I remember watching American political attack advertisements and thinking 'I'm glad Canadians are too sensible and mature to be swayed by this type of rhetoric.' My national pride swelled three sizes that day. Today, that seems like a distant, fond memory. In this latest election, the Liberal, Conservative, and New Democratic parties are smearing their opponents with ads that use the same insincere concerned tone as the American ones do.
I wish that the ads were the only ridiculous aspect to this latest election. The promises that the candidates are pledging make CBC's The Current April Fool's day joke candidate seem sensible, and he vowed to pass a by-law that fined anybody under 45 who didn't give up their seat to the elderly. All of the parties are promising individual, short term financial rewards. The problem with this strategy is that each individual citizen doesn't receive enough money to make a difference in their lives, but the total program will require a huge sum of money, money that would be a lot more useful if it was spent in a lump sum. The Liberals promise to give every university student $1000-$1500. With rapidly growing tuition prices, I would be paying more with the refund this year than I did without the refund in my first year. The marginally reduced tuition fee will be just as prohibitive to students planning on entering university as the full fee is. It would be nice for students who are already financially able to go to university to have an extra $1000 every yea, but nice little perks like this should be reserved for boom time elections. If the Liberals truly wanted to make a difference, they would promise to establish more bursaries and scholarships directed to students who can't afford the high cost of tuition. The Conservatives plan to eliminate mandatory retirement in federally regulated workplaces. I'm sure that this promise was made with the keen awareness that Canada's elderly demographic is disproportionately large. This isn't in the best interests of Canada, however. While it is true that such a large retired population will cost millions of tax dollars to support, forcing them to retire will create thousands of jobs for younger Canadians. It is unfair that recent university graduates are forced to work poorly paying fast food jobs because the elderly wish to continue working for longer than they are capable. New employees will enter the work force with skills that weren't taught to the older workers and the elderly will receive a well-earned rest. The New Democrats wish to cap credit card fees. While I agree that spending money is important to stimulate the economy, this change will only cause Canadians to spend more money that they don't have. In a country where consumer debt is already a problem, the last thing we need is for more of our income to be eaten away by credit card fees.
Of course, the political parties aren't really to blame for this type of campaign. With a steadily dropping voter turnout rate, it makes sense that politicians are trying to engage Canadians with exciting (if deplorable and misleading) advertisements and individualized rewards. This mockery of the democratic process is perfectly appropriate in a country where 42% of voting aged adults don't seem to care care who is running their country.
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e
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