At least Olivia Chow got re-elected.

Nowadays young people donrsquo;t vote and old people do; however, youth of today are more engaged politically than previous generations in non-traditional ways. Voting is merely one thing about being political for todayrsquo;s more socially-aware youth and for many itrsquo;s more important to be active in-between elections than just at election time. The problem with that thinking is that some youth donrsquo;t even vote because they feel like their vote wonrsquo;t do anything, so they direct their political energy elsewhere, say volunteering at Greenpeace.

Thatrsquo;s fine, but you still need to vote.

Voting allows to send a message beyond just who you want to run the country this time. Thanks to some fancy Canadian election laws each vote gives $1.25 to the party you voted for. That means that if you vote for the NDP this time you are showing support for them AND helping them fight for the next election by raising their coffers. Obviously this works only for registered Canadian political parties so voting for an independent wonrsquo;t get them any money.

So go vote and support who yoursquo;d like to see run this country.

Some more info on voting from my Things Are Good post:

Yes, it rsquo;s finally here! All Things Are Good Canadian readers need to make sure they vote today. If you donrsquo;t know where exactly to vote check out elections.ca. Itrsquo;s not a difficult task to vote since you donrsquo;t even need to be registered.

Remember that the most important thing you do today (if not this year) is to vote for the environment.

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From Bloomberg:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the worldrsquo;s financial markets while they ldquo;rewrite the rules of international finance.rdquo;

Whoa. This is epic news. The G7 is clearly panicking as their system of finance is now proving that it is not sustainable and that the economy is anti-democratic because it is socialism for the rich.

I hope that the G7 conclude that they need to have more regulation on international trading to stabilize the economy and bring some power back to each nation (so they all donrsquo;t have to bailout their stupid banks). It would also be nice if we see the reign of terror that the G7 has imposed on the majority world start to fall as the majority world and the World Bank are calling for the G7 to be replaced

I think itrsquo;s time for the Tobin Tax which is designed to discourage short-trem speccluation on internatiol trade. For example, the Tobin Tax could have limited the fall of the Mexican Peso in the 90s (more on the Peso devaluation).

And now Harperrsquo;s cronies have decided that the only way that the Conservatives will get elected is if they donrsquo;t speak what they actually think (take notes Chris Reid and Lee Richardson).

Whatrsquo;s more is that the Conservatives promise to re-introduce the Canadian DMCA. Formerly known as Bill-C61. herersquo;s a list of candidates opposed to ridiculous copyright controls.

So on Tuesday get out and vote that jerk Harper and the Conservatives out of office.

You Have a Choice from AnyoneButHarper.ca on Vimeo.

All thatrsquo;s on the site is a picture of Harper and Bush shaking their dirty hands and two YouTube videos. The potential for this site is great and it would have been so much better had they created a website that totally believed that Bush and Harper are indeed running for office. If they put up more content than just two videos the site could be something that goes viral in Canada. Still, the videos have a good number of views since they were uploaded on Oct. 1 with 18,514 and 9,439 views respectively.

The videos also play as attack ads against Harper and are blatantly supporting the Liberals. Had the videos been all about the ldquo;goodrdquo; things that the two neo-cons have done it would have more effect. It could attack the very root of whatrsquo;s wrong their policies. But I guess by doing that the Liberals would also be criticizing their own stances albeit indirectly. We canrsquo;t forget that Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin were the ones who helped set the stage for neoconservatives in Canada.

Here are the videos from the site:

On the economy:

On foreign policy:

Cross-posted to MeganBoler.net

It put Dion, the standard-bearer for unity after the 1995 referendum, in the position of complimenting arch-rival Duceppe. Dion said he never questioned Duceppe’s sincerity about wanting to work for Quebecers’ interests, even though he fundamentally disagrees with his separatist aims.

May turned to Harper and said, “you are a good father” and called his children “charming.” She said she believed his efforts as prime minister “are based on your principles, but obviously I think your principles are going to change Canada in a dangerous direction.”

Harper praised Layton, for his work on issues like Parliament’s historic residential school apology.

“I can say good things about Jack, despite some of the big differences we have in terms of philosophy,” Harper said. “You’re honest and I do appreciate that.”

From The Star.

Student Faints During Conservation Conference - Watch more free videos

I feel sorry for the kid, Harper is one boring person he makes me sleepy just looking at him.

moar

ldquo;Particularly in big cities, we’ve got people that have grown up in a different culture,rdquo; he said. ldquo;And they don’t have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities … and don’t have the same respect for authority or people’s person or property.rdquo;

He later added: ldquo;Talk to the police. Look at whorsquo;s committing these crimes. They’re not the kid that grew up next door.”

Also, this is my Technorati Profile for those who care.