Attention voters: Ask yourselves this, as you try to figure out which political party deserves your support on October 21: Will your party really, truly attempt to address child poverty in this country? Health care? Climate change? Public safety? Veterans’ mental health? Electoral reform?

Will it matter if the Conservatives form the next government, or the Liberals or the NDP? The probable answer to all these questions: Fuck no.

Anarchy isn’t the answer, of course, but electors are fooling themselves if they think the next gang to hunker down in Ottawa will manage national issues any differently than previous members of parliament. I have been voting since the 1970s. REAL change hasn’t happened in Canada yet.

Perhaps my grandchildren, when they’re old enough to vote in 16 years, will have more positive results to report.
—Hoping For A Brighter Future

Can some Dartmouth coffee shop please sell coffee in bulk so I don't have to get it in a plastic, non-recyclable bag every time?? I'm sure the downtown Darkside crowd would show up with their Tupperware.
—Jeff N

I wanted to take a moment out of my busy schedule to lambast the food truck that has been acoustically assaulting me these past few weeks. All the food trucks I have encountered around the HRM are for the most part nice and quiet, yet you folks feel the need to drag around a small but boisterous power generator. Clearly this is not a common standard among the fleet of mobile gourmands that grace our streets and parking lots. I can’t imagine anyone patronizing you without the use of a megaphone to place their order or, at the very least, cue cards. Take a page from the book of the food truck masters who have been around since the 1970s and silence that little generator once and for all!
—Concerned Headphone User

Toxic callout culture mob mentality "warriors"—are you ready to drop your pitchforks yet? Callout culture is ending, and everyone now notices how every time your group disagrees with people or has conflict, they're cancelled. YOU are scarier to people in the community than the people you cancel, but people are too afraid of your social power to stand up to you—mostly for fear of being blacklisted and isolated from any community contact. How does it feel knowing that the marginalized and underprivileged hoard that you blacklisted from accessing any resources in their own community are coming back with a vengeance? Have you come to terms with your own privilege? Are you able to move past your own stumbling blocks? Hmm.
—Human Fucking Being

Responsible polyamory is NOT: Agreeing to be "open" and then not seeing or speaking to your partner for weeks, only to show up at her birthday party while she's trying to run things and casually mention, "hey love you lots I'm feeling frisky again I'm available for that now" and in the same breath, "oh by the way I've been seeing some other people"—WITH DETAILS about the people?? Like, she doesn't wanna find that out in that moment. That's a sit-down conversation. Or maybe you've already agreed to be poly and not share when you're seeing other people.

But YOU show up, you're already drunk and high and she's stressed out trying to host a party. She hasn't heard from you in ages and you just drop in and catch her the one moment she's alone and she feels cornered and—UGH makes me so mad that hot guys get away with that shit. She didn't deserve that. You don't even know how much you hurt her. She should have dumped your ass ages ago. She can do SO much better.

I hope the other people you're "casually" seeing can see that how you behave is NOT OK, and they don't make excuses for you. I hope you can get your shit together and stop using alcohol and weed to avoid your problems! There are a lot of people who care about you in this city! But the more you act like that, the fewer they will be.
—Friend Of Your Ex (I Was There)

Here in Nova Scotia our populace is still small enough that we extend courtesy to those around us, especially on the sidewalks. I understand if you come from a place where this is not the case, but if you are a guest here, please leave your disregard for others at the door.
—Neighbourhood Watcher

Phone zombie! Why do you walk around crowded busy streets staring at your phone? Phone Zombie! You are a hazard to yourself and the general public at large. And you not only look like an insecure fool, you are an embarrassment to the human race at large. Perhaps stopping and moving out of the way of others would be a better approach to communications? It's illegal to drive and operate your phone. Why not elsewhere too? Phone zombie! You got to go!
—Enema Bandit

As I stroll through our Dorian-defiled city, streets and parks chock-full of emergency workers, city employees, volunteers and scattered debris, amongst all of the people doing anything they can to help and others trying to salvage and repair what they can from the mess that's been made, there is you, having friends take your photo while you pose in front of fallen trees in our parks, or having your children stand as close as they can to the caution tape while you try to capture the perfect Insta-pic of them with the fallen crane in the background, or the guys that had their "bro" take that "sweet pic" of them while they stood in front of the vehicles that were crushed by they roof that flew off of the nearby building! None of these things are fun or cool, these are things that have caused people trouble that they now have to take care of. It's a blessing no one was seriously injured! Maybe put your camera away and see if there's anything you can do to help, rather than using this mess for photo content!
—Yes, I Am Shaking My Head At You

Most of the medications they've given me don’t work, and most of their other treatments like CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) don’t work either, and I think that's mostly because I was misdiagnosed. All that most of the medications do to me is make me stupid or sedate me—other than that, no benefits. The doctors even agree with me, but then continue giving me the meds that don’t do anything. It makes no sense. They refuse to reassess my diagnosis. To make matters worse, pretty much all of them refuse to taper me off the medications I don’t want to take, so I get horrible withdrawals. Any kind of problems with my mental health that I ask for help for, they refuse to deal with. Their OTs or whatever they're called mostly fixate on my diagnosis and anything about anxiety/social skills problems go in one ear and out the other it seems.
—Stuck In The System That Doesn’t Help

I'm a recording artist trying to lay down a track, but there's been a big noisy stanky diesel truck idling outside my place for the last half hour. Turn off your engine and stop idling! Not only are you ruining the environment, you're loud rumbling truck is bugging the shit out of those of us trying to werk, bitch!
—Gangsta Rapper