Category — Politics

With beer.

We landed in Ottawa an hour ago. Just settled in at the Chateau Laurier (compliments of the WRF!) and we’re off for brew at Darcey Magees, a prototypical political pub a few steps from Parliament Hill, to watch the election results trickle in. With over 1/3 of Canadians undecided as of this morning, it’s anyone’s game.

Check out my better half’s seat projection. Here’s hoping he’s wrong.

Here is an inspiring history lesson I received from a certain favourite blogging Sarah. Thanks Sarah!

________________________________

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE.

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago. (A few are still alive)

Remember, it was not until 1920 in the United States. And only a few years earlier in Canada: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/compilations/ProvinceTerritory/ProvincialWomenRightToVote.aspx) that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of ‘obstructing sidewalk traffic.’

(Lucy Burns)

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

(Dora Lewis)

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the ‘Night of Terror’ on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail. Their food–all of it colorless slop–was infested with worms.

(Alice Paul)

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

________________________________

So, refresh my memory. Some women won’t vote this year because - why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn’t matter? It’s raining?

What would the suffragettes think of the way I use, or don’t use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

We did it.

Last Friday we joined CAN (”our little bit of socialism shining through” - says Michael. Or, in another vein, “They shall have all things in common“, Acts 4:32.)

Sunday we sold our car and today I find myself a proud member of Vancouver’s cooperative auto network, driving a hybrid — my sole footprint of the day (I work from home,) sporting Tom’s of Maine deoderant, a vegan handbag (complete with a resident cloth bag for picking up groceries later,) and here’s the kicker: I’m wearing green. Top to bottom. Volcom camo pants, a green cotton dress and a string of locally-made wooden avocado beads.

It’s almost laughable. And I forgot my pen, so I’m saving paper by typing this on my Palm…

Take that, carbon footprint.

How have you green-i-fied your life?

On Election Day.

Working at the polls is a quick way to earn an extra pay cheque, as well as an opportunity to see the election process from another angle. To qualify for a job as an election officer in this general election, you must:

· be a Canadian citizen
· be at least 18 years old on election day
· be an ordinary resident of the riding

Apply Here.

From the good people at Apathy is Boring.