Page 6 November 2008

OPINION

New pony or old donkey, what would you choose

Reporter, Shane Mountain, weighs the U.S. electoral candidates

The U.S. election is drawing close to a conclusion and the two battle scarred gladiators grasp for one more breath before plunging into the finale melee.

John McCain, a senior government.

member, war veteran, prisoner of war with more houses than he can count and so many public fumbles he makes George W. look like a fine public speaker, is the Republican can- didate.

He is opposed by the formidable Ba- rack Obama, who’s come to kick the hell out of rich America and use his verbal kung-fu to round house kick the White House back to real- ity. And so the Re- publicans are floundering under the pressure applied by Obama and his seemingly amazing and profound use of common sense. A notation which lost. favour under the eight years of tyranny and stupid- ity instituted by W. Are Americans sud- denly and violently

Photo by: Toni Muller

in an intelligent and reasonable man-

ner. He addresses issues which affect |

people directly and he carries and air

of sincerity. His voice reaches people

who are disillusioned with America.

He offers a chance to once again

have America as a global leader in a

time of conflict, tension and crisis.

“I think he is a transformal figure. He is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the Ameri- can stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama,” Colin Powell said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Powell resigned from his position with the Bush government af- ter discovering he had been sent on a wild goose chase in Iraq.

So is it Obama is one of the best candidates since, well, ever, or is

John McCain simply

so incompetent that a

toaster would look like

a better candidate?

_ This election to me is symbolic. After a Re- publican war monger and deceiver managed not only to get elected but re-elected in two

waking up or will scandalized elections at least another four and then ran the coun- years of America photo by: Henry Rome/ try into the ground over history be flushed The Spoke an eight year period,

down the toilet?

The current eco-

nomic crisis, the broadening battle- fields of global conflict and the in- creasing anti-American feelings around the world should be red flags in the eyes of every American when they think of more control in the hands of people like Bush.

Obama is a voice which I find re- freshing. He speaks clearly and talks

why would Americans not want change.

How can any American with a con- science and any integrity whatsoever cast a vote for someone who by all accounts will be George Bush 2: Mc- Cain the Destroyer.

Time will tell and we all will see what will become of a once great na- tion which is resting gingerly on the brink of decent.

Commentary

By Jonathon Dean

What is the most important result from the federal election?

It’s not who got elected where, it’s not the outcome of various “grudge” matches around the country, or the final seat totals, it’s not even the resulting minority government for Mr. Harper. The most important result is buried in the data from Elections Canada, a footnote really. It is the historically low turnout of 59.1 per cent, the first time ever that less than six out of ten people have voted. And that is based on registered voters, estimates claim an additional 5 per cent to 15 per cent of potential voters are not registered and therefore do not vote. Including this fact places the actual turnout at around 50 per cent, perhaps less!

vote? Disinterest in or cynicism of

politics in general? We have always had that. No, the reason is the grow-

roa the Tr :

The Editor, |

Canadians want protection from price-gouging, and from corporate profiteering and carelessness. We do not want de-regulation of corpora- tions, which is putting our health and safety at risk.

We do not need tax cuts that will weaken the federal government's ability to pay for social programs such as Medicare, and for the repairs and improvements needed to modernize our crumbling infra- structure. We do not want to give $50 billion in tax cuts to corpora- tions that don't guarantee Canadian

jobs, and that continue to sell off

Why are people not coming out to

ing knowledge that our representa- -

“= UPEI Cadre

The results of the federal election

tives do not really represent us, the voters. Yes they “represent” us in a superficial fashion, they stand for our riding. But they don’t express our political wishes on the issues of the day since the party dictates their votes in the House. So voters are, correctly, stating ‘why should I vote

if my representative will not vote

for me’.

Shrinking turnout is a bad thing. Less and less involvement in the democratic process de-stabilizes the whole system (for instance Mr. Harper’s claim to government rests on only 5.2 million votes out of

23.4 million potential votes, that’s

less than one in four). However low turnout does point to something good; more and more citizens are becoming political sophisticates and can see how they are sidelined politically and this sets the stage for the coming rebirth of our democra- cy in terms of political and electoral reform.

Jonathon Dean is the leader of The Atlantica Party

We need a new prime minister

our natural resources to the US and other countries.

We do not want billions poured into Weapons; we want to put our international resources into diplo- macy and appropriate development.

We do want our governments to _ actively lead us into the new econ- omy that is beyond fossil fuels and corporate greed.

We need a new prime minister who will stand up against corporate . power-mongering! —

Yours truly, Tony Reddin & Marion Copleston, Bonshaw