john-paulfhodgkins:

Support the things you like in the way they make money & then carve them into gourds. @hodgman @PFTompkins @tricia pic.twitter.com/o1427vCXFT

I cannot get Tumblr to cooperate with me. These come from this tweet.

howilearnedtocope:

1. Validation - it’s ok that I hurt and want to feel better
   
2. Reassurance - I can handle this pain, even though it hurts and I don’t like it
3. Perspective taking: I’ve had bad days like this before, and my record of making it through them is 100%. I can also remember my better days, and know I’m not always hurting this much 

vwcarmats:

Look guys, I appreciate the humour in the whole “our new PM Trudeau is hot ayy lmao” thing but he has a majority and a bad track record in delivering on promises for political convenience. (PS I make note of federal because the same party at federal and provincial/territorial levels can be shockingly different beasts.)

His most infamous flip flop is probably how he voted through C-51 with the promises of amendments, at a time his party was not even the opposition. Why did he do this?

“I do not want this government making political hay out of an issue … or trying to, out of an issue as important as security for Canadians,” Trudeau said. “This conversation might be different if we weren’t months from an election campaign, but we are,” he added. [source]

In other words, he sacrificed social rights of non-”Old Stock” Canadians, the privacy of all, and granted government law enforcement agencies unprecedented power, all so he wouldn’t face criticism over weak security in the elections. He should have know Harper would exercise the powers of this bill in the interim but it was of less import to him.

Probably his most famous promise leading up to this election is the decriminalization of marijuana. Yet when the Conservatives introduced Bill-15 which would make amendments meaning mandatory prison time for possession,

Quebec MP Justin Trudeau, now the front-runner in the race for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, voted in favour of the measure in 2009. [source]

Then, just in July this year,

“I’ve committed to continuing to run balanced budgets,” Trudeau told Liberal supporters at a rally in Markham, Ont. earlier this summer.  “In fact, it is Conservatives who run deficits, Liberals balance budgets. That’s what history has shown.” [source, as with quote in paragraph below]

But as he drove home in the debates to Canadians he knows are sick of austerity measures, “He’d run deficits of up to $10 billion a year until 2019.” What history has shown is that the federal Liberals campaign to the Left and act to the Right. They are widely considered Centrist but in practice, looking to the evidence, this is false and they are right of centre at best.

All this is to say, enjoy the afterglow of post-Harper Canada! Rejoice in the fact that our country’s leader will be the handsomest in the room at summits! But don’t give him slack for it either. Watch him just as hard as (or even harder than) you have with Harper.  Or if you weren’t a watcher of democracy before the gross vulgarities of the Harper regime came to light, now is a great time to start*. Trudeau has important promises to keep. He will probably have to meet the official Tory opposition halfway at times (bleh!) and you will have to decide whether these concessions are acceptable to you or not.

Best case scenario, he did what he had to to gain power and will now be honest and progressive because he can. I certainly hope so.

*I personally recommend The Tyee and the Council of Canadians’ Newsletters. Full disclosure, Tyee has a leftist bent that much of the time favours the NDP & Green parties.