Don't let fear determine your future

By the time of the next election; I will have been a resident of Canada for a full ten years, a citizen of this country for 3 and a half years, and will vote for the first time in a Canadian federal election.

I lived in the United State for 48 years, before immigrating to Canada from the state of Alabama in October 2005.  When I came to Canada, everything seemed pretty much like the US, but with a few differences, of which I was keenly aware.  In 2005, Canadians were not obsessed with their fears.  They did not talk about what they feared all day, they didn't try to convince me that I should be afraid, like them ... if I only understood the danger we're all in!  They didn't try to tell me that, in other words, that if I were smarter, I'd be more fearful.  What a bullshit attitude; but that was the attitude of the South I left. Constant fear, and bold talk, but just talk. 

I think the gun culture of the States defines the difference in Canadians and Americas.

I know the gun culture well, I was a part of it. It's a culture of fear ... Americans are a frightened people, controlled by that fear.

The guns – and I possessed my own share; I'm not exempting myself – are pacifiers. Americans need them to feel safe, secure, and in control. Canadians don't; and that's a huge cultural difference.

But consider what’s happened in the ten years since I crossed the border.  There is a large growing segment of Canada's population that is starting to obsess over fear. And fear has taken center stage in the upcoming federal election.

Fear is like anger.  It's an emotion that must be constantly fed, or it will diminish.  Canada has an entire political party, it seems to me, devoted to stoking fear, and anger, and hatred ... seeking to exploit those emotions.  Just like our American neighbors. 

Canada can avoid the same. On October 19, two weeks from today, I believe Canadians are going to soundly renounce the Conservative Party government of Canada; and reject the politics of fear that have controlled this nation for far too long.