rabble.ca blogs - Sharon Fraser

Personality and winnability are factors that will matter

Sharon Fraser — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:18:43 -0500

It can't be easy to be one-eighth of a travelling political roadshow, when all eight of you belong to the same party, all have the same goal in mind, and all want you to choose them over the other seven to help attain that goal.

That's life for the eight NDP-ers who want to become party leader, to replace the late Jack Layton, and to overthrow the wicked Stephen Harper Conservative government at the earliest possible opportunity. And to do all that without saying anything too too negative about the other candidates. They're all brothers and sisters, after all.

Who's really responsible?

Sharon Fraser — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:06:08 -0400

I'm writing this from a city/province/region where there are at least as many Boston Bruin fans as Vancouver Canuck fans. Halifax and Boston are practically neighbours; we have a shared history and a relationship that transcends hockey. Bostonians came on trains to help us in 1917 when our city exploded. We send them a giant Christmas tree every year, to say thanks.

We can fly to Boston in an hour and a half and drive there in less than a day. Many of us do, to see the Bruins or the Red Sox or the Celtics play their games.

An issue that deserved some solid feminism

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:10:26 -0400

Here's what I think about SlutWalk:

A police officer in Toronto spoke to a group of university students and in the course of his talk, he told them that if they don't want to be raped, they shouldn't dress like sluts.

This outraged the students who know that rape is a crime of violence and power and it has nothing to do with how anyone dresses. Women of all ages, of all shapes, sizes and colours, blondes, redheads, women with grey hair, women tall and short, women with physical or mental disabilities -- all can be targeted for rape.

Women who work as teachers, lawyers, dancers, mothers, doctors, sex workers, architects, waitresses, nurses, secretaries, chambermaids -- all can be targeted for rape.

Voting for the faceless stranger

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:58:44 -0400

Over the years, I've voted in many federal elections, in many different parts of this country. I've always voted NDP.

As often as not, I've marked my X beside a name I didn't recognize, someone who had never knocked at my door, someone who, I never had any doubt, lived far far away. Wherever I am, I vote for a political party, and to be honest, I can't relate to those people who say they vote for the candidate or who say, "they're all the same."

Harper's to-do list

Sharon Fraser — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:24:08 -0400

This morning, my 16-year-old son, understanding the depths of my devastation, asked me, "What will he do?" Though it wasn't his intent, it reminded me that so many people scoff at the idea of politics, even of voting, by saying, "What's the point of voting? They're all the same."

No. They're not all the same.

I told my son that Stephen Harper's minority government has already done terrible damage to our country while laying the groundwork for the days and years to come. I said there would be some things he would chip away at, quietly, and other things he would attack openly and arrogantly.

Looking back, looking ahead

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:56:34 -0400

It took a few years for the Toronto Star to catch up with rabble.ca but it moved one step closer last week when it endorsed Jack Layton and the NDP. rabble.ca was way ahead of it.

The federal election of 2004 was on June 28. On June 27, 2004, this was the top story on rabble's front page:

Quote:

We back Jack: rabble endorses the NDP

Waiting for the tide to turn

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:36:47 -0400

An election campaign is one of the times when the belief that repetition matters really comes to the forefront. If you hammer on any point long enough, the belief goes, it will eventually penetrate the collective consciousness and be accepted as true.

There were two news events this Monday morning, as week three of the campaign begins, that are connected to this belief. The first was an item I heard on CBC radio's World Report at 7 a.m. about the NDP platform that had been released the day before. It's of interest because, in two different clips, it countered what has become common wisdom by virtue of having been repeated so often.

Harper's dirty little game

Sharon Fraser — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:09:21 -0400

Okay, it may be too much to speak of one bright shining moment -- but there was a time (late 2008, early 2009) when it looked as if we had a chance to see the end of Stephen Harper and see the beginning of an era when a coalition of progressive and enlightened politicians were going to be able to turn things around.

Today: A tool of propaganda

Sharon Fraser — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:00:42 -0500

How can people say -- and seem to really believe -- that war is not romanticized, sentimentalized, glorified? Remembrance Day has now become Remembrance Week. Some people start wearing poppies before the end of October. The airwaves are choked with story after story about the wars. I have no objection -- of course -- to stories and memories but the stories are told, so often, with such affectionate nostalgia.

Those of us who speak against wars are shushed, especially on November 11, or we're told that it is these wars (even the one in Afghanistan!) that have guaranteed our freedom to speak openly.

Oh, shut up

Sharon Fraser — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:30:49 -0400

The epithet in my headline (which my mother wouldn't let me say thus severely curtailing my freedom of speech) is not, surprisingly enough, about Ann Coulter and her recent Canadian adventure. On the contrary, it's directed at the people who can't stop carping and fussing about "freedom of speech" and how poor Ann, with her racist, homophobic, vitriol-laced material was "not allowed" to deliver her expected diatribe at the University of Ottawa. (As it turned out, it was she and her people who decided to cancel in Ottawa and her freedom of speech was on ostentious display the next day in Calgary - but we'll leave it at that.)