BONUS - Antigone

            Fist off I have to admit that I had never heard the story about Antigone before watching the play preformed by the Acadia Theater Company.  However after watching their amazing production I feel like I understand the themes that the play has to offer. 

            This play was written in around the time of 440 BC.  This play was a much more modernized demonstrated version on the play.  However it continued to have mostly the same language that it was initially written in.  The fact that it was set in a more modern time I believe had a much more impact on the ability to understand how much times have changed, yet still seem to remain the same. 

            This play is focused on politics.  The politics influenced by a family after the death of a king and his two sons.  The king’s two sons, Eteocles and Polynices had gotten in a fight and were both killed in this dispute of who was going to be the king of Thebes.  It was decided that Eteocles was to be buried and Polynices was left to rot.  As well if someone were to try to bury Polynices, they were to be put to death.  Antigone, who was the daughter of the King did not approve of this and believed that her bother deserved to be put to rest and buried.  Going against the new king, Creon her uncle, she attempted to bury her brother.  She was caught not caught the first time, yet goes back to finish and is caught by the guards. 

            Antigone and Creon talk in private on what will happen.  This is then where she finds out that both of her brothers had planned to kill their father. When Creon had found them dead they were mashed together and had simply took the one that looked to best and gave him a funeral. Antigone was in shock and after this her and Creon’s son who was planed to marry Antigone had died together.

            The whole main aspect of politics in this play is opened up in the actual truth, which is hidden behind lies and deception.  Creon feels like he his forced to do as what the public sees to be right.  He does not want to cause the people to have a reason to believe he is not strong by doing what he knows is right by burring Polynices.  In light this is still seen in politics today.  People have to be ‘perfect’ in politics.  As well they have to do what will keep them in power even if they know it is not the righteous thing to do.  

            This is one reason why I have grown to have a dislike of politics.  I understand that we must know how governments work.  There are so many controversial aspects in politics that there is no reason for.  I understand that aspects of politics such as a country’s government is one that really needs to be analyzed for the populations best interest, yet is there really a need for hard feelings and so many harsh words exchanged between sides when all anyone should be doing is looking for everyone’s best interest.  I guess I am not a person who enjoys conflict and that seems to be what politics revolves around. 

            What happened to doing what’s best for each and everyone’s quality of life? 

Research Quest – Alternative Federal Budget

        After skimming the issues covered in the document of the Alternative Federal Budget, the topics within Health Care caught my attention.  As I am also writing my paper on the issues found within the health care and medicare issues in Canada. 

            The health care in Canada is put together quite well compared to many other countries.  In the Alternative Federal Budget, it states that the want to increase public share of total health expenditures and the federal contributions to provinces towards health care.  One way to increase this is to expand on medicare.  As it is proven the hospitals in Canada continue to be overcrowded and this causes many problems as well as unhappy patients.  A problem any provinces are coming to is that they are putting money towards the privatization of health care rather than publicly funded.  The AFB states that this should not be the case in the future to lower the costs and to better manage what we spend.

            As it comes to Pharmacare, something I find myself quite interested in, the AFB mentions to create a National Pharmacare Program to maintain the costs spent on prescription drugs.  By doing this they believe that the costs will lower significantly because there will be no controversy between private companies.  Working in a pharmacy, this is a huge issue and something that should be taken care of.

            There are several other statements mentioned in the AFB about health care, however these two where the ones that stood out to me.  Having a higher quality medicare and health care will benefit our country without a doubt.  It is something that we will always have to deal with it and if we can find the best way to economically and practically deal with it, this will benefit everyone in the long run. 

Reflected Journal – Week of March 4^th

            Chapter eight of our textbook discusses the machinery of Canadian government. This chapter takes the time to go into detail of the legislature, executive and judiciary branches of government. 

            The executive branch of Canada consists of the Monarch, Governor General, Prime Mister and Cabinet.  The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II and the governor general represents the royal family in Canada.  However the governor general is not the main source of decision-making, which is the power of the Prime Minister. The prime Minister and the Cabinet hold powers such as police making, control over the budget, and many others. 

            The legislative branch consists of the House of Commons and the Senate.  The House of Commons is a chamber of elected members and the Senate is a chamber of appointed members.  They share similarly equal powers such as all major policies and laws must be first proved by the legislature.

            The Judiciary is the section of the Courts of Canada.  They include the Supreme Court and all other federal appointed courts.  All these courts have a responsibility to apply and interpret the law.

            This chapter gives an understanding of the roles of different sections of the Canadian government.

Reflective Journal  - Week of February 25^th

Chapter seven in our text refers to Canada’s Federal system.  A quotation that is stated at the first part of the chapter from William S. Livingston stated: “Federalism is a function of societies.” I believe that this is a perfect way of simply explaining this concept.  In my view federalism is have several states of power working together.  Yet federalism is not the most popular type of system of government, unitary government is used most around the world. 

            This chapter goes into the separate sections of the constitution act that concern federalism and issues that are connected to it.  The heart of federal division in Canada is found in sections 91 and 92.  ‘Peace, order and good government of Canada’ or in other words POGG is explained in this chapter.  POGG is used in Canada when the authorities construct laws for our country. The federal government cannot use POGG to overrule the provincial government.

            As well the textbook goes into how Federalism as evolved through out the years in Canada.  For an example how the system had evolved into working with Quebec to have them stay within Canada and not separate on their own as their own country. 

            This chapter gave me a very good view on federalism in our country.  As after every week of reading the textbook I learn something new.  

Constitutional Right in Ecuador - Nature 

In this article I found from our home news source, The Coast, Chris Benjamin summarizes Ecuador’s new (2008) constitutional right of nature.  The section of the constitution states that nature has its’ own rights that is mentioned in the article.  Ecuador’s constitutional right gives nature much more importance than many other countries provide. 

Chris states his that other countries have laws that give rights to animals and humans to have a healthy environment, however, nothing that is mentioned in a constitution.  He also mentions that only a few provinces in Canada have a law stating that a healthy environment is a human right.  Nova Scotia is not yet incorporated within these provinces.  There are several people within the government trying to improve and make the rights of nature more valuable. But the government is not making much progress.  

I believe that there should be a change within the Canadian laws concerning this issue. If we don’t face it soon enough and treat our environment the way it should be, we will end up being caught in our own mess. 

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/giving-nature-consitutional-rights/Content?oid=1111866