving schedule of early mornings and wee-hour nights. We all suffer the motion sickness of bumpy buses and turbulent planes. We all eat the same mass-produced meals, when we’re fed, regardless of whether we have just eaten an hour ago. We all sleep when we’re allowed to. We all miss our own beds, our families, our friends, our lives back home.

Consider this: as we came in for a landing in Quebec City last night, after an almost 20-hour day, we descended through a wild storm. The plane was bouncing all over the place. A flight attendant crawled down the aisle making sure people’s seatbelts were buckled. The lights dimmed inside the cabin, the flashes in the clouds surrounding us added an eerie feel (I’m pretty sure that was caused by the lights on the plane’s wings).

A fellow reporter yelled out, “Feels a lot like the election!” The entire plane – media, crew, staffers – erupted in laughter. In his seat at the front of the plane, even Ignatieff must have been chuckling. It helped take our minds off the jitters. Someone started the plane in chant of the now familiar “Rise Up! Rise Up!” The Liberal Leader waved his hands in the air.

It got me thinking – we’re all on this crazy roller-coaster ride to May 2, intensified by the wild suspense of the NDP surge and its possible implications on election day.

But the reason I’m not “one of them” is because our end games are different.

For the Liberals, it’s about victory. No matter what they say, I can see the frustration on their faces because I’ve been with them from the start. They’re still hopeful the next turn is in their direction, but they’re worried. They’re worried all that hard work, all the long days and nights, unscripted rallies, town halls and press conferences won’t be enough. The only ones who will admit it, do so only off the record.

For me, it’s harnessing all my thoughts and observations over the past five weeks – the ups, the downs, the turning points, the nuances and relentless spin – into a coherent storyline. To provide viewers with comprehensive and balanced coverage of whatever happens Monday as the results come in.

But no matter how this story ends, May 3 will be bittersweet for all of “us.”

It will mean the end of this wild ride. We’ll get off that roller-coaster, feeling winded but full of adrenaline. My first thought might be “I want to do that again!”

But then common sense will kick in and I’ll know I’ve had enough.

A veteran political reporter described campaigns as “daycare for adults.” I think it will feel more like the last day of sleepover camp. You’re sick of living in a bubble. You’re sick of the food, sleeping in another bed, staying up too late, seeing the same people. But you’re going to miss it.

So I guess what I’m saying is, in a way, Mr. Donolo was right.

Shirlee Engel is one of Global National’s correspondents based in Ottawa.

Follow her on Twitter: @ShirleeEngel.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Sorry, Mom

by Peter Harris

This is it. As Canadian politicians race down the homestretch to May 2nd, can you feel the excitement? If you can, there is a good chance you have not been sitting next to me on Stephen Harper’s campaign bus. After nearly a month bouncing around at the back of the Tory bus, all I seem to feel is a bit, well, uneasy – and it isn’t just the motion sickness.

Before you assume I am talking about the Conservatives’ ‘hidden agenda’ and accuse me of Liberal bias, let me tell you my unease stems from a much more basic, non-partisan place: I feel I am letting down my mom by not doing my job.

Hear me out.

By now, everyone knows Stephen Harper doesn’t like taking questions. I am told by people much smarter than me – and reminded by the Tories themselves – that voters love it when journalists whine about how they are mistreated at the hands of political parties. I will be the first to admit journalists can be whiny sometimes but maybe – just maybe – there is something behind all these complaints?

Try thinking of a campaign as a conversation, mind you a very long conversation stretching from the second the government falls to the second the last polls close in B.C. This month-long dialogue should give voters a better sense of who the leaders are, what their promises might be, and where they want to take the country.

Journalists probing in ways the candidate might not like helps keep this conversation flowing with essential ‘yeah, buts.’ Imagine a conversation with someone you’re trying to get to know but this person tells you when you can say or ask something. The conversation wouldn’t go very deep, would it?

