Escaping to Canada II

Harper is violating the Canada that I know and love.

Private member bills to stop all funding to the CBC are not random events. They are surely payback for the accidental public outing of government front group Ethical Oil.

Other abominations are floating around such as reductions in corporate taxes, billions being spent on aircraft, ships and prisons while old age security seems likely to be pushed a few years further away for future generations. Don't forget branding everyone opposed to the oil sands pipelines as "radicals" or "enemies of the state" now referred to as Enemy Gate.

This is not my Canada.

I'm left wondering how to be effective and how to do so quickly. It's not easy to get people who are trapped in their daily lives to spend the energy to care. It's harder getting them involved to the degree of helping to donate resources and harder yet to get physically involved. Even so, how can we do anything but slowly build an avalanche of voters determined to clean up the mess that Harper is creating with his majority?

I've got half a mind to create a second Canada. A virtual Canada. An online Canada. As you've surely guessed I'll call it Canada II. This country will have a policy stance. Citizens will join and will have two duties. They will prove that they are willing and able to vote in a physical election by naming their riding, MP and local polling station. They will also pay a small citizenship tax, perhaps $5 per year, to prove their willingness to do something more than simply complain online.

Canada II will be a non-profit organization founded to work on issues important to the majority of Canadians. It will work for environmental stewardship, human rights, legalization of marijuana, proportional representation, carbon reduction, sustainability and renewable energy. Canada II will not be anti-business but it will exclude business and monetary influence from it's policy decisions. It will advocate policies purely for the public good.

Canada II will be filled with citizens who will vote, know where to vote, and have put their money where there mouth is with respect to their beliefs.

Will anyone join me? At the very least we could organize and connect with other like minded people online and locally. With success we would have a large enough advocacy group to make politicians concerned about our deliberations.

What is your alternative... complaining on Twitter until 2015?