Life is Belief & Struggle - Ahmed Shawqi

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Canadian politics; Tory Hubris and Liberal Legacy



I have not written much about Canadian election because I have been thoroughly estranged and divorced from the entire process.  I have been following, but I am just not invested, in any political party.  This is what you get when political parties decide their political agenda via focus groups rather than well thought out principles. Simply put, there was no political party which comes close to representing my views on how the country should be run.  The Conservatives should have been my natural political home but I got kicked to the curb during the Harper years.  

I didn’t vote liberal, but I understand why Canadians, voted overwhelmingly liberal, and it was not because we are overtly amoured over Justin Trudeau or the Liberal party platform.  Trudeau’s mocking and pillorying will begin in short order for two reasons. Canadian history teaches us that Liberal entitlement knows no boundaries and a Liberal never learns from their mistakes. See here. This is why the Liberal parted elected the ultimate ‘legacy entitlement’ candidate as Liberal party leader despite a short order resume.

Political hubris is the greatest sin outside of outright criminality to the polis and Canadians voted Liberal overwhelmingly to punish the Conservatives for their political hubris.  The Tories forgot their role was to protect the polis and the country rather than their corporate cronies.  I wrote this months before the election was called, in response to my MP sending a questionnaire asking how the government was doing. 


I can live without the Government of Canada giving Volkswagen a loan to produce cars manufactured outside of Canada. I can live without ‘Canadian in name only’ companies whose production facilities are located outside the country being promoted by the Canadian government.



I can live without free trade agreements quite nicely, in fact, before NAFTA and hundreds of other Free Trade Agreements; the quality of goods and services produced was far superior to what is routinely offered for sale today in Canada. The pricing deferential, when compared to the quality and health risk, just isn’t worth it. 



I want to live in a country which is economically self-reliant and who has a Prime Minister who has the interests of all Canadian citizens at heart rather than the shareholder stock price of  a select few corporations. I want to have a Prime Minister who safeguards Canadian sovereignty, rather than giving it away, just so he can sign another free trade pact for his corporate cronies.






I can live easily with the idea that one needs citizenship to buy property in this country.  I can live with the idea that Canadian companies have to look after their own labour supply, as opposed to the current practice of lobbying the government to import a constant stream of cheap labour to meet their business labour needs. I can live with a Canadian high school student serving me coffee or asking me - 'if I want fries with that?'  And if you cannot afford to pay a Canadian caregiver/nanny minimum wage; either raise your own children or don’t have any. 






I can live with potentially lower tax rates caused by a surplus of full-time jobs available for the working poor that pay a living wage rather than minimum one. And, I can live with a Prime Minister who cuddles dogs rather than kittens. Ironically, I was a 'Conservative' longer than Stephen Harper has been leader of the Conservative Party, but don't think for a second you can count on me during the next election.

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