Harper's Big Chance for Enviros
He's shifted the national debate to vision and values.
The election of Stephen Harper marks the end of the phase of managerial politics that Jean Chretien elevated to its bland pinnacle in Canada. By "managerial politics" one governs in order to meet needs rather than to engage values.
Harper will tread carefully in order to try to preserve his minority government, but his party is chock full of MPs who hold strong views on what Canada should be, who are just waiting for the right opportunity to assert themselves. Canada's Right is also laying the foundations to engage and win the debate on the future of Canada, as we will see below.
Meanwhile, the Liberals must now seriously clean house if they are to regain the trust of a majority of Canadians, and will need to clearly define a new and positive vision of Canada that gets them well clear of the rut of their scandals. Mere tinkering will ensure they remain on the opposition benches.
And the NDP can't survive on the margins forever, having influence only when luck gives it a voice in a minority parliament. After all, the Labour Party has held the Promised Land for almost a decade now in the UK. To get there, the NDP also needs to articulate a vision of Canada that speaks to the majority of voters and moves beyond its last-place brand.
Once lonely in this regard, the Green Party will therefore be joined by the big parties in the conversation about vision and values.
The Canadian dream
This values/vision debate will drive public policy in this country for the next two decades, and as such is a massive opportunity that our community must seize hold of. Alternatively, we run the risk that true sustainability will again be shut out of the Canadian dream at a time when our climate and our species most need a sea change in human action.
But how do we do this? How do we insert ourselves into the coming vision debate such that true sustainability becomes a core driver of public policy?
There's no easy answer.
It's telling that for all of the smarts that went into the DoE paper, Nordhaus and Schellenberger bail on outlining what a new vision could be to drive positive change in the US. They point to one initiative as an example of the type of thing they think is needed - the Apollo Alliance 2 and consultation for the bigger picture.
The big picture
This gets to the heart of how big picture visions actually get generated and implemented on a scale as big as an entire country. It is currently in vogue to talk about the huge investments made by the American Right over the past 40 years to engineer the US drift towards "exclusion and intensity" that Adams talks about and to support the current Republican dynasty.
We may not have known it at the time, but we too went through a visionary and values-enhancing period when Trudeau pursued the various elements of his "Just Society" such as the charter and multiculturalism. The entrenching of these values not only provided the foundation of the federal Liberal dynasty of the past decade, but also once made Conservatives "progressive," and even forced Harper to campaign to the left of what he actually believes in during the recent election.
That is how powerful big picture vision initiatives can be in driving national political agendas.
So, where will the action in this regard be in Canada over the coming months and years and how do we ensure true sustainability is a core part of the debate?
Canada's Right seems first out of the starting gate. Preston Manning has raised millions for his Manning Centre for Building Democracy with the mission of shaping conservative Canadian values and training conservative campaign workers.
Right co-opting
And somewhat ironically, just before Harper's election, Tasha Kheiriddin and Adam Daifallah released their book Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, in which they lament repeated losses by Conservatives at the ballot box.
Interestingly, both Manning and the Rescuing authors have identified the environment as a key part of their strategies, although it's not clear whether what is intended is a genuine concern for putting Canada's economy on a sustainable footing or merely co-opting the environment in order get some people under 50 years old attending Conservative party meetings.
The credibility problem that Canada's Right has on the environment will continue as long as its marquee intellectual clubhouse - the Fraser Institute - continues to sell itself out to the highest bidder to deny the existence of environmental problems or to argue for ongoing inaction.
Otherwise, it's interesting to note that the words "conservation" and "conservative" share similar roots and there is no fundamental reason why right wingers should not also be worried that their kids and grandkids will face an ever increasing threat to their life-support system with ongoing climate change and species loss. That's security and family values right there.
The anti-science denial shtick characteristic of the Right, though, has got to go and this will be hard with certain regressive corporate interests continuing to throw their money around. But if we can get past that, then the green profit outlined above could fit nicely into the Preston Manning worldview.
Leftless?
The fact is also that, regardless of where you stand politically, the authors of Rescuing have basically got the gameplan correct. Invest in the long term. Invest in values. Invest in organizing.
The Right is doing all of these things in Canada right now.
What about Canada's Left? Well, there's not much new to talk about. Those on the Right would characterize much of Trudeau's vision as Left, even though it's probably more centrist.
