Thread by @Scribulatora

A friend of mine just dropped by with some paperwork I need to sign. Big, brand new, Buick SUV with an “end poverty” sticker on the back window. So naturally I asked how he was feeling about the election and he launched into a diatribe about Liberals and Trudeau.

How he was “voting NDP” because it was time to teach those arrogant Liberal bastards a lesson they’d remember in their bones.

I asked how he felt about a conservative government and he shrugged.

“Sometimes you have to knock over the chessboard.”

“It’s the most progressive implementable platform ever tabled in this country.”

“Yeah, well it’s too little, too late.”

“You know they can’t win.”

“I know. It’s the principle.”

“Oh? What principle is that?”

“That we need more. Faster.”

“You think going backwards will help?”

Shrug. “Can’t hurt.”

“Every wonder how the poor parent who needs childcare feels about that?”

Shrug. “Sometimes you have to play hard ball.”

“With someone else’s life?”

Shrug.

So I told him to piss off.

At first he smiled and when I didn’t smile back he said, “Come on, you bloody volunteer at Harvest House, you know how bad poverty is.”

“Yes, which is why I’m not really good with making it worse.”

“But …”

“Oh shut up and go drive your big old shiny SUV over a cliff. And don’t ever let me hear the word ‘arrogant’ pass your lips again. In fact, I’d be pretty happy never to see your face again.”

I’m assuming he eventually left, because I walked away.

We always talk about how we’re not willing to really fight for things.

Well I am.

I’m going to have five dogs and hardly any friends soon.

#VoteLiberal because vulnerable people need help. Now.

It was the shrugs. Oh. My. God. Every time he shrugged another little ball of anger formed in my belly.