by Glenn Brigaldino

Created on: November 16, 2008

As years come and go priorities slumber through the seasons

Again next month, on most any day before Christmas, last minute shopping will slow down but still there will be no time to rest. Ten minutes idling away in line at the drive-through window to snatch a burger and some fires doesn't count as time out. It is the season to be merry, so already last year Ontario Parliamentarians voted themselves a 25% pay-hike; some of them may probably already be able to look back on good rates of return from various attractive Caribbean tax shelters. Real havens, as their close corporate world buddies can confirm, after having ruined Christmas for so many of the working class. For example, the servers at the drive-trough fast food place wouldn't know much about that; they're supposed to be happy that the minimum wage was "raised " by 25 cents, also last year. By the second week of coming January, two out of three tenants in your average Greater Toronto Area (GTA) low-income apartment building, probably will have received their first credit card statements for 2009, indicating little space left before hitting the credit line limit.

Luckily gas prices are down now, still not even half of what they are in Europe and with a mild winter so far, some hefty cost savings will be a welcome temporary relief to many. The GST cuts in Canada didn't stretch far to start with, a few bags of milk perhaps in 2008. Once the Salvation Army kettles will have been emptied, the food banks will already be in the starting blocks to rev up their operations and donation drives. By the time the Stanley Cup is won (my bet on the Ottawa Senators looks very doubtful this season so far), a new federal election may again be called and a issue-less campaign underway. New promises will be made and some broken, others perhaps kept, but by then more Canadians will have already turned cynical or simply decided against lining up at the ballot box and instead try their luck at the lottery ticket retailer.

It truly surprises me, Canadian voters seem forever dithering between political parties that are hardly more than pseudo-alternatives. Of course, the archaic first-past-the-post electoral system discourages quite a few voters from "experimenting with their vote and choosing a party that is unlikely to carry a riding (i.e. the NDP or the Greens). But it must be more than fear of opting for political change that keeps average Canadian voters living inside the box of system conformity. Clearly none of the parties

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