Fuck Yeah! Feminism

For those of you who were not aware, Canada has been undergoing election fever for the past couple of weeks.  Basically our options were Conservative (Steven Harper), Liberal (Michael Ignatieff), NDP (Jack Layton) and The Green Party (Elizabeth May) (for those of you in Quebec, you would have also had the option of the Bloq).  Essentially Steven Harper is what I like to call scary.  Not only does he have no respect for women’s or LGBTQ rights, if he had his way, he’d also get rid of our public health care system (though, that could prove to be challenging if people decide to revolt against such a movement) and a woman’s right to an abortion.

On so many levels I’m discouraged and displeased with my country.  Chris can elaborate more on the political details, because what I’m going to write about is slightly more personal.

If anything I was too hopeful that the NDP would at least be able to prevent a Conservative majority.  After years of oppression from my brother, and now with the recent oppression on campus, I allowed myself to hope that Canada would choose a better leader, one that had equality in mind.  Again, I was wrong.  If anything, I’m sick of this constant fear when I set foot on campus that there is someone who hates me, my gender, my entity so much, that he has been trying to call other men to arms to get women off of campus.  Despite the fact that no physical acts of violence have taken place, the verbal attacks that have and have continued to take place with little to no action in place to prevent it, is enough to set me on edge.  I’m tired of being considered a second class citizen because I was born with a vagina - I’m just as good as my male counterparts, and deserve to be treated as thus.  I should NOT be made to feel unwelcome on my campus, or nervous in my own country because of the election of an ultra conservative party.

I never really have answers or solutions to any of these problems.  I partially attribute this to the feeling of powerless that I experience, especially when I feel like my voice on campus, in the election, hell even at home, is not being heard. 

I know I urge you all to get active, get involved - and I will continue to do so.  If you’re Canadian and you’re displeased with the way this election turned out - speak out! It doesn’t have to be a blog post, it can be in any form - just do it.  Things will never change unless we try, and I must say, despite my disappointment, I’m so glad to see that a certain amount of Canadians at least TRIED to make a change by voting NDP, by choosing to search for an alternative to the Conservative Party of Canada.

After actually crying (which to some may seem extreme, but I truly was invested in this election and its results) over Stephen Harper’s success I had to find an outlet to express myself, and so here we are. 

So this is one of what will be many (and perhaps annoying) pleas - get active, get involved, get politicized.  You CAN make a difference, and if anything, Canadians proved that tonight.  We made a good start, and for those of us who went out to the polls, we took critical and necessary steps to creating and fostering change within our country.  So kudos to those of you who went out and exercised that beautiful right to vote.