Adult discussion or children at play?
Since coming to university, my knowledge of the political realm has plummeted. I stopped watching the news, reading the paper, and Air Farce stopped its regular programming. While I don’t say this with pride, I have managed to improve in terms of international politics, thanks to programs like The Daily Show and Mock the Week. But, frankly, I should be doing my duty as a citizen to be informed about what’s going on in our own country. As such, I decided to take advantage of last week’s Clubs Days to go around to the different student representatives of our country’s political parties to learn about the national parties and the state of our nation. While I asked many questions of the four parties (Conservative, NDP, Liberal, and Green), there were three questions that became the focus of my inquiry:
1. What is the current platform of your party?
2. What do you like about the party/why did you join?
3. What parts of the party do you not like/are dissatisfied with?
The advocates’ responses to these questions were, for the most part, disappointing.
The representatives for the Liberal and Green parties could not give me substantial information on what their parties’ platforms are. The Liberal group was unable to answer because their leader has yet to announce one. All that they knew for sure was that they wish to improve the pension plan and our international reputation as peace keepers, and that they want to legalize marijuana. Some interesting points, yes, but not enough information to convince someone to join their group. In comparison, however, they seemed substantially better informed than the Green party representatives. When asked about their platform, instead of talking about it, they simply showed me a bulletin board of four points (including legalize marijuana and having a fairer democracy). The bulletin about fair democracy did catch my interest, but when I asked about what was meant by a “fairer democracy,” they could not tell me. They seemed to have absolutely no idea about the party’s policies whatsoever.
This brings me to absurdity of the answers to my second question. Seeing as these students did not seem to know anything about the party they were representing, one naturally comes to wonder why they are even there in the first place. Simply put, they said they had joined because they care about the environment, and this is the Green party. The only thing potentially sadder than this answer came from the responses by the Conservative and Liberal representatives. Both students attributed their political affiliations to parental influences. The Conservative member outright admitted that he could very well had joined the Liberals or the NDP if his parents had leaned that way politically. Looking at these people, I could not help but wonder which was sadder: to blindly follow a rulebook because it’s a family tradition or because it has a pretty picture on the cover?
That afternoon was a let-down of political conversation. All party representatives simply could not impress. When it came to my questionings, half of the groups showed inadequate understandings of their own party. Half, again, didn’t seem to have viable reasons that could convince anyone to join their cause. Honestly, the only person who was able to provide a decent answer to all three questions was the student at the NDP booth. While not the greatest of speakers, at least he was able to express knowledge of what his party represented and its intentions.
If I were to choose a party based on this exercise alone, the NDP would have won my vote, hands down. Luckily, however, I am not one to follow a group without thought. So it will have to take research to truly see which party, if any, is right for me. Though, one thing I have learned from this is that one truly can’t learn much of our nation’s politics from the squabbles of the political youth.