“Canada looks forward to continuing to collaborate closely with Ukraine and to advancing common values and shared interests,” said Canada's Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas). The Honourable Peter Kent attended the February 25 inauguration of Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine’s new president.
The Government of Canada is a strong supporter of Ukrainian democracy, and this is reflected by the fact that over 300 Canadian observers monitored the conduct of Ukraine’s presidential elections.
More than a million Canadian citizens are of Ukrainian origin. Canada is the fourth-largest donor of technical assistance to Ukraine, and the Canadian International Development Agency has designated Ukraine a country of focus. Canada is also a strong supporter of Ukraine’s EuroAtlantic aspirations.
Many Canadians of Ukrainian descent as well as Ukrainian emigrés living here are not happy with the outcome of the recent presidential election in Ukraine. Five years ago, however, they were happy with the winner ... yet in the ensuing years became bitterly disappointed in his performance.
Let's hope that this time they, along with a large percentage of unhappy Ukrainian voters, will be pleasantly surprised.
We in the west are quick to sweep under the carpet of our collective consciousness the fact that our democracies (or at least economies) were founded in large part by robber barons. What the rest of the people did was try to ignore them as best they could, and get on with the business of making the lives of others better.
These robber barons are still around, and always will be. But they have always been vastly outnumbered by honest, intelligent, hard-working folk. And whenever and wherever the latter ignored the former and went about creating, and/or working in, companies who made the lives of others better, they built the foundation for a successful, functioning democracy... and an environment that makes life a little less easy for robber barons.
To resurrect a lovely but now tarnished cliché: Razom nas bahato.
I hope the time has come when enough honest, intelligent and hard-working folk will band together to help this new president get, and keep, Ukraine's current robber barons in check... and create an economic climate in which the citizens are encouraged, and empowered, to make each others' lives better.
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Привіт, Павліна! у вас чудовий блог!
мене звати Андрій. я вчусь в Португалії і веду схожий блог про Україну на португальській мові "Ucrânia Online" http://ucraniaonline.blogspot.com
пропоную обмінятись лінками.
відпишіть мені будь-ласка на email andriy803@gmail.com
***успіхів***
Yes, the robber barons are always around as Pawlina stated, though one thing that is been bothering me regarding how media report on Ukraine, and I will have to address it in some letters to the editors, is how the media as been calling the Orange Revolution a failure. With this I will disagree because they first of all never understood the Orange (R)evolution in the first place, and in the second place they constantly attributed the (R)evolution to the wrong people. The people standing on the stage on Maydan was the Muppet Show, and for five years the international media community paid attention to the Muppets, but never put any pressure on them, nor did those who liked watching and listening to those Muppets on Maydan and as result four years later the results are in.
Governments are never voted in they are voted out, and thus the people of Ukraine should be vigilant over the new President. Maintaining respect for the institution of the Presidency, but if the President steps out of line then the people understand they have the power. The power they earned during the Orange (R)evolution.
Thanks, Andriy, for the kind words and invitation to connect. It's been a very crazy past few months, so my apologies for not replying. I actually only just saw your comment today.
Things are settling down a bit, so let me know if you're still interested in connecting. Feel free to email me producer @ nashholos . com
Vasyl, you hit the nail on the head by calling it the Orange (R)evolution.
I also agree with your point about the folks on the stage at Maidan.
In the west as well as in the east the media and, unfortunately, the majority of the electorate seem to regard politicians little differenctly than they do entertainers. This is, IMHO, the main reason for the calibre of politicians currently in office.
As you yourself famously said, democracy is what happens between, not during, elections.
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