AMERICA - DON’T VOTE FOR A 70 PLUS CANDIDATE

I am 73 years old and I am advising Americans to think twice about voting for a presidential candidate who is 70 years and older.  Political correctness declares that age should not be an issue, but honestly, it is.  President Obama's hair colour is an indicator of the onerous burdens of the office. He took office at age 44. Imagine the cumulative affects of national governance on a president whose best years are 20-30 years behind him. Of course Trump, if elected, will never grey out because his present hair colour is simulated. That should not dupe anyone. This office requires grey matter. The synaptic gaps in Trump's brain are already too far apart for responsible information transmission. All other Republican candidates are 65 years and younger. Of the Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders is 75, Jim Webb is almost 71 and Joe Biden who will soon declare his candidacy, is 74. Hillary will turn 70 before the presidential election and she gives evidence now that she should consider a position no loftier than co-host of The View.

Canadian Federal Administration Dismays Me

A NEW LEARNING
I have too much unfocused time and use a great deal of it to reflect on details of life that I ignored before I retired. I have harangued about this before but it irks me still. Obama’s White House government website is impressively classy, regal, and so very user friendly and informative and Obama is front and centre. Our Canadian Parliament site is tightly packed, minimalist and visually challenging and Harper is just a name, no visuals. I wrote a polite note to the Parliament website managers with some suggestions and detected in the following days that someone in the Parliament building had looked at my blog and art sites trying to know who I was. I received no acknowledgment of my note even though suggestions are welcomed. Maybe that was one of the jobs cut in this downturn.

I know that our Prime Minister is subject to parliamentary confidence while the US President is independent of the legislature. Stephen Harper is viewed as one of the many elected officers. Obama is viewed as the Chief as in "Hail to the Chief." Harper fits within Canada’s constitutional monarchical form of government while Obama operates within the American federal constitutional republic. In some ways that seems more pluralistic and democratic. I wish that we could accord to our prime ministerial leader a greater dignity and distinction than we do.

Stephen Harper gets a good deal of negative press. He has brought some of it upon himself. He and his inner circle goofed before Christmas. It is also directed at him because that is how we treat politicians in Canada – badly. He has shown some executive weaknesses as well as many strengths. By the skin of his prorogued teeth Harper is still on the same side of the House. We are moving forward with the Conservative plan for economic recovery but Harper’s hold on power is tenuous.He will stay there as long as the opposition parties (Liberals are key) allow him. I voted for him. I am trusting that his plan will work. But I am concerned.

Harper is almost invisible to the average Canadian. When did you last see Harper before the camera, talking to the press, taking time to talk to a city of people about the economic recovery strategy and listening to their stories. News networks profile every other piece of news, even the token animal story before I see Harper. How can I help but to contrast Canadian leadership with American leadership. I watch Obama almost daily with some clip of him in some American city or at this week’s second weekly Presidential Press Conference. I watch him because I can. He is news. He makes news. He speaks and it becomes news. Harper is unavailable. He is almost silent. He is closeted somewhere. Oh, I forgot. He was in our House of Commons where daily he must compete to talk more commandingly than the opposition amid catcalls and hissing. And you can watch this circus in action if you choose to do so. It’s no wonder Canadians turn to Jeopardy and American Idol.

See Obama's Feb 14 and 2nd press conference at the White House site (4:45 min)

Harper has not addressed the Press since November 8. Oh yes, and back to websites. The Conservative Party site which is colourful and is easily navigable merely leads you to outdated documents. Press the large photo on the first page of the site and you get a November 2008 statement about the economic action plan. I can’t tell you how this dismays me. This is our governing federal party. I can keep things more current than this. The True North Strong and Free is the Party’s 2008 plan presented before the last election. OK! Enuf already, I agree.

Yes We Can

A NEW LEARNING
History was made yesterday. In his speech to a Chicago crowd of one hundred thousand people President elect Barak Obama cited the story of a centenarian woman who voted in this American Presidential election. He pointed out the dramatic events and changes that she has witnessed in her lifetime. Much of the focus of the historicity of this election rests on its racial significance and while we will eventually move past this emphasis, we cannot fail to notice what this moment means for African Americans and other ethnic minorities.
Within my own lifetime there have been historic moments in world and North American history. Here a random few. Allied troops stormed Normandy beaches in 1944. On a Montgomery, Alabama bus Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat to a white passenger and unwittingly launched the civil rights movement in 1955. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis of October almost sparked a nuclear war between USSR and the USA. President Kennedy was assassinated 1963. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were also assassinated in the 1960’s. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. The 1970 October Crisis in Quebec and two terrorist kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec, the subsequent murder of hostage Pierre Laporte and the imposition of the War Measures Act by Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau. In 1971 the Canadian federal government officially adopted a policy of multiculturalism (i.e. French language on documentation including cereal boxes). Richard Nixon resigned as U.S. President in 1974. The death penalty was abolished in Canada in 1976. In 1977 Canadian highway signs went metric. In June of 1981 Terry Fox died in the middle of his cross Canada Marathon of Hope. In 1982 Bertha Wilson was the first woman appointed as a Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down existing legislation against abortion as unconstitutional in 1988. In 1989 Heather Erxleben became Canada's first acknowledged female combat soldier, the same year that one-dollar bills were replaced by the "loonie." The Berlin wall came down in 1989. In 1991 the unpopular Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into effect. In 1993 Kim Campbell replaced Brian Mulroney as the head of the Progressive Conservatives and became Canada's first woman Prime Minister and in the same year Chretien and Liberals had a landslide victory reducing Progressive Conservatives to two seats. Terrorists topple NYC Twin Towers in 2001. A Tsunami devastates a widespread Indian/Asian region (2005). In 2005 Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane ($80 billion), as well as one of the five deadliest in the history of the United States.
Is the election of Barak Obama a pivotal, even a defining moment in US history and its international relationships? I have the sense that it is. I am concerned for him. Secret Service security will need to be at its best. God must protect him. He won but almost half the electors voted for someone else. Yet the hope inspired by Obama's 'Yes We Can' credo may unite rather than divide. I hope that it can.