Snickerdo
Premium
join:2001-02-28
St Catharines, ON
 ·Cogeco Cable
| said by n2jtx  :Having observed my Canadian relatives first-hand, I would have to agree with that statement. It is usually "what is the government going to do to us now?" rather than "who do we petition/protest to stop this nonsense". I could go on and on about the difference between the Canadian and American political system and that while cultural differences may make an American think we don't care, it is in fact the total opposite. Not only that, but there are huge differences in how our governments serve the people. We have campaign financing limits, lobbyists are significantly restricted, we have better representation (1 MP per 80,000 or so people, instead of 1 Congressman per 800,000 people), we don't have a 98% incumbency rate like the US, we have more than two political parties, etc. The "appearance" of us not caring is only that - one only needs to look at the 1993 Federal Election to see what Canadians do to a government they are not pleased with, but had the posters known about such events they would have never made such a stupid comment about Canadians not caring. 
One thing that pretty much sums up how politically active Canadians are is what happens each afternoon on our cable news networks. News stops at 2:15PM each day (10:15 on Friday) to show Question Period in the House of Commons, and this is in addition to our dedicated C-SPANesque political channel we have called CPAC. Could you imagine CNN or Faux News in the states stopping coverage of the bimbo of the week who got drunk and crashed to show live coverage of the House of Representatives, and those events usually being part of the top national news for the day? Hell, don't even get me started on our political humour. We had Canadian equivalents of Jon Stewart, Stephan Colbert and Bill Maher back when they were in diapers. We invented political satire! Think about that long and hard before you go making uneducated comments about Canadians not giving a shit about what goes on in our government.
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I swear that I will faithfully and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen. |
