Bloodletting - Kill or Cure?

At times power politics seem to render the whole electoral process fruitless. At times as well the disturbing spectre of pseudo-democracy is only too apparent that its participants are only too desperate to protect their long-standing turf and prerogatives that they no longer appreciate what the voters gave them and take it as their due.



I refer once again to the Liberal Party in Saskatchewan and the Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill blood-letting nomination process. Preference is been given to Joan Beatty’s nomination over David Orchard. The last nomination incident, to use a very mild word, resulted in a Harper outcome! As much as the party bosses wanted to put an Aboriginal face on it, Orchard represents the Aboriginal plurality with a white face as opposed to an Aboriginal ‘face’, to be blunt and meaning no disrespect, with the blessings of Goodale.

“While Joan Beatty's campaign mostly signed up members on her own home reserve, Peter Ballantyne First Nation, on the east side of the riding, and has a mere sprinkling elsewhere in the riding, David, on the other hand, campaigned all around the riding and has members and supporters in the east, west, south and north, in preparation for an actual election campaign. Interestingly enough, the Liberal Party in Saskatchewan was prepared to offer Beatty not one, but TWO voting locations on her reserve — and none on the 24 other reserves! This would have meant that 95% of her supporters would be able to walk to the polling stations in their two communities, whereas less than 30% of David's would have the same opportunity — and the rest of his supporters would have to drive from 1/2 hour to 3 hours, ONE WAY, to wherever the location was, a real deterrent to people's participation, as distances are great and the cost of gas is prohibitive.”
(David Orchard Campaign newsletter)

“After weeks of (exhausting) negotiating we got ten locations, but were denied one very important one, previously promised, of Ile a la Crosse in the north western part of the riding and a centre for the Metis population. (Local leaders immediately started to mobilize to get that location which they are fully entitled to.) With ten polling locations, the percentages of "easy access" are now still 95% for Beatty and less than 50% for David's supporters, "progress" of sorts, but definitely not fair. (When at one point we were offered nine locations, we presented a counter proposal of 17 which would have accommodated a large majority of Liberal members in the riding. This would have been eminently doable, as almost all communities could have provided facilities free or at low cost, and election officials, DROs, were available for all polling stations, we believe.)”
(David Orchard Campaign newsletter)


Blood-letting this is not. Self destruction this is and coming at the most crucial point in the existence of Homo Sapiens and more shamefully, all nature as we know it. Trudeau was a watershed in some semblance of a democracy and all after was downhill with the rise of Corporate, Military/Industrial power. Our governments beginning with Mulroney in Canada sacrificed on the alter of Milton Freidman their unwilling or unknowing voters. Liberals followed a more graceful path with Turner’s Bay Street, Chretien’s Power Corporation, Paul Martin’s ingratiating and dithering demise to out-and-out self-annihilation. And now we have Canadian suicidal Harper potential if you let him off his minority leash, and even still he is undermining the word of Democracy.

True democratic, egalitarian diversity is alive and well in hundreds and thousands of communities. Find them, listen to them, connect them. The only other avenue of change that’s really needed is from the ground up as the top down structure has proved itself a total failure after 5000 years.

Empire is over one way or the other.