The bravest person in Canada

[sharkman]

This soap box brought to you by the Whaaambulance Group.

Edited June 4, 2011 by sharkman

[CPCFTW]

I'm not commenting on her actions, but within context of what she said, she has a point. If you read her full statement, she said that the majority of Canadians are against the Harper agenda which is not good for her generation. She gave examples of military expansion, corporate tax-cuts and lack of environmental values.

The Canadians who did not vote for Harper did vote for different parties, you have a point. But all those parties share a similarity on the issues that she raised.

So whether she was stupid or brave, she did make an accurate statement about the majority of Canadians being against Harper policies.

You don't understand, 40% of voters who chose to exercise their right to vote voted for the CPC, not 25%. She can't just claim that anyone who didn't vote is against Harper (which she did). Sure you might be right that 60% of people who voted, voted for a left-leaning government. But that is not only absolutely irrelevant in our electoral system, it is even more irrelevant when only about 60% of the electorate voted. It's not up to a 21 yr old page to speak for the 40% of the electorate who didn't vote. This girl is the poster child for butthurt sore loser lefties everywhere. "Waaaahhh 75% of Canadians want change!!! I speak for them all!!!" Get over it.

Edited June 4, 2011 by CPCFTW

[CPCFTW]

I believe the main reason the CPC won is not because Canadians believe in them, or their leader Stephen Harper so much as there is a vacuum in Canadian politics. The average voting monkey knows little about the important issues but goes with their gut feeling, first impression or the way a person looks and speaks. Stephen Harper certainly has more charisma than any of the other choices. And for Jodie-Bob who has the right to vote, that's all it takes. A boyish face, and a few choice sound bites, and they are ready to decide on the future course of a nation.

Exhibit B: Another butthurt sore loser lefty. This abundant species of lefty can be frequently heard to remark: "Everyone is stupid but the people who voted my way!!!" or "I speak for everyone who voted for a party other than CPC or who didn't vote. I know the true intentions and beliefs of 20 million people!!"

Edited June 4, 2011 by CPCFTW

[Sir Bandelot]

Exhibit B: Another butthurt sore loser lefty. This abundant species of lefty can be frequently heard to remark: "Everyone is stupid but the people who voted my way!!!" or "I speak for everyone who voted for a party other than CPC or who didn't vote. I know the true intentions and beliefs of 20 million people!!"

I am not a leftist, and I do not vote.

[CPCFTW]

I am not a leftist, and I do not vote.

Oh you're one of those "don't call me a lefty" lefties that don't vote because none of the parties can hope to represent your transcendental views. Join the club!

Edited June 4, 2011 by CPCFTW

[pegasus]

I go away for a couple of days and I come in and notice this

A young woman who has a sweet job working for the senate shows up at work with a sign stating how much she hates her boss. This was obviously done to create a media bruhaha. Otherwise, if she really hated her job, she would have done like 99.99% of other people do; quit quietly and leave.

"Stop Harper" tells me nothing. Stop him from going to the bathroom? From walking on that slippery wet floor? From burning puppies? What? Stop Harper from passing or negating specific policies? If so, which ones? Or does she really have a personal vendetta against Harper? If this is the case, how did she get this job in the first place? Harper was as much of her boss a year ago as he is now.

If I quit my job in this manner, I for sure would not have a line-up of organizations waiting to hire me so quickly, and many of the policies of my boss I'm not too fond of either. And there was no election for him to become my boss. He was appointed.

Edited June 4, 2011 by pegasus

[Shady]

She looks mentally unstable. I'm kinda glad she's out of the House of Commons. Who knows what other more serious stunts she may have been up to. I'm guessing that she probably would have opened the doors for the Toronto 18.

[MiddleClassCentrist]

It has nothing do with the content of her message. The problem is she girl abused her position in order to express an opinion. I am sure that every page has strong political opinions. The only thing that separates her from other pages is she her lack of respect for the institution that she was working for. Her act is equivalent that letting a loud and smelly one rip in a theater. i.e. rude and inconsiderate.

Are you saying that her actions were in ... contempt of parliament?

Edited June 4, 2011 by MiddleClassCentrist

[Guest American Woman]

It takes balls, guts, whatever to pull that kind of stunt. I don't anyone here, hiding behind internet anonymity, could say the same.

But hey, prove me wrong AW: what the fuck have you done in your life?

