When I moved to Canada, it was to escape the oppression and backwards mentality of the United States. I came here because throughout all my life I had been traveling between the U.S. and Canada, and throughout my entire life I have only felt comfortable when I am here.

Canada is, however, on a dangerous path of Americanization—trying to become what the police state to the south has already accomplished. We are going from progressive to regressive, and from the peacekeepers of the world to a scary nation that intervenes in the internal politics of other nations.

The forward-thinking minds of our past are still stuck thinking about the issues that they were thinking about when they were elected. In their aging politicianship they have become short-sighted, focused on what made life better yesterday, instead of being focused on what will take care of us tomorrow.

Third parties are great in their love for single issues, which give them room for genuine discussion on what we can do for the future of our country, instead of declaring their love for vanilla because the other party has a party line to love chocolate.

I know Canadians are ready for a forward-thinking politician, but they wont get it if they vote for the Libs, Cons, or NDP. I know we are scared about “stealing votes” but maybe we should be more concerned about the big three stealing votes from third parties.

We keep saying one day we will vote for the little guy, that we will have a futuristic government. It’s 2011, isn’t that future enough?

Travis McCrea is the Pirate Party of Canada candidate for Vancouver Centre.