Brian McAndrews: > Now back to your quote at the top of this post. Snobelen and his > successors as Ministers of Education are only the pawns. And the agenda > of the brains behind these pawns is not about small business . Margaret > Thatcher's agenda represented the "Cancer Stage of Capitalism". Bush et > al continue her work. Who is Mike Harris now working for? The Frasier > Institute as a Senior Fellow! By chance I happen to have a copy of the > institute's five year plan for 1998 - 2002. When I can find some time > I'll share the 'hi'-lites with you and the list.
Hello Brian, What you are suggesting is something a little too Orwellian for my liking. While I know that politicians are not without their behind the scenes supporters and contributors, I still like to think of them as being limited by ideology and lack of vision. As I see it, the neo-lib or neo-con, or whatever, is being driven by his or her enslavement to a defunct economist. Snobolen had probably never read economics, but nevertheless set matters in motion that were destructive to the publicly operated education system. He did not do so out of meanness, but out of some ancient ideology acceptable, at the time, to a majority of the voters. He may have had a point. Perhaps the education system had become overbloated and the unions a little too powerful under previous NDP and Liberal governments. But what was needed was reform backed by a vision a little larger than the small business mind could provide, not erosion and destruction. I don't find it at all surprising that Mike Harris is with the Fraser Institute. He's simply being himself. Ideologically, that's where he belongs. I believe that Gordon Gibson, former Liberal leader in British Columbia, is still also there. I think we're lucky to have the Fraser Institute. It's shamelessly neo-con and neo-lib and doesn't try to hide it. At least we know what we are dealing with. I'm not sure of why Thatcher, Reagan, Bush and many thousands of others, including some of our provincial premiers, should be seen as representing a "Cancer Stage of Capitalism". If it's a cancer, it's in all of us. As Arthur Cordell points out in an email that just hit my inbox, we vote for our politicians out of our personal enslavements to ideas, many which are defunct, some of which make sense. The ideas are, of course, being pushed and promoted by a variety of interests that see them as being to their advantage, but we don't have to buy them. What education should most basically be about is giving us an ability to sort ideas and choose rationally. The greatest danger in the attack on a good public system is that we could lose that ability. Back to our "music night" at the local school last night, what I found a little disturbing is that you can actually see the decay which has resulted from underfunding. The walls of the auditorium need paint, the lights need replacing, as do many of the seats, and there was some garbage around because there are not enough caretakers. But that's the physical state of the place. Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, it's still sound. Yet it's a battle. The Principal is a very fiesty lady who is forever fighting with someone to get more money so that she can fix the place up a bit, and she works very hard to maintain the school's morale. She works very hard at everything, as do her teachers and staff. But why should anyone have to do that to keep something going that is in the best interests of all of us? And why should they perpetually be dumped on for doing so? Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382