Imagine, once you get the chance to pipe up with a ‘yeah, but,’ someone else in the conversation starts shouting to drown you out. This past weekend, Stephen Harper turned the conversation to protecting religious freedom. After announcing a new office to keep tabs on religious violence, his supporters cheered for exactly 39 seconds. Moments later, a journalist had the chance at his ‘yeah, but’ and asked a question about a Tory candidate’s ties to religious extremism. Harper supporters cheered and jeered for exactly 59 seconds to kill the back-and-forth, literally putting more time into silencing freedom of the press than celebrating their own promise to protect religious freedom.

How does all of this let down my mom? She has been asking me to update her about what’s happening on the campaign, especially asking me to size up Stephen Harper.

I can tell her what he has told me over and over again without any ‘yeah, buts’: he believes his political survival depends on finally getting a majority government, he promises to make $11-billion worth of cuts in the next four years, and he believes the country is on the right track. What I cannot tell her is what he plans to do with a majority, how he will make those promised cuts without digging into essential services, and where exactly he thinks this ‘right track’ actually might lead.

The last time I checked, questions are an essential way of getting to know the other person. After weeks on this bus I’m not convinced I am any closer to knowing Stephen Harper and his plans – sorry, Mom. After spending weeks on this bus, I don’t believe I know Stephen Harper and his plans anymore than I did at the beginning of this campaign.

Sorry, Mom.

Peter is a Global National correspondent based in Ottawa.

Follow him on Twitter: @PeterHarris.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Friday, April 29, 2011

Co-Founder
Project Democracy
Alice Klien

Still, if we want the country to do well in this election, we all have to do our part. A good outcome is unlikely if we follow Jack’s unfounded advice to forget about strategic voting. A big NDP caucus in a Harper majority government would be a monumental waste of opportunity.

Yes, most of the races in Quebec and in BC and Atlantic Canada that show the NDP as more competitive than it was at the start of the campaign are straight-up contests between two front-runners with no reason to fear that vote-splitting would unnecessarily elect a Conservative.

But there are also about 45 key ridings where informed grassroots voter cooperation is needed to break the Conservative hold on the country.

As I write this, one poll is indicating the Conservative will win only 133 seats; another goes as high as 162 (155 is a majority) for the Conservatives even though it projects 86 seats for the NDP. The strategic vote, from the point of view of defeating the Conservatives, does not favour the NDP, the Liberals or the Bloc or Greens. It varies on a riding-by-riding basis, and until the last election and this one, the only way to figure out what to do was to follow the spin.

But we live in the digital age, and it has empowered citizens to offer up new tools to each other. We now have a comprehensive source of independent information on every riding in both official languages, projectdemocracy.ca, of which I am a co-founder. (It isn’t connected to NOW at all.)

That puts me deep in the trenches of the various polling scenarios that are unfolding, and they are volatile. I can say for sure that in the next few days, it will be very important to stay in touch with how the polls roll. (Projectdemocracy.ca makes that easy and even fun.)

Basically, though, the big, determining uncertainties are confined to relatively few ridings. In most cases, choosing the candidate you like best is perfect. Even among the key ridings, most of the strategic picks are also quite clear and obvious. For the really hard-to-call ridings, we at projectdemocracy.ca are commissioning and seeking out local polls to provide the best intel. Those should start coming in on Friday.

For us in Ontario, the scenario is quite different than in Quebec. There’s not the same orange surge here. The NDP and Liberals are both holding their own (within margins of error), so many downtown Toronto incumbents will likely be re-elected. There is no chance of a Conservative win in the downtown races, so an NDP vote is great anywhere. The likeiest place to add to the orange seat count in Toronto is Parkdale-High Park, where Peggy Nash has a good chance over Gerard Kennedy.

After that, the best hopes for the NDP to score from rising support are in Beaches-East York, where NDPer Matthew Kellway could prevail over Maria Minna, and Davenport, where it’s Andrew Cash against Mario Silva.

But if we Ontario progressives want to help our brethren in Quebec swing the country toward a new progressive government, we will actually vote Liberal in the four GTA ridings the Conservatives have been pushing hard to win.

