Don't You Wish You Lived in Canada?

Here we are in the full throes of an election that is
scheduled to take place on Tuesday November 3, 2020.
Yes that is 418 days hence. 418 more days of 24/7 assault
by television, radio, e-mail, and text of what your
favorite - or not so favorite - candidate has done,
is doing, and will do.  418 more days of being hit up
for money, "Puleeze, all we are asking for is five more
dollars".  418 more days of worrying about answering
your phone or your doorbell for fear of getting bombarded
by a sales pitch for the presidential flavor of the day.  418
more days of your mailbox being stuffed to the gills with
campaign literature.

Right now, for the Democrats, it is a game of  'ten little
candidates', down by more than half from the initial
group.  It is a painful process, especially if the guy you
were backing is no longer in the running, pardon my pun.
The top three candidates; Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and
Elizabeth Warren have been at it for quite a while. Warren
declared her candidacy on February 9, 2019, right behind
her was Sanders who declared on February 19, 2019, and
taking up the rear, but finishing first, is Biden who tossed
his hat into the ring on April 25, 2019.  And somewhere in
the mix are Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro,
Kamala Harris, Amy Klobucher, Beto O'Rourke, and
Andrew Yang, phew!  There are enough there for them
to have their own parade, but then again none of them
could decide who would lead it off.

But as far as being in the running for first place, they are
all pikers when it comes to the Republicans. The bible that
Trump was sworn in on, was still warm from his touch,
when he officially filed his campaign papers with the
Federal Election Commission.  Yup, he filed for reelection
on his Inauguration Day!  And hang on to your hat folks,
he is now talking about his 2024 election.  Hasn't anyone
told him about the Twenty-second Amendment?  Though
I doubt Trump would let a little thing like that stand in
his way, it hasn't before.

There are some brave souls who have declared their
candidacy for president on the Republican ticket to
run against Trump in 2020; Joe Walsh, the 'potty
mouth' former talk show host/ U.S. Representative
from Illinois, and Mark Sandford, yes that Mark
Sandford, the one, who in 2009, was 'walking the
Appalachian Trail in Argentina' while governor of
 South Carolina.  And that folks are the ones in the
clown car.  

There are rumors that former Ohio governor, John
Kasich, former Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake, and former
Tennessee Senator, Bob Corker - anyone of whom
would make a fine president - are thinking about
running against Trump.  Also the former governor of
Massachusetts, Bill Weld, has declared his candidacy
already.  

However, the Republican Party, the one in the choke-
hold of the current president, is allowing several states
to forego their primary contests for 2020.  It would be
a tad embarrassing to have some states pledge their
delegates for anyone other than the benevolent leader
and potentate himself, Donald J. Trump.  Imagine the
blow to his ego, why it would be enough to make his
yellow hair turn white.  Not gonna happen.

Now let us take a look at our neighbors to the North,
you know, the nice people.  They are having an election
for Prime Minister, a substantial figure in Canadian
government, not quite president but still important.
The current PM a member of the Liberal Party, Justin
Trudeau - whose father was PM for over fifteen years -
is running against Jagmeet Singh and a formidable
opponent, the Conservative Party's candidate, Andrew
Scheer.

By law there must be an election every four years for
Prime Minister, usually on the third Monday of October,
but the PM can call for an election at any time.  The
current Prime Minister goes before the Governor General,
the Queen's representative in Canada, and announces the
date of the election.  In this case, the election is to be on
October 21...wait for it...2019.  Yup folks, 40 days from
today.  That is also a law in Canada, no electioneering
prior to FORTY days before the election,  That's the
time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, you know
when you give up beer and potato chips for three days.

Now there are those who say that America is a vast
country and it takes months to cover all the cities and
towns to get one's message across.  I have news for
them, Canada is even bigger, and its cities and towns
are smaller and more far-flung.  And most of them do
not have 5G internet or anything close to it.  So how
can Canada hold a very important election, their most
important election, in forty days and American politicians
are running for reelection as soon as they are sworn in?
The answer is: MONEY!  During the 2016 election,
the political parties spent $2.4 billion.  Imagine, if you
will, what that amount of money could be used for instead
of being spent on tat; junk buttons to clutter the landfills, audio
and visual junk to assault your ears and eyes, paper junk
milled from a thousand trees.  If the press is right, and
no one pays any attention before Labor Day of the election
year, what the heck are we doing?  What if legislators could
spend their time working for their constituents, instead of
spending 60% of their time raising money for their reelection?
Think about it, we could be like Canada, only warmer...

I'm just sayin'.