[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Well, perhaps Ken and some of the others on the list should also
> put their takes on it, but here is mine.
>
I agree with Paul's comments but would like to add a few things. The
Liberals have presented themselves as "moving to the left", presumably
for fear that they might lose support or seats in the Atlantic/Maritimes
where the NDP has made strong gains in provincial elections. This 'move
to left' has consisted in easing the rules for qualifying for
Unemployment Insurance benefits so that seasonal (read workers in
Atlantic Canada) and other types of temps like substitute teachers can
collect benefits. The federal government has a UI surplus that now runs
in the tens of billions. The government has been using this money to
balance the budget and pay down the debt at the expense of rising
poverty(which Canada has been heavily criticised internationally by the
UN and UNESCO), increasing inequality, colossal amounts of consumer
debt, and increasing personal bankruptcy rate amongst other things, all
while lowering the tax burdens on the richest quintiles of the
population and the corporations. Once again, the working and unemployed
poor pay for tax cuts for the rich, increased corporate profitability
and a "better investment climate."
Other issues,besides health care, will be the low and sinking dollar
which is now
predicted to fall to 60 cents to the US dollar. It is currently in the
66-67 range. The Liberal government and the Bank of Canada have
deliberately followed the tight money/low inflation ideology as a means
of lowering labor costs to attract foreign investment. I would note that
the Bank of Canada and its chair Gordon Thiessen are even more
fundamentalist than the Fed keeping inflation at 1% or lower though
there have been increases in recent months due to falling unemployment.
Here in the West and in the Atlantic (don't know about the praires)
issues around the native or first nations peoples will and should be of
paramount importance with the violent government attack on Micmac
lobster fisherman and,here in B.C., various native bands have now laid
claim to 100% of the province's land mass. With the precedent of the
Nis'ga treaty, natives may be awarded nearly all BC's land through the
provincial courts. THIS is what scares the right wing and local ruling
class, they have been and will continue to pressure the federal
government into overriding the provincial treaty process. I would rather
pay taxes to the natives.
> The NDP which has embraced some of the objectionable "3rd way"
> nonsense of the British Labour Party, still is relatively the best
> choice for those on the left/reform side of the spectrum -- more or
> less along the Nader lines though perhaps less radical.
I think the NDP needs to move to the left to garner more votes and gain
a greater voice. The working class sees it as no different from the
Liberals and either will not vote at all or vote for the right wing
populists (to whom most of the NDP's former support has gone.)
Even though I am a dyed-in-the-wool Marxian socialist , I often consider
voting for the Conservative 'red-tory' Joe Clark (and his daughter :)
since I think he is probably further to the left of the Liberals and the
Alliance and has a chance at winning.
>There is no alternative to the left of the NDP.
At least in BC, the two Communist parties are running candidates in
about 3/4 of the ridings though their platforms are not much different
from the NDP.
>
> The issues of the election are taxes (which the neo-liberal right are
> pushing) vs maintenance of current (inadequate) expenditures on
> medicare and other social programs (the stand-pat program of the
> Liberals).
Yeah, and as I noted above, the Liberals are now presenting themselves
as
'on the left' because they are restoring funding to the social programs
and health care. Funding that they took away in the first place to
placate the IMF, OECD etc. I would just mention the near decimation of
Canada's once proud health care system by the federal government. There
are daily reports of funding crisis, serious shortages of nurses(there
have been militant nurses strikes in Saskatchewan and Ontario
over,primarily, nurses shortages.) and
support staff and constant threats of overpaid striking doctors who do
not want to work in rural areas.
>The Alliance is essentially a carbon copy of the
> Republican Party in the US, except slightly to the right thereof.
> Rather scary -- pro-death penalty, anti-abortion, religion in the
> schools, etc.
Stockwell Day, leader of the Alliance, is a creep; a cross between Bret
Easton Ellis's American Psycho with the character in the film "Bob
Robbins." He is highly adept at doublespeak e.g. "we are going to give
Canadians the opportunity to work" i.e. we are going to cut social
programs and income subsidies.
The leader was formerly the principle of a religious
> fundamental school that taught creationism and labelled Jews as
> genetically evil etc. Their appeal is primarily a reaction to the
> corruption and arrogence of the Liberals who though elected from a
> moderate liberal/social democratic platform, have consistently
> governed from a neo-liberal right position. The difference in the
> party platforms between the Liberals and the Alliance is quite
> minimal.
>
The split between the Alliance and the Liberals would correspond to the
split between the "family values" Republicans and ,say, the more
libertarian wing of that party.
Canada is turning (back?) into a raw materials exporter with an
educated, low wage workforce to attract foreign companies. As a
bonus,foreign companies do not have to pay benefits because they are
covered by the various governments.
Thoughts anyone?
Sam Pawlett
