If you don't vote, you have to shut up

This is a message to everyone who doesn't bother to vote, but has a lot to say about outcomes.  I know a couple of people who are not in Canada at the moment and will miss the election (one of whom is a political junky, by the way) but as I say, if you don't vote, you have to zip it until the next election because you are not entitled to an opinion on this one.  Period the end.

No matter where you are, or what your work hours, the system gives you ample time to have your say and cast your vote.  No excuses allowed.

Cast your vote!

From what the pundits and pollsters say, most people make up their minds within the last 48 hours before they enter the ballot box -- many waiting until they're standing in it, pencil in hand.  That being the case, I wonder if the unspeakable tragedy in Vancouver will sway anyone?  Will the fact that a mentally ill man, who had had many run-ins with the law over the years, drove down a busy carnival street and mowed down and killed 11 people, make any voters switch to a law-and-order candidate?

Maybe.

The Liberals were in power the whole time this lunatic was marauding around town threatening neighbours and getting arrested.  He was so bad, his poor mother attempted suicide.  He should have been in jail, or at the very least a mental institution, but he was released time and again until he snapped, taking many innocent lives with him.

As far as this election is concerned, Licia Corbella had an interesting column in today's 'Globe and Mail'.  She wondered how Ontario or Quebec would react if the federal government treated them the way it treats Alberta?

"Alberta's grievances, along with those of Saskatchewan, are ignored entirely by the rest of the country or passed off as unjustified whining," she writes.

Preston Manning says a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession and the breakup of Canada as we know it.  The fact is that Alberta contributes billions to the rest of Canada.  The net figure is $20 billion handed over to the rest of the country.  Where would Quebec be if it separated?  Impoverished.  When Premier Legault boasted a couple of years ago that he had balanced his budget, I burst out laughing.  He balanced it, thanks to Alberta's billions.  What a laugh.

"The Liberal Bill C-48 bans tanker traffic on B.C.'s north coast and is designed to prevent Alberta crude from making is way to Asia.  Oil tankers from Saudi Arabia, however, travel freely along our east coast."

This is bullsh-t.

"Bill C-69, dubbed the 'no more pipelines act' has been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada, yet Mr. Carney has said he will not repeal it," writes Corbella.

More bullsh-t.

Imagine the feds blocking provincial wealth in any other province?!  Imagine a new law vetoing already-announced battery plants in Ontario?!

Would never happen.  Now you understand why Albertans hate the Liberals.