"Stunt" is right - that's exactly what it was. She doesn't like Harper, so she used privileges that were given to her to put the spotlight on herself. Her message, I repeat, was only that she doesn't like Harper. "Stop Harper." Wow! There's an inspiring, to-the-point message. Nothing about protesting war or of his stance on this, that, or the other thing. Only "stop Harper." From what? Being Prime Minister? Didn't his party get the majority vote?

As for "hiding behind the internet," I don't know about you, but I don't live my life on the internet. I do things in the "real world," too - and if I would have gone against job policy the way this girl did I would have lost my job, too. But then she waited until her year as page was almost up, so she didn't lose a whole lot there. She also immediately notified the media. She lost nothing; she risked nothing. She got exactly what she wanted. Attention. I see nothing "brave" about that. It was totally self-serving, without any real risk, and that's never fit any definition of "brave."

As for what the fuck I've done in my life - I went zip-lining once and I'm deathly afraid of heights. That's being pretty brave.

But I've noticed that quite a few posters agree with my take on this, yet you aren't all over them - don't hate me because I'm American.

[Guest American Woman]

None of those jobs are particularly dangerous, or take much bravery. THey just happen to be the jobs society is conditioned to glorify.

I would guess the death rate not from natural causes would be just a tad higher than it is in your job. Same with injuries, many which are life altering. I would say the emotional stress would be just a tad higher too. I wouldn't think there would be a high instance of PSTS involved with your job, or an inordinate number of suicides resulting from that stress. And I would guess that applies to the vast majority of other jobs. In fact, I would bet a year's salary on it.

There's a reason why a lot of society "glorifies" those jobs and it's because they are more dangerous and stressful than the vast majority - it's not because they were "conditioned" to feel that way. No one had to "condition" me to realize, for example, that a soldier going off to war is facing more danger than I am, than any one of my neighbors are.

---------------------------------------

It's ironic to me that the so often the same people who oppose war, often pointing out what a act of cowardice it is for our nations' leaders to put young peoples' lives at risk while they sit safely in their offices, are the ones who then turn around and say being a soldier isn't particularly dangerous or brave.

I'd say anyone who leaves the comfort of their home to actively partake in something they believe in - when there is a high risk of danger involved (and anyone who says there isn't a high risk of danger involved in a war zone needs a reality check) - is exhibiting bravery. Much more bravery than simply silently holding a sign in a place you were given the privilege of attending.

She didn't even crash her way onto the Senate floor. She simply decided to use the privilege she was granted to exhibit her displeasure with Harper. While gaining her 15 minutes of fame.

[g_bambino]

A young woman who has a sweet job working for the senate shows up at work with a sign stating how much she hates her boss.

Someone held up a sign saying "Stop Kinsella"?

[WWWTT]

As for what the fuck I've done in my life - I went zip-lining once and I'm deathly afraid of heights. That's being pretty brave.

And how did this improve my life?

WWWTT

[Guest American Woman]

AW:

As for what the fuck I've done in my life - I went zip-lining once and I'm deathly afraid of heights. That's being pretty brave.

And how did this improve my life?

The same way "the bravest person in Canada" holding a Stop Harper sign in the Senate improved your life. It didn't.

To add: She probably hurt the public image of protesters in acting at this time.

[Michael Hardner]

The same way "the bravest person in Canada" holding a Stop Harper sign in the Senate improved your life. It didn't.

It may have. Oh well, I think she's brave as she's going to get in trouble for this, and it will affect her future. I'm glad there are people who would do this in society, but her response is out of proportion to what's necessary at this time IMO.

To add: She probably hurt the images of protesters by acting at that particular time.

[TimG]

Oh well, I think she's brave as she's going to get in trouble for this, and it will affect her future.

Her future? She appears to be a budding self promoter and likely has a career in politics. This stunt gives her "street cred" among the loony left (look at this op). I suspect she expects her job opportunities to increase as a result of this stunt so you could even say it was self-serving. Bottom line: there is nothing brave (implying something to admire) about farting in a movie theatre and there is nothing brave about this stunt.

[Smallc]

She looks mentally unstable. I'm kinda glad she's out of the House of Commons.

Senate.

[Michael Hardner]

Her future? She appears to be a budding self promoter and likely has a career in politics. This stunt gives her "street cred" among the loony left (look at this op). I suspect she expects her job opportunities to increase as a result of this stunt so you could even say it was self-serving. Bottom line: there is nothing brave (implying something to admire) about farting in a movie theatre and there is nothing brave about this stunt.

I think it's brave. To say that this stunt gives her a career in politics is a stretch.

[TimG]

I think it's brave.

