Catpaw - diary of an angry cat

Lest any of us get too complacent or arrogant about our democracy here in Canada, listen to this cautionary tale.

Just north of where I live, in Toronto there has been an outbreak of violent vandalism of the likes I don’t think we have ever seen. Specific political party supporters are being targeted by someone in a campaign of hate and terror.

For non-Canadians here’s a quick lesson before I go on. We have 3 main political parties: the Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democrats (NDP). The Green party is now making some impressive inroads on the political scene so we really have 4 main parties to choose from. Conservatives have traditionally been right of centre in their views, the Liberals left of centre, the NDP and Greens further left of centre. Throw in a few independent candidates and you have a pretty lively political scene up here in the frozen north.

The Liberal supporters in the St. Paul’s voting district have woken up to find graffiti spray painted on their garages and homes, cars have been keyed, and more disturbing their brake lines, phone and cable  have been cut. All the victims have had Liberal support signs on their lawn.There were 26 reported incidents.

Do the words appalled, horrified and frightened come to mind? How about furious and angry? This is the work of some lone sick b@stard who is taking pleasure in scaring people. To cut a brake line is a deliberate attempt to hurt or kill someone. This is premeditated. It is also an act of electoral tampering. Whoever it is will get caught and should face more than vandalism charges. I like the idea of attempted murder charges, perhaps the police can find something about tampering with telecommunications lines and election tampering.

Of course all parties are condemning this action. No right minded person would ever sanction this action. This is the action of one or two creepy individuals with their own axes to grind. It may turn out the Liberal signs simply provided the person an easy target and has nothing to do with the election here in Canada. Somehow, I don’t think so. There was a spat of vandalism during a by-election in Guelph and Willowdale during the summer, again aimed at the Liberals.

Our right to vote and support whatever party we damned well please is sacred. No one is going to tell me how to vote, nor are they going to scare me enough to stop me. There is no power strong enough to stop me from supporting my candidate of choice. For the record - I’m a Liberal with leanings towards the Green Party. Although I strongly believe in the right to privacy in your choices, face it, anyone reading this blog for any length of time must have figured I’m not a Conservative (ya think??) so there wasn’t much choice. Criticise me all you want for my choice, it is still MY CHOICE! Don’t like it - TOUGH! Go vote on election day.

So how are the people reacting? One person said “I think we should get a bigger sign”. With the exception of a few people, all are opting to put their signs back up, and some actually getting bigger signs. Liberal leader Stéphane Dion stated (and seriously, this applies to all our leaders, not a one of them will disagree with this statement)

[W]e will not be intimidated by that … It’s something we cannot accept in Canada.

Stumble it!