election | johnageddes

Today I am proud to be Canadian. More proud than usual, that is.

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau carries a young Justin into 24 Sussex, where he will soon end up again as our Prime Minister. How cool is that?

The Canadian electorate has resoundingly chosen a new government led by the Liberal party but more pointedly by a vigorous, young, positive and somewhat idealistic leader in Justin Trudeau.

This government will, no doubt, make mistakes along the way and it will take a lot of time and effort and trial and error to get all those jobs done to bring Canada back to who we fundamentally believe we are deep in our hearts.

I am excited to see many capable men and women elected to parliament and particularly pleased to turn the reins over to the generation that will have to deal with the policy decisions made in the next four years. It seemed like my Liberal vote was giving control over to my kids and that felt very good.

Canada’s House of Commons, Ottawa.

In addition, we have basically overthrown the sitting government in a peaceful, orderly way. Do you know how significant that is? I have worked in Bosnia and Kenya and Uganda where voters feel this is impossible. The despair I have seen from young, frustrated citizens is indeed sad. In so many countries in the world, where a democratic process is ostensibly in place, the electorate still feels powerless. Governments are corrupt and cling to power with money and threats and manipulation. As our Canadian election campaign began it appeared that the the Conservatives had much more funding available to them to promote their candidates. But money did not make the difference. The groundswell of ABC – Anything But Conservative – and social media posts to encourage people to vote for change proved more powerful than money and scare tactics. World, take note. It can be done.

I am not so naive to believe there will not be snags and scandals and missteps by this government but I am eager to give them a chance. One of my friends posted a list of things that this government will need to do to keep all their promises and it ended with “walk on water”. At least we are starting out with a leader who appears to be honestly transparent, inclusive and progressive. You have four plus years, Justin. We have given you a chance to make us even prouder than we feel today.

January 18. 10 pm. Nairobi

As our group made our plans earlier this week, we had concerns that the nomination process for the upcoming election may result in some violent clashes in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya. There was to be voting yesterday to nominate candidates for the election on March 4. With changes in riding compositions resulting from the renewed constitution and party realignments since the last election, there would be some ridings where sitting members of parliament would be challenging each other for the local nomination. Here, to be a member of parliament confers considerable social and financial gains so several people had lots to lose if they are not nominated.

This was to have occurred yesterday and there was anxiety and tension throughout the country with worries that there would be skirmishes and outbreaks of violence at certain ridings. Unlike the debacle that followed the 2007 election here (1400 killed and many still displaced due to tribally-based attacks ) the problem this time may have been because of intra-party squabbling. In a strange combination of events, leaders of parties that were violently opposed to one another in the last election have combined forces to resist the slight edge that Raila Odinga, the “defeated” candidate has in the current Presidential race. To add an a bizarre element, both of the leaders in this new merged party have been indicted to The Hague with charges of crimes against humanity resulting from their part in installing the carnage that happened after the 2007 election.

Well, as fate would have it, there was some confusion in the delivering of ballots yesterday and the vote was postponed to today. Our group was scheduled to visit Kibera slum yesterday and then again today but, based on security concerns and advice from the Canadian Consulate ( where we attended a wonderful cocktail reception on Wednesday evening … thanks, Canadian friends) and from associates living in the slums, we decided against taking that security risk. There are security concerns when visiting this slum at the best of times. (Close to a million people live in tin shacks in poverty in a space the size of a golf course.) I have visited there three times in the past with no adverse events but both last year and this, we have happened to be in Nairobi at the time when political changes were occurring and the slums deemed unsafe due to the probability that if there were to be any violent clashes, this may be where they start.

As I write this at 10 pm, I have heard of no significant disruptions and so I hope this continues as I will be crossing the through the city tomorrow on my way to Kiserian to visit my friends, the Moiko family.

One hopes that the country will be able to carry out the election this year, both fairly and with acceptance of a legitimate outcome. One step closer to a functioning, open democratic society.