Why can’t we be friends?

That’s the question that keeps popping into my mind whenever I’m inundated with political attack ads, constant negative and divisive messaging from the fringe elements of our parties, and the daily dose of whining from every Tom and Teresa.

I had a nice coffee with a former Huntsville Mayor the other day and he was recalling the days of yore when our political representatives would have a real go at each other in the House of Commons (or even at Queen’s Park), but then still be friendly afterwards.

So friendly that people from all the different political parties would have drinks and dinner after the sessions were completed. There were very real and deep friendships created. 

Then I was hanging out with some of my oldest friends and one of them, who used to work for a Liberal representative in the GTA, expressed a similar sentiment about the respectful discourse, and more importantly the ability to work together.

The room I was in with my oldest friends had Liberals, Conservatives, and independents (like me) all hanging out together, discussing various topics, and no mudslinging occurred.

And everyone agreed that former Prime Minister Jean Chretien was a badass leader and our personal favourite. He was a Liberal in case anyone forgot, but he was a unifying force in our nation who put the whole country above all else (not just the people he agreed with politically).

This is what our leaders at every level of government should be doing: debating ideas and topics, coming up with common ground solutions, and avoiding the mudslinging that has become prevalent in the political world over the past decade.

It would be nice if our current leaders and representatives at all levels of government could take several steps back and start acting like decent human beings again.

How can we get back to that?

Let’s first off recognize that most Canadians are not the fringe crazies with the loudest, most obnoxious lobbyists.

Most Canadians, from all walks of life, are in the middle.

They’re independent and have voted for different parties based on their personal needs at the time.

They’re usually slight left or slight right leaning with a “don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you” attitude.

They care about social issues, but not at the expense of lower taxes, a good economy, affordable housing, a low cost of living, and their own family life.

They want free, quality education for their children that focuses on reading, writing, maths, and other fundamental items that produced some really amazing people over the years (like most of Gen X).

They want access to quality healthcare for everyone and are happy to pay taxes to support that.

They only care about three things when it comes to new people they meet (whether at work or at play): What’s your name? Do we have anything in common? Are you cool or not? 

This is literally the majority of people I speak with on a daily basis who have different ethnic backgrounds, different levels of melanin, different religions, different everything.

It’s funny how the one thing in common is wanting to work hard, have good family and friends, and live a peaceful, happy life.

The majority of people don’t care about non-essential political issues like gender identity, sexual orientation, skin colour, and so-called diversity topics because they only care about the three things I mentioned above.

The majority of people know that really amazing people come from all over the place and judging them by what they look like, where they’re from, or who they choose to love, is a ridiculous practice.

The majority of people care about the environment and want to see intelligent policies that work to protect it while maintaining (even creating) jobs for Canadians.

The majority of people are NOT hard right fanatics that think only pious Christians of their chosen sect are worthy of human decency – which contradicts the teachings of their messiah.

The majority of people are NOT far left hypocrites who try to appease every individual’s delusional whim while contradicting their own belief system in the process – such as LGBT individuals celebrating Hamas (if you don’t know why that’s hypocritical, you are part of the problem).

In fact, the fringe minority groups on the far left and far right use each other as “examples” of how “all (insert political leaning)” think. But, in reality, it’s only the pathetic fringe groups that think like that.

The truth is that the majority in the middle think both sides have lost their minds. Worse, the leaders of our political parties are wasting time and money on catering to these groups, while ignoring the wants and needs of most Canadians.

The majority of people would rather see our tax dollars supporting small business in Canada than be sent overseas for fighting wars.

The majority of people want to see a return to civility, diversity of thought, human decency, and friendly disagreements.

That starts with each one of us choosing to ignore, not engage with, the fringe lunatics in our society.

It continues with occasionally having respectful disagreements and, at times, “agreeing to disagree” before a heated debate gets personal.

Moreso, we need to be open to understand each other and have real discussions that will only serve to unite us as Canadians, who are not defined by our politics, our skin colours, our ethnicities, our religions, our gender, or our sexuality.

It’s time we spread more love, unity and acceptance of differing viewpoints. It’s time to silence the fringe minorities and start catering to the moderate majority again.

And we must demand our leaders from all parties start doing the same.

It’s time to be friends again.

Ciao for Now!

Click the banner to contact us about advertising and sponsorship opportunities!