Yes...but!

September 15 2008

Home > Columns >Yes...But! Year 8-45b

Obama isn’t my choice for president, but I hate to see John McCain and Sarah Palin get the keys to the White House. McCain at his age and his history of cancer has about an even chance to die in office and then this awful woman – who denies global warming, is a gun enthusiast and a dispensational Christian, who believes that we can dispense with this earth - will become president. Her popularity has made McCain a prisoner again, not of war, no POW, but a POP, Prisoner of Palin. I have nothing against women in office. I would have loved to see Hillary Clinton get the job, but I am sorely afraid of right wing Christians who believe in rapture and, perhaps subconsciously, want to destroy this earth to accomplish that aim. Many of them see our planet as a product of the demi-urge, the originator of evil. Is Canada now pursuing this Palin path?There was an article in Slate Magazine, the US Internet magazine, with the telling question, “What's the Matter With Canada?” with as subtitle the provocative proposition: “How the world’s nicest country turned mean.”

Christopher Flavelle starts his piece with the flattering words: “Last Sunday, news came that Canada—sensible, quiet, some would even say boring Canada—will hold an election on Oct. 14, its third in four years. Those outside the country may wonder what the problem is; in Canada, after all, health care is free, the dollar is strong, same-sex marriage is legal, and the government had the good sense to stay out of Iraq.”

May I add another good thing: unlike in the USA the debate in Canada is about real issues: Obama and McCain spar about lipstick on an animal and utter other meaningless phrases, but in our own country, I am proud to say, the debate is about Global Warming and how to create a responsible society: the Green Party, the NDP and the Liberals, all are committed to a positive response to the future.

Back to this Slate article. Laments the author: “Canada is quietly becoming a political basket case, and this latest election may make things even worse.”

He correctly states that Canada—for years the only G8 country to post regular budget surpluses—will likely fall into deficit this year, thanks to a reckless cut to the national sales tax. Says he: “After decades of encouraging countries to increase their foreign-aid spending, Canada cut its own, from 0.34 percent of GDP in 2005 to just 0.2 percent last year. Long a beacon of human rights, Ottawa announced last fall that it would stop advocating on behalf of Canadians sentenced to death in other countries. And Canada is now the only Western country that still has one of its citizens held in Guantanamo, but Ottawa has refused to press for his release.”

“But nowhere,” he writes, “is the rift between the old and new Canada more apparent than with regards to the environment. Canada was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the fight against climate change, and as recently as 2005 it was the Canadian environment minister who helped broker an agreement to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Then last December, at a U.N. conference in Bali to negotiate a successor to Kyoto, Canada executed a neat 180-degree turn, trying to block an agreement that set a target for future cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions. Of the 190 countries at the conference, only Russia supported Canada's position.” The Palin Path.

I have a wish.

About five years ago our political right, consisting of the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives combined to form the Conservative Party, which now closely resembles an anti-government, socially conservative party in the mold of Reagan-Bush Republicans.

But this party would be not be in power were it not for the collapse of the Liberal Party of Canada. Perhaps it all started with the Sponsorship scandal, initiated under Jean Chretien. Paul Martin’s public inquiry was icing on the Conservative vote-getting cake. His attempt to be open resulted in defeat and two years ago the left-wing flew the coop and the right-wing filled the void.

Now the old Roman rule applies: Divide et Impera, divide and rule. As the four opposition parties battle each other, the Conservatives will simply slide up the middle, with perhaps 35 percent of the popular vote. They do this, banking on people’s base instincts, so typical of right-wingers, of which a picture of a bird defecating on the shoulder of Stephane Dion is a typical example.

I have a wish. For sanity to return to Canada the so-called left-wing parties must swallow their parochial interests and, just as the right combined 5 years ago, the NDP, The Green Party and the Liberals must unite into one majority movement to rescue Canada from this infamy.