Here are some videos to remind you of the important role past NDP leaders have played in Canadian life…
Tommy Douglas
The federal NDP’s first leader and “Greatest Canadian”, Tommy Douglas long ago identified the futility of switching between Conservatives and Liberals and expecting something new or different.
Jack Layton led the NDP to their best ever election result in 2011 as they formed the official opposition…
With only a weekend left in the campaign, an inspirational message from Tom Mulcair to remind everyone of who he is and what he stands for…
The email included, somewhat awkwardly for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, advice on how the energy company could go about lobbying a minority government led by Trudeau.
Earlier in the day, when the Canadian Press first broke the story, the Liberals stood by Gagnier, saying he did not break any ethical standards.
Despite that, it appears the optics were bad enough that Gagnier’s tenure with the party was to come to a quick end — just four days before Canadians head to the polls to elect a new government.
So I’ve been obsessively reading about and following this election through various outlets – Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. – which often lead to news sites like the CBC, Globe & Mail, National Post.
But occasionally you stumble across something quite different.
Maybe it was that venue, not really known for hard-hitting news coverage, which made me let my guard down.
But reading Mr. Harper’s replies to the magazine’s questions, two of his answers struck me as so hypocritical and offensive, I couldn’t believe the absolute tone deafness of his answers, especially when compared with his actual, demonstrated actions.
THE BEHAVIOUR HE ENCOURAGES [IN HIS KIDS]: “To me, the most important thing is respect for other people. I always say to the kids, “You don’t have to like everyone, you don’t have to be friends with everyone, but you don’t pick on people. You don’t single people out because they’re different. And if that goes on, you call it—you stand up against it. It’s not how we conduct our lives. You don’t build yourself up by belittling others.” Our kids, I think, have got that message.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FAIR: “I tell my kids, particularly my son, who likes to compete and to win: ‘You’ve got to be fair. You don’t win by cheating; you win fair. Respect rules, be honest, apply yourself when you’re in an activity. Make a decision later, and don’t quit in the middle.’”
This holds true in the current Canadian election where surveys have shown that 60% of people feel that the economy is the single most important issue. And if you figure in that “jobs” comes in at 20%, that means up to 80% of Canadians feel that some aspect of our economy is the most important issue in this election.
So let’s take a look at some of the…
Facts About The Canadian Economy Under Steven Harper
The most damning aspect of the Conservative legacy is not a short-term cyclical downturn. It is a longer-run failure to stimulate growth, job-creation, innovation, and investment.
A big part of this is their unrelenting focus on the resource sector instead of diversification so that when the price of oil tumbles, the entire economy slumps.
Canada has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs under his watch. Steven Harper has the lowest change in the employment rate since Louis St. Laurent and is the first government to have negative growth since John Diefenbaker 50 years ago
We’ve had not one but two recessions under Steven Harper’s government. (To steal a line from Tom Mulcair: “Steven Harper’s Conservatives are the only government who, when asked about the recession they governed through, can say ‘Which one?'”)
As illustrated by the graph at the top of this post, Harper has had the lowest GDP growth of any Canadian Prime Minister in the post-war era and is the only one with <2% growth.
Beyond that, the fact is that the NDP actually have the most fiscally responsible record of any governing party in Canadian history – a huge surprise to most people who buy into the idea of “tax and spend socialists”. But the reality is, going back to Tommy Douglas, the NDP realised the banks and corporate sector were not allies for their ambitious plans to improve the lives of everyday workers. So by keeping the books balanced, they stood the best chance of getting things done (not to mention the benefit of not paying a bunch of money in interest.)
I find it fascinating that Justin Trudeau has run on a slogan of “Real Change” when there are a few very clear signs that he’s not either of those things…
…and obviously, the fact that, if he becomes Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau stands to be our first-ever family legacy Prime Minister, means that there’s not a lot of change if we do the much-more-accepted-in-America thing and elect somebody’s family member (the past 20+ years of the American presidency go: Bush -> Clinton -> Bush -> some Kenyan Dude -> possibly Clinton or Bush). Is that a trend we want to follow in Canada? And does that mean Justin Trudeau could be running against Steven Harper’s son, Ben, in a decade or so? 😉
But even though he’s not the biggest “change” option in this election which is all about change, there’s still a chance that Trudeau could end up winning. Why?
