BY: ERIK HUSTON
The October 19th election was a doozie. Tensions have always been high between parties but never have the stakes been this stacked. Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair and Elizabeth May battled it out in an intense competition that lasted longer than any other in Canadian history. The intensity of this competition was reflected in the 68 per cent of Canadians who voted – the highest voter turnout in twelve years. And after eleven long weeks we saw the Liberals rise into a majority government with Justin Trudeau as Canada’s new Prime Minister.
With this change, there is new hope for Canada. Specifically, to bring back the Canadian values that were lost over the course of the Harper government’s reign. Here is what I hope to see change in the months and years ahead:
1) Social and Environmental Conscientiousness
As a country we must realize that all things come with a price. Deciding to cut costs as consumers or as companies at the expense of the environment or to the detriment and suffering of innocent workers overseas is wrong. We must at the very least educate people on conscious choices at a massive scale and possibly give tax breaks to conscious companies. At the most we must put laws in place to limit the despotic practices of companies that are not committed to social and environmental justice.
2) Transparency and Collective Decisions
We live in a democracy, so let’s start acting like it. I know that many Canadians care about an open and transparent government. It is imperative that we implement rewards for companies and organizations that are going in the direction of transparency. It all starts with the government though – if the Canadian government ends closed door deals and opens up issues to national discussion then other institutions may follow. You never know where the next earth shattering innovation will come from.
3) Investment in Innovation
One of the many horrors that the Harper government was responsible for was cutting away at science, innovation and perhaps most notably, the long form consensus. We could lead the way in science and innovation, paving the road to a better future through our collective genius. I imagine a Canada that is consciously designing its future through investment in technological development. One effective way to encourage mass innovation is to use a platform like HeroX. This way anyone in Canada can come up with solutions and be rewarded for their innovations by the government. It is about opening the issues of today to the public and rewarding those that come up with solutions. We must face these challenges together if we are to make progress.
It was a long election and because of it, we can look forward to some form of change. The question is how radical will the change be? Will we be seeing a massive overhaul of Canadian values and progressive policies or will change be stamped out by pointless bureaucracy? All we have is hope and hard work. In the words of Trudeau himself, “This is what positive politics can do.” (CBC) Now we will have the chance to see what positive politics will do in the years ahead.