We're All On So Many Drugs With the Curtains Drawn

I'll be honest and state that I haven't really been paying attention to the current election campaign.  I figured out which party's policies I largely agreed with early on, and sort of tuned out since then.  However, every now and then something comes along which I can't help but notice, usually because it infuriates me.  This is one of those times.

Harper warns of activist judges (from the Globe and Mail).

Now, why does it infuriate me?  Because of two things: first, it's bringing American political rhetoric to Canada.  They may be similar in some ways, but in others (especially the political system), they're rather different.  I know people immediately know what you mean when you say it, but that doesn't mean it's applicable.

The meaning is, of course, the second thing.  "Activist judges" has always struck me as meaning "judges who don't rule the way we want them to rule".  I see it as just more bitterness about the fact that certain social policies are either rejected or accepted, when those parroting the phrase would rather they not be.

So please, Mr. Harper, leave the American political rhetoric where it belongs, in America.  It won't get me to vote for you, but it might help keep the political discourse a bit more civil.

I've also got issues dealing with the idea of an elected Senate (and some minor ones dealing with the fixed election proposal), but those are rants for another time.