I ran into the same issue during the last Sask NDP leadership race – I volunteered on the campaign of Dr. Ryan Meili who was the candidate who I felt represented the most change for the party after the disastrous leadership of Dwain Lingenfelter. And, just like in that race, people said they were clamouring for a big change but ended up electing Cam Broten, someone who was a lot more familiar and comfortable.
What I said at that time about the difficulty of representing the most change in any election applies to the contrast between Justin Trudeau’s false promise of “Real Change” and Tom Mulcair’s actual change in this election as well…
You’re probably reading this and thinking I’m dismissing the other three and holding up Ryan as some perfect choice for the party. In a weird way, I think it may be the opposite.
In my view, Ryan’s the right choice. But he’s got probably the biggest hurdle in front of him to make this case to others who will be voting for leader. Even with the debacle of the last provincial election, studies have repeatedly shown that people are naturally resistant to major change – even when they should know better – and this leadership race could end up being another example of that.
One week from now we’ll see if Tom Mulcair has convinced Canadians that he, more than Justin Trudeau, represents real change from the Steven Harper era.
There’s a lot of commonly accepted wisdom you hear that reflect the increasing amount of cynicism that people have towards the political process…
They’re all the same.
There are definitely good and bad people involved in all parties. But saying that all politicians are bad simply because they’re politicians is as simplistic (and wrong!) as saying “all teachers are the same” or “All doctors are the same” or whatever.
My Vote Doesn’t Matter
Even if you’re in a riding where your preferred party isn’t likely to win or you vote for a fringe party, it’s still important to vote. Beyond that old line about “You can’t complain if you don’t vote” (which many people agree with but I’m not a particular fan of since I think everyone has the right to complain no matter what!), there’s the reality that, in recent elections where turnout usually hovers around 60% and is split between 3+ parties, there’s not a single election where 100% turnout couldn’t have changed the results of the election. I think I read somewhere that any party that gets over 10% of the vote (?) in a riding also gets a refund on a portion their eligible election expenses so even if you live in the heart of Tory Alberta and vote NDP or Liberal, you’re helping the democratic process by ensuring those parties get some money back for their efforts.
I Don’t Have Time
There are people whose personal circumstances do make it more of an effort to get to the polls – a single mom with three kids, someone without transportation, or whatever. But a federal election happens only once every four years or so. And since this is the longest election campaign in history, there’s been plenty of time to make arrangements to get to the polls. Most parties also have “get out the vote” (GOTV) efforts on election day where volunteers will offer rides to the polls or help facilitate the process for you in any way that they can. As my grade seven teacher used to say when someone said they didn’t have time to get their homework done, “You didn’t have the time or you didn’t *make* the time?”
But ultimately, you don’t have to agree with everything the government does (I don’t like high military spending for instance) to still recognize that part of your social contract as a citizen of our society is that by pooling our resources, via the government, everyone gets to share in the many important services that the private sector can’t or won’t provide as effectively – healthcare, highways, economic policy and about a zillion other things that we all benefit from. If you try to take a larger view and not be cynical about things that only affect you but keep a focus on how our society is doing overall, you can approach these issues in a less cynical fashion.
In fact, from the outset of this unusually gruelling 11-week race, officials for all three of the main parties have, at various times, pointed ahead to Thanksgiving as the most likely time many Canadian voters will make up their minds.
Even though it may have temporarily cost him some support in Quebec, Mr. Mulcair isn’t afraid to take a principled stand, whether it is opposing C-51 when it politically unpopular or defending some of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens when they are under attack. That’s the kind of Prime Minister I want – one who will take an unpopular position rather than chasing polls and focus groups.
A couple posts ago, I included an excerpt from Thomas Mulcair’s autobiography. As a librarian who previously spent nearly a decade in the Canadian book industry, that made me think it might be fun to compare and contrast some of the details of each leader’s book (full disclosure – I’ve only read Mulcair’s…so far.)
There’s a lot of commonly accepted wisdom you hear that reflect the increasing amount of cynicism that people have towards the political process…
