The Art of Voting
Today is election day in Quebec. We are voting for our new provincial Prime Minister. I grew up in a family of avid Parti Québécois supporters. Parti Québécois used the be a great political party. It was the party of the people. It was founded in the late 60s, in a period of social revolution in Quebec, by an amazing man named René Lévesque.
René Lévesque was a rarety in politics. He truly had the best interest of Quebeckers, his people, at heart. He had the courage of his convictions, and he got stabbed in the back by other politicians a few times, because he was refusing to play those brown-nosing games that politicians play. He was what every politician should be. René Lévesque was our John F. Kennedy. When he died, in 1987, I cried. No kidding! And as I write about him today. I have tears to my eyes. No kidding!
After his death, the Parti Québécois was never the same again. Politics in Québec were never the same again. I voted for Parti Québécois a few times, by principle. But I was so fed up with politicians and their false promises, that at the last two elections, I voted with my heart, for a new party (ADQ), even though I new that there was no way it was going to win. As long as they had a few seat at the National Assembly, I was happy. The ADQ was co-founded by Mario Dumont, a young idealist who wanted to change things, so I figured that it was better to vote for his party than to vote for old "croutons" who had been there forever and just wanted to play the Political Game.
However, two things changed the game for me this time around. Mario Dumont and some of his candidates recently made some comments that go against my values. And the Party Québécois current leader is a young gay man who, when the media rats decided to look for dirt in his past, was discovered to have snort coke in college. Of course, like others before, he said that he just tried once (Yeah! right! And Bill Clinton did not inhale! LMAO!), but this doesn't matter to me. For me, what it means, is that the dude is an open-minded fighter. Because let's face it, when you're gay, you have to be a fighter to make it in this world, and you have to be open-minded to try coke.
And who is better for Prime Minister than an open-minded fighter?
So today, I went back to my roots. Today, I voted Parti Québécois.
posted by Sonia @ 3:45 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think it's fantastic that you're so knowledgeable about voting and your parties. You're informed and you're passionate about it!
Not enough people here are like that. I've been voting in every election since I turned 18.
Your vote can do important things. Mine may not be on the winning side always...but then that's not such a bad thing sometimes either. Like when the 'winning' side gets thousands of soldiers killed and spends hundreds of billions of dollars on a war they cannot win and had no business fighting in the first place... but I digress.
Three cheers for voting!!! =o)
Well, not only the gay dude did not win, but his party went down to third place for the first time since 1970. I guess Quebeckers were not ready for a gay leader. Which makes me sad, because I always go on about how open Quebeckers are. I guess... not as much as I would like to think.
Oh well... I guess all I can do is treat everyone with kindness, open-mindness, decency and respect and hope that it rubs on someone from time to time.
Post a Comment
<< Home