If you are an NDPer or Green, swap your vote at pairvote.ca and keep the Cons at bay by voting for Liberal Joe Volpe in Eglinton-Lawrence, Rob Oliphant in Don Valley West, Ken Dryden in York Centre, and vote for Liberal Karen Mock in Thornhill to defeat the worst Environment minister the country has ever had (and that’s saying a lot), Peter Kent.

Quebeckers have opened the possibility of sweeping change. To do that, they seem to have gone past old nationalist certainties to embrace a federal party in a completely new way. The least we can do in the rest of Canada is follow their example. Let’s take off our own ideological blinders and embrace cooperation to create the Canada we communally envision.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Saturday, April 30, 2011
Project Democracy

by Patricia Rozema

Project Democracy provides a way of holding Stephen Harper’s power in check. I worry about what a Harper majority will mean to the country I love. With Project Democracy voters can easily, quickly help make this the country they want to live in by voting strategically. It’s important to remember that it is possible, even in Canada, to shut down open discourse. Arrogant leaders honestly believe that it’s for their country’s own good. We can’t let it happen here.

Stephen Harper clearly wants to control traditional media, social media and twitter. He invokes arcane procedures when he doesn’t like the way parliament is going. He tries to stir up fear about the perfectly legal normal process of coalition governments. He also rarely makes himself available to answer unscripted questions.

Yes, he’s a good calm manager and our country is relatively stable financially. Some of that is, in fact, the Harper minority government’s doing. Some of it was the doing of Liberals before him. But our reasonably good performance economically doesn’t give him the right to overstep the authority he was given the way that he has. He can’t be trusted with our support. I fear issues like abortion, gay marriage, and gun control will all be re-opened. His disregard for environmental concerns would continue unabated.

There’s a reason we haven’t trusted Harper with the reins in the past. His vision doesn’t represent the majority of Canadians.

Project Democracy tells you precisely how your vote is critical. A clear-headed numerical analysis shows you how your vote can help make room for more voices than just that of the Conservatives. I fear that with only 29% of the population’s support, Harper can continue, virtually without accountability, to lead us toward a more militaristic, less caring, less socially progressive, less culturally developed country. Let’s see how many questions he takes if he gets a majority.

I encourage any open minded, democracy-loving Canadian to checkout ProjectDemocracy.ca. This might be a time to consider voting a little differently than you normally do. We get to make our own country. That’s the joy of living in such a young one. Make it a country you are proud of.

Patricia Rozema’s feature film credits include I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, White Room,When Night is Falling, Mansfield Park, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, and Grey Gardens among others. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing won the coveted Prix de la Jeunesse at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. That same year, it was voted one of Canada’s ten best films ever as polled by 100 international critics. Rozema won an Emmy Award and was nominated for a Grammy for her film Six Gestures, part of the series Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach. Her television credits include The Beckett Film Project’s Happy Days, the pilot and two subsequent episodes of the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me, and most recently, an episode of the critically acclaimed HBO series In Treatment. Rozema received a PEN USA nomination and an Emmy nomination for outstanding writing for her work on the HBO movie Grey Gardens, starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Saturday, April 30, 2011
Project Democracy

by Yann Martel

It’s a question of character. Policies, after all, come and go; they can be changed when the circumstances require it. Throughout Canadian history, governments of whatever stripe have ruled—spending or cutting, creating or abolishing—not according to party ideology but to the perceived needs of the nation. So, for example, the Liberals favoured free trade in 1911, but opposed it in 1988. More recently, the Conservative party, which espouses a populist, small-government, hands-off approach to governance, embarked on a massive spending spree after the 2008 crash.

What this shows is that in Canada, essentially, any government will do. Two mechanisms explain this miracle of governance:

First, most prime ministers—at least those who have lasted more than a few months—have grown into their role. They’ve looked beyond the narrow confines of their party platforms and seen what the nation actually needs.

Second, when a prime minister has failed to rise to the occasion, he or she has lost power at the next election.

