We often witness strife in a country, usually on TV, about how a country should be governed, by whom, and which religion should be in control. This has gone on since pre-biblical times.
In many countries we have read in history that there was a semi-hidden battle for power between the church, which varied from country to country, and the state or political leaders. We still see some wanna-be leaders try to divide one religion against another (there are more than 4,300 religions in the world), while pretending to be much more religious than they are to gain votes. This practice has been used for centuries, even in countries that our ancestors came from to escape that division.
If you look up democracy you will find freedom of assembly, freedom of speech (including both oral and written), freedom of religion, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of right to life, liberty, and minority rights. Some countries have a very skewed vision of democracy. Russia touts having a democratic election, but often who opposes the leader goes to prison, dies unexpectedly, or just disappears before an election. Some leaders are democratically elected but then somehow get the government to switch the way of governing to a dictatorship before the next election.
When we look up the best country in the world to move to, Switzerland and Canada usually top the list. Clean air and water, equality between genders, lifestyle, absence of crime, and opportunity to improve your life are all Canada’s high points. Many of the laws were written into the constitution in 1867 and provide stability for Canadians to live by. Freedom of movement between provinces has been another plus for Canadians, but a few protective laws and licensing by some provinces, considering Canada’s low population, are very protectionist and a bit childish.
Many provinces offer schooling to improve both of Canada’s two official languages to prepare students for job improvement in most parts of the world. Although there remains a huge gap in the wages the top two per cent of our wage earners make, compared to the majority of our workers, there are still those at the very bottom who lack both education and incentive to even try, and this is a huge problem throughout the world. There could be more incentives offered by our governments to lift these people up to a meaningful level.
There still is, and has been for longer than my lifetime, a worldwide movement to show that democracy does not work. This was recently observed on Capitol Hill in the USA, Parliament Hill in Canada, and at various US-Canada border crossings, with some same democracy disturbers visible at all those events. Some of the instigators have groups in many of the Canadian provinces and even more states in the USA. Many people wondered why the protestors were allowed to remain encamped on Parliament Hill, but there are more surveillance cameras per square meter in that section of Ottawa than anywhere else in Canada. Everyone who was there was very well-documented. As some of our wanna-be politicians cheered on Putin when he invaded the Ukraine, the Capitol Hill charge, and the Parliament Hill occupation, I guessed what kind of government political system that they approve of.
We once had a cattle buyer who always had an excuse why he couldn’t pay a little more. His favourite was; “all this country needs is another few thousands of tax-paying citizens to eat up the surplus food.” You’ll have the opportunity to listen to and ask questions about what “they can do.” Don’t take “we can do better” as an answer as they offer no solutions to improve your Canada for your kids. Tell them what YOU want for YOUR country. It’s our duty.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
