And that’s a BAD thing?
We’ve long been in need of a new—or freshly revitalized—brand for people interested in making things better to organize around, and it seems like we’ve finally got one democratic socialism.
Everyone planning to vote in their municipal election, bear in mind that the process tends to be a little harder in municipal elections than federal and provincial elections if you can’t vote on the day at your designated voting location. In my experience there tended to be fewer advance voting days, more limited access to a mail in ballot, restrictions like you could only vote in your own ward, or a more arduous process to assign a proxy. You also want to check your eligibility, as in some instances you may be able to vote in one or more municipalities, even if you weren’t eligible to vote in the provincial and federal elections. (Info for Toronto)
So when the elections come around, don’t just assume you can do whatever, read the election administration materials so you know how to ensure you’ll get your vote in before any deadlines.
Another thing that makes it difficult is having 4 shitlib options to choose from but it is what it is. 😄
You know, in all the cities I’ve lived my whole life we’ve been going to wrong way, so I can’t help but see this pendulum swing and new ideas as a good thing.
My grandparents on one side always said “try to help others”, while the other side always quoted the golden rule (treat others the way you would like to be treated).
It feels like those mantras faded away a while ago and we’ve decayed into a society of selfishness and narcissism and nihilism. I long for them to return so we can get back to improving lives and humanity.
“I’m optimistic about socialism because I harbor deeply conservative notions of community and society.”
I genuinely think many Canadians only noticed that imperialism and capitalism was wrong when their own suburban or rural communities started to get broken up. Many people attribute a vaguely positive, more community oriented culture to this country’s past that can almost always be explained by living in a community that most people have a vested material interest in. Now that the economy is such that it is rare for people to even be able to spend their entire lives around the same neighbors and their children, they think that this is something that doesn’t exist.
Canada is a fundamentally selfish society, you live on stolen land. I can honestly say I’ve never felt the kind of community you’ve described by default, and I’m more often directly threatened by them. When I do get it, it’s usually from other people who are similarly targeted by this system and the culture it has always fostered. When suburbanites and county folk move around, they often do so with the assumption that they are entitled to whatever they want and conduct themselves as though everyone else around them feels the same way.
My experience with Canadians has been negative pretty much exclusively, and I’ve lived here my entire life. Used to be you could move to the city and be relatively safe, but as more and more affluent county folks move in, and as our cities become increasingly dependent on the kind of sprawl that integrates formerly small communities into larger ones, I see more people like I’ve described.
People are nicer to people they know, empathize with, and share a material interest with, and we live in a country where the barriers between these communities are quite blurred. My interests are fundamentally opposed to the majority of Canadians, many of which are bereft of the empathy to understand people they haven’t known their whole life. Especially post-COVID, where we went years with vastly different experiences as large number of these same people had the privilege of security and protected work (often the same ones who say they were oppressed for it), while many others had to risk their lives daily for a minimum wage and then left without any supports as the economic state of this country worsened.
None of this is new, but it may be more noticeable if you’ve afforded to insulate yourself from it until this time where it is almost undeniable. I think a lot of affluent Canadians will embrace “socialism” for as long as it takes them to get some wellfare liberal programs that they can benefit from, and then many of those people will ditch it if it does not immediately promote their own wellbeing relative to the most vulnerable people in our communities, which is how theyve responded to it in the past.
They are welcome in Hamilton, our “socialist” loves data centers.
