The day after the elections is always full of altercations about the victorious party. This year was no exception. However, the name that dominated student mingling– the explicit difference between this year and all others — was the New Democratic Party. The phrases that permeated every discussion consisted of uninformed assumptions such as “socialism” and even “communism“. What was even more alarming was when the announcements started as I was entering my classroom on the school day after the election. The familiar crackling sound signalled the start of the announcements and the first words that blared out of the PA system was “good morning comrades” as if we were the citizens of North Korea.
Why tell such a story? As a student fairly involved and engaged in current events and interested in political action, I’ve noticed that there is a common misconception and misunderstanding of the difference between local political spectrums and global political spectrums. Scrolling down social feeds, one can lucidly spot opinions and statements all using inaccurate variations of the term “socialism”. In the aspect of Canada’s political spectrum, the fact that NDP has dominated the government with a majority government does mean that our decisions will be shifted left on the continuum. This shift, however, is only a centimeter on the global spectrum; a miniscule move to the left. I believe it is unreasonable to entitle our government as a socialist government now from such a tiny shift in comparison to global continuums.