I think the word you are looking for is Chutzpah

In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly, to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutzpah

[Moonlight Graham]

"All employees of the Senate are expected to serve the institution in a non-partisan manner, with competence, excellence, efficiency and objectivity," Kinsella said. "The incident raises serious security concerns which the Senate will fully investigate."

Yes, huge security concerns. What are they going to do, search under the skirt of every Page that walks into Parliament Hill looking for signs?

She did absolutely nothing illegal. She exercised her Charter rights. She was fired for what she did, and likely rightly so, but if she wanted to she could take it to court and make an interesting case out of it.

[Michael Hardner]

I think the word you are looking for is Chutzpah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutzpah

Maybe that is a better word for what she did. She won't be ruined, certainly. She won't be sent to the King's prison for life. But she will have to suffer through some ill effects.

[Moonlight Graham]

She isn't brave. She's stupid.

You and I sit here everyday expressing our opinions on this forum, having our views exposed to several dozen people. She takes 20 seconds to hold a sign and gets the lead story on the national news, is interviewed by national news media to further express her views (however one may feel about them), and has her views effectively exposed to millions of people. Yup, real stupid.

[Sir Bandelot]

Oh you're one of those "don't call me a lefty" lefties that don't vote because none of the parties can hope to represent your transcendental views. Join the club!

You just keep yappin like you know somethin.

[Guest American Woman]

I think the word you are looking for is Chutzpah

Exactly. She was given a position coveted by many who applied for the job, and she took advantage of it to overstep the bounds of the privileges she was granted to promote her agenda - to express her dislike of Harper. She contacted the media to make sure she would be in the limelight and she never would have been in the position to do so had she not been entrusted with the job of page.

There was nothing "brave" about overstepping her bounds any more than it would be "brave" for me to overstep my bounds and abuse the trust and responsibility that goes with my job to serve my interests. What she did was self-serving; it serves her interests while not serving many others' interests. There are legitimate ways to protest, but then she wouldn't have been in the limelight.

But for the trust and faith that was put in her with the opportunity she was privileged with, she would not have had the opportunity to promote her agenda. She certainly wouldn't have been "brave" enough to have attempted to do the same if she hadn't been entrusted with the job - if she hadn't been given the privilege of being on the Senate floor.

As for her future - the buzz on social networking site Twitter was largely positive, and DePape appeared to have a job offer from someone at the Public Service Alliance of Canada before the day was done.

"Brigitte Marcelle contact me for a job at the PSAC," said the message. "We are looking for gutsy organizers." link

I don't think she was stupid enough to believe this would have had a negative impact on her future and I don't believe for a minute that she would have done what she did if she thought it would have.

[cybercoma]

You and I sit here everyday expressing our opinions on this forum, having our views exposed to several dozen people. She takes 20 seconds to hold a sign and gets the lead story on the national news, is interviewed by national news media to further express her views (however one may feel about them), and has her views effectively exposed to millions of people. Yup, real stupid.

Bingo.

Whether you agree with her or not, she did get her message out there in the most effective way possible.

As for the poster above asking, "What does STOP Harper even mean?" Did you read any of the news articles or did you just hear a page held up a sign in Parliament and decided to feign indignation? I'm guessing the latter because if you had read the news articles, you would know that she issued a press release to all the news outlets stating her beliefs that the Harper Government's policies on corporate tax-cuts, military expansion and environmentalism are disastrous for her generation.

Also, I think it's patently absurd to say she gives protesters a bad name or whatever other such comments about her being stupid or going about this the wrong way. She went about this precisely the right way. She made a sacrifice by giving up her job and risking prosecution to fight for what she and the majority of Canadians that voted believe in. The poster who mentioned that the BQ, NDP and LPC have similar policies regarding the aforementioned corporate taxes, military and environment is absolutely correct in the sense that they are the exact opposite of the CPC. While there may be some other differences between the parties, it is quite matter of fact that 60% of those who voted did not vote for the CPC policies in these areas.

[Michael Hardner]

I don't think she was stupid enough to believe this would have had a negative impact on her future and I don't believe for a minute that she would have done what she did if she thought it would have.

I do think it has a negative impact on her future, in that it limits her opportunities. The second part of your sentence presumes that you know her character, which I don't think is true. There are plenty of people who forgo personal gain to act out of conscience and I never understood why people think they can be so sure of others' motives in specific cases like this.

Another example I can think of is Cindy Sheehan - many seemed to just know that she was acting to publicize herself, and so on. And then there's the 9/11 conspiracy folks who seem to think that the inner circle of American leaders act only in their own personal best interest.