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Anything But Harper – Election Day in Canada

"Anything but Conservative" Lawn Sign on Carling Road, Ottawa, October 2015
“Anything but Conservative” Lawn Sign on Carling Road, Ottawa, October 2015

“What are you doing?”

“Putting my shoes on. I’m going outside.”

“Bye-bye, see you tomorrow!”

“No, you’re coming. Put on your jacket.”

“I want to watch Toys!”

“You’ll watch Toy Story later. It’s on the tablet. You know, back in my days, we would watch whatever was on TV, we didn’t get to choose the movie… Oh, never mind. Come on, put on your shoes as well.”

“We’re going… McDonald’s.”

“Nope. See that building? The one you always want to go to?”

“It’s people’s home. People sleep here.”

“Yeah, kind of. It’s a retirement place. But that’s a voting booth today. Watch the road.”

“Red stop. Green… go!”

I’m going to vote. And I want you to come with me.”

“I wanna go home.”

“We left two minutes ago. Come on, go fast, it’s cold. So, voting. One day, you will vote too. And since Daddy doesn’t believe in politics or Western-style democracy, I have to teach you all about it. Oh, that’s okay, Daddy is mostly kidding. He can’t help it though, he is Chinese. Born under Mao, you know, the guy who is on the poster above Mommy’s desk.”

“Go here?”

“Yep. See Mark, you’re the reason why I’m voting today. Remember the guy you found scary on TV? That’s Stephen Harper. I find him scary too. So today, I’m going to try to make him go away. Like when we chase bad dreams away in your room.”

“Monsters.”

“Okay, technically, he isn’t a monster. Just a… a misguided politician. With scary MPs by his side.”

“Mommy scared?”

“Yeah, I’m kind of scared of him. Sometimes, people are scary. Their ideas are scary. So I want another guy to be the… the boss of the country. This is your country, Mark. Daddy and I were not born here. We are nomads. We are grownups, we can pack and go live somewhere else if we ever need to. But you were born in Canada. You are growing up here and I want you to grow up in a nice country. Do you like it when mommy and daddy take your toys away when you’re not playing nice?”

“No. Daddy no take away. My toys.”

“Well, I don’t want a guy to take away stuff from you. Like your freedom to choose the way you live your life. I want you to play with friends from all over the world. I want you to learn all kinds of things in school, including stuff you are way too young right now for me to explain. I want you to have fun, to go to concerts, to go to museums…”

“I want to go museum! Oh no. Museum closed. Church closed.”

“See, that’s what I’m saying. I want more culture—more museums for you to explore. You can’t do shit with more funding for law enforcement, although I suppose it would be entertaining for you to see cars speed by with sirens on…  And I want you to be able to step into any church, mosque, synagogue or temple you want, just to check it out. Do you play with Kader at school? And Caleb? And Deepa?”

“Yeah. Caleb is funny.”

“Well, I want you to be able to play with everyone, I want everyone to have fun together. It’s just better this way. I don’t want people to be scared, I don’t want people to be told to be scared. Daddy says I’m naive sometimes, but I think it’s good to be nice and naive. So I’ll vote as a nice and naive person.”

“C. O. M… no, no, N.”

“Not this one, Mark. This sign, what does it say?”

“…”

“That’s the one I’m voting for. Come on, it will just take a minute. We can go to Tim Hortons after.”

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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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