Hey China out with the insinuation of killing politicians in the quest to find a good one. We are in Canada not Rumania. Rumania is a third world country and don’t hold the light to democracy and civil liberties. The fact of the matter here in Canadian is that the Canadian people were looking for a sincere change. Don't nock Canadians. They were told by Harper the cheater that we are able to bring ethical and moral change in Canada and the people went for it. No Canadian deserves to have scum bags bragging before they can prove their true intentions.
In the early days of Canadian politics it wasn't unknown to have people soliciting votes outside polling stations with offers of cash. I really don't think our "system" or "morals" or anything else integral as Canadians is the reason we have had stability all these long years.
It seems more accurate to say we have been stable because we are a wealthy nation. We didn't make our wealth either but rather it is derived from the land we pilfered from the original inhabitants. True we have worked hard as individuals to exploit that land and that is attributable to the strong protestant work ethic it seems most "wealthy democracies" have so strongly (sorry Quebec).
I think too our "liberalism" comes from the simple fact that we can't have shanty towns in Canada; the land is just too inhospitable, and we would be condemning thousands of people to cold deaths. That isn't to say we as people aren't capable of that cruelty but rather it isn't a practical cruelty; that is we must take care of the working poor or, as a nation, face the perils of very high labour costs. Today we have homeless but rarely are they from the working class. Typically, in BC anyway, they are WCB victims and drug users; what most conservatives would term "white trash" and quickly unload any social responsibility for on to their own shoulders with the conservative maxim of blaming people for their own circumstance. I believe this is why we have homeless today, for which few seem concerned; they aren't missing from the labour pool because circumstance, for which we can feel confident they deserve using conservative justifications, and for whom we need not feel compassion - surely that homeless bum is there because he wants to be or deserves to be!
I personally have found no evidence that something innate has brought about our social fortune. I have examined 3rd world politics and seen all the same forces at work we have here in Canada. The only element missing is that the average Canadian is very wealthy and has an historically unprecedented standard of life (as most western democracies do); which I would argue, is the geneses of that stabilizing element we are all too ready to claim is some innate function of our natures. I just don't think it is true.
I would also argue that our unprecedented standard of life has come directly from the threat of violence by the workers. It started with the French Revolution which scared the elite into loosening their strangle hold on workers for fear that would spread to England. That little breathing room opened up the opportunity for labour movements to make even greater gains. That, IMO, is the real and only reason Canada is both free and stable.
Let Canada miss three meals and watch what happens. We riot over hockey because our bellies are full, we let political leaders rob us blind, pilfer our wages, tax our land, etc.. only because our bellies are full.
No, we are no more nor anything less than ordinary. IMO.
