And Thus Change Begins

As someone who literally can't remember a time when Stephen Harper was not prime minister (seeing as I wasn't exactly the most political at the age of seven), it's pretty significant for me that all of a sudden our prime minister is Justin Trudeau.

For me, this represents so many good things. On a personal level, it means I won't have to listen to my mother's "Stephen Harper is literally Satan" rants (why, yes, she is a bit more left than right, how did you guess?) but on a less personal level, it means that I'm probably going to start seeing actual change. And that'll be an interesting experience.

This is probably not the best way to prelude a post about the younger Trudeau, but I have to say it, so that people know how I'm politically bent: I really admire Pierre Trudeau. From what I learned in Socials 11, Pierre Trudeau was a pretty cool dude who implemented a lot of positive change for the country (including, but not limited to, patriating the Constitution, putting way more women in positions of government, making Canada an officially bilingual country, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and, if I recall correctly, it was he who introduced the concept of multiculturalism. I have to say this because people around have often asked, "Name one good thing he ever did." Hopefully that clears that up). I can't, for the life of me, understand people who dislike Pierre Trudeau or what he did while in government. (That said, I was only given a crash course of his political career in a Socials course - seeing as I wasn't alive at the time, I could be missing pieces of the story).

Big shoes for his son to fill, perhaps, but I definitely have faith in Justin Trudeau. Without going into too much detail on every single issue, of which, it turns out, there are a few, let's just say that my ideas align fairly well with his, and the Liberal party's.

And, in all honesty, just having a change from how the Conservative party was running the country will be good. The Conservatives did nothing for the environment at all (it was almost to the point of, "if I can't see it it can't see me" put your fingers in your ears and sing "lalalala" kind of denial), and their stance on the niqab was getting really hard to take. (There are issues around the niqab - mainly whether or not they'd be willing to show their faces if it came to an issue of security - but turning it into a women's rights issue is just not the way to go, here. How are you advocating for women's rights if you're telling them how to dress? How are you upholding the Canadian multiculturalism which is, in my experience, a pillar of our particular society? HOW IS IT "MORE CANADIAN" TO INFRINGE ON THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION???)

I am really surprised, not unpleasantly so, that we ended up with a Liberal majority. My original prediction had been that we'd have a Liberal government, but a minority. To go from a Conservative majority to a Liberal majority is a fairly radical change, and one that I'm quite ready for.

I'm glad this has happened, and I can't wait to see what changes happen as a result.

P.S "You young people only like Justin Trudeau because he's going to legalize marijuana!"

Yeah, because I, a straight-edge introvert whose most rebellious action of my high school years thus far has been to trick-or-treat on Halloween when my Dad told me I was too old, am totally going to have a really strong opinion about whether or not I get to smoke weed. My support of Trudeau and the Liberals definitely has nothing to do with my general ideological stance.

But, for the record:

"Is that really our biggest issue right now?" asks the anti-Trudeau "nice hair though" commercial.

No, it quite clearly is not, but isn't it rather hypocritical for you to point that out, Conservatives, having put so much effort into arresting those who use marijuana?

And, one last thing: no, marijuana still isn't our biggest issue. But there are a lot of good arguments to legalize it, regardless. Basically, what it amounts to is this: if you take the power away from the drug-dealers, than the country will be a safer place. Regulate the drug, and it won't be laced, and people who choose to use it will be safer. Collect the tax money from the sales and use it for something worthwhile. Put laws around who gets to use it - for example, an age limit. I really don't see a particularly strong downside to this course of action.

Fight me, Conservatives.