Thoughts on the Federal Election in Spadina Fort York.
There has to be a better way to do this.
I am going to have to do some more blogging already. I feel a need to say something about the way my new member of parliament for Spadina Fort York got decided yesterday. It leaves me disgusted with politics all around.
It also confirms me in some ideas I have been developing about what needs to change in our present political, legal, and economic systems. Present norms seem designed to bring out the worst in people in sexual relations, personal conduct, and business ethics. It attracts people of bad character into politics but also induces bad behaviour in normal people.
Disclaimers
I am a retired, disabled, reclusive individual living deep in the jungles of “Spaffy”. I am a victim of lifelong trauma and drama, and persecution for the ultimate crime of having some intellect and character. I am also very humble and charitable and optimistic.
I have already laid a blog related to this election and to the problem with elections generally. Find that one here. In it I confessed to voting NDP in the advance poll and even holding a very minor position in that party. Whether I will still have it after I publish this, we shall see.
The Issue
The Liberal candidate in this riding was Kevin Vuong. He is now the elected member, despite being disowned by his party. When the scandal of his legal problems broke three whole days ago now, I took to certain internet fora to express my dislike for having my member of parliament chosen by such a flawed system, but also by this kind of mud slinging politics.
I did not like the responses I got. Mainly, being ordered by one twit to report for reeducation in “rape culture” or whatever it was. It is like I am in a Maoist tyranny.
I told the moderator, very immoderately, that I wanted this kind of talk shut down, immediately. That thread was removed. Thank heaven for immediate moderators.
Other comments about the scandal bothered me. The main thrust seemed to be, “hooray, now we can win.” Like, we could not win any other way?
Some gloated that Liberal signs were being taken down. Others were furious that Liberal signs were staying up. Some more thoughtful people pointed out that the most likely outcome if the Liberals won anyway, would be a by-election shortly after.
Sexual Gotchas
The immediate cause of Vuong’s cancellation was someone suddenly discovering that he had been in one of these “this guy groped me” law suits about two years ago. It is very strange that this suddenly popped up two days before the election. Everything about the actual case was strange, too.
A quick review of the facts shows that this was something which never should have been in court. It shows how the disfunction of the legal system enhances the general social breakdown we are presently enjoying. Most people charged with things eventually have them dropped, but the allegations can be used against them forever. Whatever the failings of Mr. Vuong, he has my sympathy on this matter.
We are in an age of ‘takedown politics’ as society deteriorates and factions become more vicious about destroying their opposition. I notice something about this; people’s opposite sex tends to be used against them.
Men will have someone, usually female, make a spurious allegation of sexual harassment against them. Once the target has been apparently destroyed, the accusation seems to vanish with no consequences to the person making it.
Women will have a man hitting on them until they are driven away or driven crazy. For some reason, when the sexual harasser is part of somebody’s secret police, the “believe her” rule does not apply. I know first hand of one such case which I will not give details of for obvious reasons.
The Patrick Brown takedown a few years back was typical of this pattern. It lead to his removal as a Ontario conservative party leader and directly to the election of our present calamity of a premier and government. Brown quickly bounced back and became mayor of Brampton.
The news media spent months turning up every possible stone about Brown’s tenure at conservative headquarters. They found nothing at all. It is not even clear who, if anyone, made the accusation.
Commercial Disputes.
Voung is currently involved in a legal action over a business he helped to set up. He made masks during the earlier part of the pandemic and made a lot of money. A woman is suing because she says she was responsible for setting up the production side of the enterprise and then got pushed out.
This is not an uncommon occurrence among startup businesses in these times. This woman apparently has close connections to the incumbent liberal member of parliament. No doubt there is quit a soap opera in this but it is for courts to sort out.
There is no question raised about the public being cheated or inconvenienced by this “take care” company. They supplied masks at a reasonable cost when there was a shortage and a desperate need. They were, and are, adequate masks, although they lack a nose wire.
Issues with the Legal System
Courts in most countries are garbage and do not produce justice or meet the needs of society. Canadian courts are especially bad. Aside from the issues of access and sensible outcomes, they are easy to use to attack people for malicious reasons.
