By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
Voting, as we in the Western world know, is a wonderful privilege, and can effect many changes - not all of them good, unfortunately.
For the people of the Arctic region, it is certainly a good thing, as a historic vote to form the government of the new territory of Nunavut was held recently, electing the first 19 MLAs to sit. Their votes, in turn, will be unusual and precedent-setting in Canada in terms of running a government, and maybe is something we could send our Parliamentarians up to observe.
Some people, particularly those of a partisan nature, won't like this, but they have no political parties in Nunavut; the 19 MLAs will rule by consensus, choosing their leader or premier from among their ranks.
How would that play out in the House of Commons? I don't know that MPs could get used to a debate without rancour or shouted jabs across the floor. Proponents of the parliamentary system would doubtless have objections, pointing out there are benefits to having an Official Opposition to the ruling party to help keep them honest.
What those proponents don't answer are the concerns of the average voter, you and me, who consistently indicate to the government in opinion polls and elsewhere that we don't like the mud-slinging and personal attacks that seem to comprise the adversarial system of government these days. Perhaps we see this more south of the border, where election battles can get very personal and very nasty; if you watch the Parliamentary channel sometime, however, you'll get a taste for the "zoo atmosphere" in the Commons.
An example of voting that (in my opinion) didn't have good results was the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, held recently in the U.S. Senate, ending what seemed an interminable process of examining the sexual immorality of the U.S.'s commander-in-chief.
Opinions vary on what should have been done with Clinton, depending largely on if you are a Democrat or a Republican (with very few exceptions). What is disturbing from the Senate vote, at least to me, is there were senators voting not to impeach the president despite the evidence showing that the American people were lied to, and that justice was obstructed. Senators admitted this in public, and a number said they wanted to vote that the charges against Clinton were not proven, instead of voting not guilty.
At the very least, Clinton should have been censured; no leader of a nation, especially not one of a major world power such as the U.S., should be allowed to get away with these kinds of things. In my mind, the senators fell down on the job and failed to do their duty to uphold the integrity and honour of the office of the President.
On a lighter note, there's another vote coming up that is of interest to movie buffs: the Academy Awards. The list of nominees came out recently, and as usual, mystified a great number of movie-goers with names of films no one has seen yet, or came out in limited release.
Some of the films one would expect to be on the list were there, such as Saving Private Ryan from director Steven Spielberg. This is one film I did see, and I would have to agree with the list of nominations it has received; it is certainly a graphic film, but it packed quite an impact. Spielberg shows his genius in this movie, by showing something that would be horrible to experience in a matter-of-fact way - this is how it looked, period. It's disarming to see the violence on the screen, to be sure, but it was part of the story.
Other nominees in the Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress and Best Director categories I simply have no opinion on, as I know nothing about their pictures. I'd like to see Shakespeare In Love when it comes out, as it's the top competitor with Saving Private Ryan for the top awards. One movie I thought should have had far more recognition was The Horse Whisperer, directed by Robert Redford; going by the nominations, you would've thought it was nothing more than a TV movie-of-the-week.
It's too bad these awards can't have more input from movie fans, but then it would become another People's Choice Awards show.
All of this shows, I suppose, that our lives are made much more interesting because of the concept of voting in most every area of life. The results aren't always what we would like, but no system can be 100 per cent perfect and satisfactory to everyone.
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