The relations between the Prime Minister who has a fragile hold on a great deal of power and the millions of citizens who each have a solid hold on a very small parcel of power is an ever shifting equilibrium.

To maintain that equilibrium requires of the Prime Minister astuteness, toughness, vision, integrity and all the other qualities that make for a leader. Citizens, meanwhile, must remain informed, must see beyond their own self-interest, must participate.

The whole game is called democracy, and it’s a crazy, delicate, wonderful game. It’s worked because most of us have played according to the rules. But that’s changing. I’m an anyone-but-Harper-as-PM not only because of policy differences, but because I don’t think he’s playing the same game.

The controlling of everything and everyone, the shutting down of Parliament to avoid a vote, the elimination of the long-form census without any consultation, the appalling treatment of Helena Guergis, the campaign-in-a-bubble, it goes on and on, and the man behind all this creeps me out because I don’t feel in him the spirit of Canadian democracy. He rather feels like an import from the American Tea Party.

And he doesn’t read, my pet peeve. Works of the literary imagination seem to play no role in his vision of life. As far as anyone knows, he hasn’t read a novel, play or poem since his university days. Is that who we want at the pinnacle of our political elite, a stiff, triumphantly post-literate ideologue, a man who doesn’t even seem to like people let alone books?

I say again: it’s a question of character. Please, vote for anyone but Harper. Check out www.projectdemocracy.ca to find out how you can make your vote really count in your riding.

Yann Martel is the author of a collection of short stories and three novels, most notably Life of Pi, which won him the 2002 Man Booker Prize, was a global bestseller and is being adapted to the silver screen by Ang Lee. His most recent novel is Beatrice and Virgil.

Martel also ran a guerilla book club with Stephen Harper, sending the Prime Minister a book every two weeks for four years, a total of one hundred and one novels, plays, poetry collections, graphic novels, children’s books and so on. Each gift was accompanied by a letter explaining the worth of the book. For all his efforts, Martel received not a single reply from the Prime Minister. The first fifty-five letters have been published as a book,What is Stephen Harper Reading?. The complete letters will appear eventually. Yann Martel lives in Saskatoon.

(Through Rose-Coloured Glasses)

Friday, April 29, 2011
by George Elliott Clarke

The Harper Conservatives are not Canadian Conservatives. They are U.S. Republicans in Tim Horton’s photo-ops.

If you opposed what George Bush did to America (i.e., ruined it), you cannot support the Harper Republican program for Canada. Tax cuts for the rich, prisons for the poor, and war for foreign policy, is no practical program for a great, good, and decent country on the face of this earth.

The proof of just how bad Harper is, is his war against Parliamentary supremacy; his acts of outright contempt for OUR Parliament – and, thus, by extension, for us. When President Nixon tried such maneouvres and shenanigans in the U.S., he was forced to resign from office. And Bush’s Republicans were trounced in 2008.

The genius of Parliamentary Democracy is that the greatest good is served the greatest number of people by always making it possible for the opposition parties and the Crown representatives (the Governor-General and the Lieutenant-Governors) to act as checks and balances to governmental authority. Harper has tried to erode and dismantle these restraints.

For that reason alone, he deserves defeat and dismissal. Vote for candidates who respect us, the Canadian people.

— George Elliott Clarke

George Elliott Clarke, a seventh generation African-Canadian, was born near the Black Loyalist community of Three Mile Plains, Nova Scotia, in 1960. A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Dalhousie University, and Queen’s University, he is now the inaugural E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. A prolific poet, playwright (Whylah Falls, Beatrice Chancey, Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path), novelist (George and Rue), anthologist, critic, and screenwriter, his many honours include the Portia White Prize for Artistic Achievement (1988), the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry (2001), the National Magazine Gold Medal for Poetry (2001), the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2004), and the prestigious Trudeau Fellow Prize (2005). He has been inducted as a member of the Order of Nova Scotia and is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto, Ontario and owns land in Nova Scotia.