This Election is Important

I am freaking out over the possibility that Harper might win a majority. Because he is doing well in Ontario. ONTARIO WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Please, please, everyone do what you can to prevent a Harper majority from happening. Talk to people about why it's important to vote and why it's important to not vote Conservative. The Conservatives are garbage on just about every issue you can think of. There are resources and information about why Harper is bad for Canada, here, here, here, here, and here. Use social media, make reasons for not voting Conservative your facebook status, tweet about is, write to newspapers, call radio stations, talk to your relatives, friends, co-workers and neighbours. If you can convince one person to vote who otherwise might not have, or if you can convince one person to not vote Conservative, that is an accomplishment.

This is going to be a very tense week. I probably won't post much until after May 2. 

An Anti-Choice Fantasy

Remember those greeting cards for expectant mothers that were ostensibly from her fetus?

Ie. these things.

Someone took this idea a step further, and wrote a series of letters to a woman from her fetus. Her aborted fetus.

I'm not exactly sure where it came from, or who wrote it. You can see it on Facebook here. I found it on Tumblr, but the original post, and many of the reblogged posts, have since been deleted (in some cases, the entire Tumblr account was deleted). Probably because the post was accompanied by an image of a bloody fetus. (Which I did not reproduce here, for obvious reasons.)

Anyhoo, the whole thing is, in various measures, bizarre, creepy, patronizing, ignorant, insulting, and ridiculous. It's horrific. But in a manner that makes it hard to look away. So instead, I dissect it. As one might dissect a fetal pig.

The following includes an account of domestic violence. Just so you know. 

Look South To See Harper's Vision For Canada

I would like all Canadians to take a look at what's going on south of the border right now. The war on women's reproductive rights. The war on unions. The anti-environmentalism. The anti-intellectualism. The outright class warfare. Look at what Republicans are making of our neighbour.

And remember: These are the people that Harper takes his cues from. When the USA went into Iraq, Harper wanted to go in with them. When it looked like a Democrat was going to win the presidential election, the PMO tried to discredit him. When US politicians started using "socialism" as a dirty word, Harper tried to use it the same way, to make the NDP look scary. When right-wing USians got huffy about their census, he started a census controversy here. His environmental policy is explicitly "We'll do whatever the US does". He even jacks Republican campaign ads.

The Republicans that are bent on making life a soulless grind for all but the richest USians are the people that Harper admires. Like he admires George W. Bush. (And seriously, how many people still admire Bush?).

Harper wants Canada to be like the USA. So look hard at the US. Do you want that? 

Canadians Against Harper

Find more posters here

Canadians!

Are you concerned about the outcome of the upcoming election? Are you interested in something simple you can do to help prevent another Harper government?

Then head to AnyoneButHarper - a site where you can download printable posters, each displaying a simple fact or two illustrating why the Conservatives are bad for Canada on any given issue. Are people in your area concerned mostly with the economy? There's a poster for that. With farming? There's a poster for that. With immigration? There's a poster for that too. Find the issue you think is most relevant to your neighbourhood, download the pdf, and print out posters to put up.

It doesn't take long to spread a little information. 

Quick Thoughts on Slutwalk

The crowd congregating at Queen's Park

I went to Slutwalk today.

The crowd was great! Tons of people of all ages, men and women and gender queer, people of all colours, and sexual orientations. The signs people made were clever and thoughtful. I loved seeing the outfits that people chose - lots of slutty clothes. There were spontaneous outbursts of chanting; and some folks brought percussion instruments and were playing an awesome beat that people were dancing to.