Not Again - Speak Up

It was exactly one year ago this week that I began my first blogging experience by putting words to these pages. When my staff first suggested it, I spoke against it, saying there are enough words said about politics these days. They countered by saying that not enough is being written or said about non-partisanship, and they were indeed correct.And so I celebrate twelve months of fighting for a better kind of politics by reading in the media that the Conservative government is now readying their negative advertisements on Michael Ignatieff. Conservatives admitted that they went easy on the new Liberal leader because they needed him to get the budget passed. Fair enough. That kind of thing happens all the time here.But nothing has quite compared to how the Conservatives handle attack ads. The sheer devastation of their attacks on Stephane Dion for the past two years are still recent enough in memory that a kind of collective shudder runs through the minds of Canadians as they hear that a second generation of negative ads are on their way. We see an indication of Canadian discontent on this matter by reviewing some of the comments responding to this initial story as it appeared in the Canadian Press."The Cons have more money than brains.""Canadians, including conservatives, are getting tired of this."The Conservatives are "raising the bar for gutter politics."Enough said. What is truly sad about this is that it comes at a time, and in a climate, where the need for parties to come together has never been more clear. It was Stephen Harper himself who a few weeks ago called on parliamentarians to set aside their differences and work together for the sake of Canadians.  Mr. Ignatieff took him up on that offer and opted to support the budget that would get the fiscal funds out to Canadians as quickly as possible. Rather than raise the bar, we are about to go through a negative maelstrom about the very Liberal leader who worked in the cooperative spirit the Prime Minister was asking for.All this is a little sick ... and troubling. So many Canadians out of work. So many students unable to afford university or college. So many investors losing significant funds. Too many families visiting food banks. What an absolutely insane time to ready an already reeling country for more partisan attacks. Have we learned anything? Have we refined ourselves at all, or learned from our recent failures? Don't bother, we know the answer.Write in. Speak up. Express your anger and do your best to stop us from heading down this road. A year of blogging and we're right back at the beginning!