I visited one  of my friends the other day on Thanksgiving Monday.  As the afternoon progressed, and we had finally caught up on our recent lives, I shared the fact that I had started a blog.  My friend and her husband were interested and proceeded to look at my blog immediately. As the various titles flashed down the screen the title of long gun registry came up.  “Why would you support something that even the police don’t want?”  My friend’s husband asked.  “Don’t want?” was my dumbfounded response, “but that is the very reason I am in favour of it. The police want the long gun registry.”

“No they don’t,” was his curt response, “ or at least they are divided on it.”  I was confused .  I had believed that the police wanted the long gun registration, and that the topic was just a result of politics over public good- I felt naive and ignorant.

“What police official is against the Long Gun Registry?” was my next question.

It turns out- according to my friend (I will now always pay attention to where I learn information), that Police Chief Vernon White of Ottawa was against the long gun registration .  How did I, a person that spends so much time in Ottawa, and listens constantly to the CBC, not learn this?  This leads me to my new understanding of the world.  Not only must we judge our politicians in terms of what political gain, and end they are serving in their political life, but we must be discriminating of where we get our information ( I really thought I knew this).

Our broadcasting stations have just as much vested in what we think, and how we are swayed as any politician.  How do generally interested, but time strapped citizens such as myself keep up?  Do I have the ability to read a myriad of  newspapers, and listen to various radio stations to have a balanced understanding of the true facts?  Not really.   In the blink of an eye, being an informed citizen got a whole lot harder.