Any kind of charge can be thrown at people and it is all out in public. Before accusers ever have to substantiate anything, they can walk away, but the accusation remains on the record forever.
Of course all sorts of policing systems and power networks like it like that. It is a very good way of getting someone out of the way. And of course, every sociopath around can use this attack method with various motivations.
This is one of the factors creating a generally unhealthy society. It can poison all forms of human relationships, from business relations to sexual ones.
The most obvious reform is to create real consequences for false accusations. The next is to create confidentiality; especially in any accusation of sexual impropriety, there should be a publication ban until and if the accusations are proven.
Issues with the Political System
The Vuong affair also shows the need for a restructuring of the political system. Only a dunce thinks we are living in an actual democracy. We have an oligarchic system based on personalities and partisan rivalry.
Once people are in office it is very hard to get rid of them, even where they prove totally unsuitable. We have a single member constituency system, which gives the sitting member huge ability to control patronage. Thus the system is based on clientelism.
Clientelism is not even or necessarily about dispensing favours to party supporters. Many people just like to feel they are part of a group around a leader. This leads to tribal and partisan behaviour.
Going to a proportional system with multimember constituencies would not really solve these problems. The real need is to get away from representationalism, eliminating political parties altogether. There is increasing talk about forms of direct democracy, but those people who are involved in party politics are very strongly invested in it.
Election Day.
The worst side of hyperpartisanship was shown by the behaviour of many NDP supporters at the climax of the campaign. I had some access to internal communications of the NDP campaign. This is somewhat confidential and I am limited in what I can say about it.
There were at least some deepers who were disturbed by this behaviour. The biggest contention was the deployment of large signs around polling stations telling people that there was no liberal candidate and that the NDP was the only “progressive” option. Concerns were raised about the legality of this.
The response was that it was checked with lawyers and legal as long as it was a certain distance from the poll station. It was suggested that this may not be the point. It makes the party look very petty.
They seemed to be saying “now you have to vote for us”. This was not true; people could still vote for the Liberal party. Some sad people also said things like “now we can win”, like we cannot win in any other way.
These people were irritated that the poll clerks were not telling people there was no candidate for the Liberals, as though voting liberal was no longer an option. That is not how the law is. If a candidate is on the ballot he or she runs and people can vote as they choose.
I am concerned that election workers were harassed about this by zealous NDP campaign workers. This is not unknown. Once upon a time long ago, I was an election worker and I had to call the police to remove over exuberant NDP campaign workers.
I do not know what was going through Liberal minds in Spadina Fort York. They scrubbed all their public media. If I were a Liberal supporter I would resent all this and make a special effort to vote for the party.
This Age
There is a high probability that there will be a byelection in Spadina Fort York within a few months. The Liberals will probably win it.
The problem with the federal NDP is that it is very out of touch with the public in this age of breakdown and insecurity. This is not necessarily a condemnation of all the NDP. There are eleven NDP parties in Canada, with considerable differences between them.
The problem, again, is political parties in general. They inevitably attract opportunistic and self promoting people such as Kevin Vuong clearly is. There are plenty of operators much worse than him infesting the political world.
His legal matters in themselves should not be seen as serious. What he did wrong was to not inform certain institutions where he should have. Yet the Liberal party knew about his business problem and ignored it. They were scrambling for a candidate after the incumbent suddenly declined to run again.
It will keep getting harder to get honest and competent people to run for office. Many good public figures say they are considering leaving politics because of the increasing super partisanship and personal attacks. It will get worse before it gets better.
The only way to change this atmosphere is a fundamental change to the way things are run. I will maintain that this is why the federal NDP is never able to get anywhere. Its activists are deeply committed to playing the partisan game. It has no real ideas.
The public is looking for that fundamental change. It is becoming clear that it will not happen through the present political process, but outside it.
Meanwhile, here in “Spaffy”, we are waiting to know who our member of Parliament will be.
I like Ford, he is the right guy for Ontario