Actually I mostly played Centre and Left Defense! Oh wait...this isn't the hockey thread.
The General Open Forum does have some fun threads like the Canucks one where members can talk about another great passion in our country and it allows people to post other interesting topics that aren't necessarily fishing related. The challenge with a pure political thread is how quickly the pure polarizing nature of politics rises to the surface and, despite our best efforts to remind everyone to not let it degenerate into a mudslinging, my guy is tougher, smarter or prettier than your guy debate, it always does.
Like most boys I had two very influential men in my life while growing up. My Grandfather, who came to Canada from Ukraine in 1928, left a very volatile and dangerous life behind and started a whole new life in a land he knew nothing about. I think it gave him a different perspective than most people in my generation. He reminded me often that I had two ears and one mouth, so I should listen twice as much as I speak. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now I marvel at how he used to be able to carry on a conversation, in his very broken English, with people he barely knew, about any topic including religion and politics and not have it end in a quagmire.
My Dad, on the other hand, created my love of outdoor activities such as fishing and was a kind and generous man to many people. However, he could not carry on a conversation about politics without it ending up in a heated debate that really wasn't going anywhere anyway! In the end I learned to listen to peoples opinions on subjects like politics and not judge them for their beliefs, from my Grandfather. From my Dad I learned that, debating someone about their politics, when their ideals were polar opposite to mine, was likely going to end in a stalemate and potentially cost me an otherwise perfectly good relationship, so why bother. I believe that my Grandfather would have been a fantastic contributor to an online forum but I would have had to ban my Dad at some point because he just wouldn't have known when to say when!
So, because we are not here to ban otherwise perfectly good contributors to this great site, we choose to cut off the debate before guys like my Dad step over the line and we have to intervene. In the case of political threads, it is almost inevitable and because we would rather not spend a great deal of time refereeing or cleaning up a mess, we choose not to have the debate at all.
I hope this helps you understand our position and respect why we don't want to mange political threads on a regular basis.
Brian
