What colours do you see, and why is it so hard to see black and blue?

The Salvation Army (of all people) in South Africa has turned the what-colour-is-the-dress conversation into something else entirely. It is a brilliant ad campaign that might possibly eclipse the dumb question originally asked about what colours we see on the dress.

In Canada, Niki Ashton, Official Opposition Critic for Aboriginal Affairs, sent out an email today that included these facts:

More than half the women you see will experience violence at some point in their lives, and that shocking reality is three times more likely for Indigenous women.

There have been more than 1200 documented cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada over the last 30 years.

While thousands of Canadians have called on Stephen Harper to call a national inquiry into this tragedy, he has refused to act.

We need to ask why it's so hard for our Prime Minister to see black and blue, especially when it applies to Canada's First Nations.

What colours do you see?

Copyright 2015 by Jim Murray.

Mulcair shows strong polling numbers

Polls are sometimes useful and nearly always confusing. The latest approval ratings of the three federal leaders are also interesting indeed. 

Obviously more Canadians disapprove of the PM than approve of him. According to four EKOS Research polls conducted in the past two months, Mr Harper's approval rating is only 39 percent, while his disapproval rating is 54 percent.

Trudeau the Younger faces the confusing situation of having an approval rating of 46 percent and a disapproval of 41 percent.

Mr Mulcair boasts the best approval ratings overall: an approval rating of 50 percent and a disapproval rating of only 37 percent. 

The ratings take on a different picture when analysed by region. Especially pleasing to Mulcair supporters is his standing in BC and Ontario, and of course in Quebec.

In BC, Mr Mulcair has an approval rating of 51 percent compared to 35 percent disapproval. Strong numbers to be sure.

Average approval ratings of Stephen Harper (blue), Thomas Mulcair (orange), and Justin Trudeau (red) 

over four polls by EKOS Research, January and February 2015.

Of course polling results can be spun in all kinds of ways. For those of us on the progressive side of the political spectrum, these latest numbers give credence to the idea that, especially in BC, the party to support in order to defeat the Conservatives, is the NDP. Strategic voting will make a difference in some ridings but no one should assume by these polling numbers that the only real alternative to the Conservative government is the Liberal Party.

Beyond voting against the PM and the Conservative Party, is the more important need to vote for something. Again for progressives, the Liberal Party is really Conservative Light as they demonstrate by supporting Bill C-51 and the Keystone XL Pipeline, to name two recent issues of concern to Canadians. It was the Liberal Party that began the first major cuts to the CBC, and ignored our nation's commitment to the Kyoto Accord, to name another two. History speaks volumes.

This election can be about significant change in our country, or it can be about doing the same old thing yet again. We all know what we will get with Mr Harper and the Conservatives. Should we place our trust in the Liberal Party, its unproven leader, and a campaign bankrolled by corporations? Can we trust Trudeau the Younger when he welcomes the likes of Eve Adams into its ranks?

Only the NDP offers an alternative to the corporate agenda of both the Liberals and the Conservatives. Change will happen, and only if we vote for change.

Copyright 2015 by Jim Murray