Then again, the left-right-centre axis is constantly moving and it's indicative of Trudeau's legacy that he would still be characterized by most as in the middle.
But the Trudeau legacy is fading. Chretien largely surfed on the values Trudeau shaped, adding a dose of fiscal conservatism along the way. Pepper spray and golf balls were his legacies, leaving Canada's centre hollowed out and up for grabs.
Meanwhile, Canada's traditional Left seems fossilized. In the recent federal election, the NDP stuck with echoes of Marx, appealing to "working families" as if that is how the majority of Canadians identify themselves (they don't), or else speaking to "ordinary Canadians," as if people want to be mediocre (they don't). This is a recipe for a repeated last place finish.
The 'vision game'
Part of the challenge is that the organizing bedrock of Canada's Left - labour unions - are as needy as Canada's environmental groups for a fundamental moment of self- reflection and reinvention. Just like we environmentalists won't succeed by scaring people into sustainability, unions won't progress by clinging to the assumption that most people derive their identify from the workplace and want to talk about bargaining rights.
Like us, unions need to pioneer ways of reaching out to wider circles of people with new issues, of organizing these people even if they are not members of the union - and of mobilizing them at the right time. The needed shift of Canada's Left is away from people as just "workers," and towards people as "citizens."
If Canada's Left wants to keep up with Canada's Right in the vision game, it must examine its core assumptions and language and embark on a similar project of investing over the long term in new ways of reaching people, reinforcing and shaping their values and recruiting them into a political dynasty. This may be happening someplace around kitchen tables and at union halls, but there would yet seem to be nothing to match the scale and sophistication emerging with Canada's Right.
What does in mean to be Canadian?
What is our role in the vision game as environmentalists? Unless we insert ourselves forcefully and make the case that true sustainability lies at the core of any new Canadian vision project whether left or right, we risk being marginalized on the sidelines for another quarter century. By then, it will be too late.
If we can get our house in order and begin to recruit ever larger numbers of people into our work as outlined above, the good news is that visionaries and political parties will court us, rather than us courting them. But we can't afford to just wait for that to happen.
Ok, so here's the inevitable pitch to environmental funders: we need a well financed Canadian environmental values project that brings together public opinion specialists, conservation leaders and well-connected political consultants to both define a suite of values that would reinforce a fundamental shift to sustainability in Canada and achieve penetration of these values into the foundations of our political parties as they go through the visioning debate over the coming months and years.
And we need it now while the window is open.
The good news is that Canadians already identify strongly with their natural environment as a fundamental part of what it means to be Canadian. And the best way to respond to the dire ecological challenges we face is to make a virtue of the needed change as heading in a better direction, rather than being forced there out of sacrifice.
So, we already have a head start. The trick now is to have decision makers reinforce this value by acting on it as part of core vision for Canada.
In May, my partner and I will have a child - our first. We thought long and hard about the decision of whether to bring a new being into a world whose life support systems are being dangerously eroded in full view of the decision makers who continue to let it happen.
But we came down on the side of hope.
After all, if we didn't, why are we working for environmental organizations? If we had no hope, we'd get a vasectomy and move to Vegas.
With a child on the way, I've never been more motivated to win on our issues.
The hard news is that we won't win as big and as often as we must if we do more of the same as a community. The good news is that reinventing ourselves to be more powerful is not as hard as we think it is.
We can debate the finer points, rationalize the status quo, or wait for somebody else to make the first move, but none of that will get us where we need to go.
The first step is just to start doing it. Things will fall into place once we do.
This article is the last in a series of four. To read the rest of the series, click here.
This series is from a paper authored by Matt Price titled 'Greening the Beaver: Power, Profit and the Canadian Dream' which can be downloaded as a PDF here.
Matt Price is the Coordinator of the Conservation Voters of BC. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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- Bill Rees' Last Lecture
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- Expert on Healthy Democracy Takes BC's Pulse
- Shadow Workers of the World, Revolt!
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murdock
5 years ago
Comments on "Harper's Big Chance for Enviros"
Matt Writes:
Yes and others are taking the same action - just not in the same direction.
The utopia you envision will not come about in such a large place, with divided economic visions, language and culture divide, and social history of 'exclusion' (of the native population).
Better would be to 'divide and conquer' Ottawa.
Split Canada into smaller parts, possibly along provincial lines to start with. Then work on those parts where 'Green' issues resonate.
As you, Matt Price, wrote in an earlier piece in this series, break the problem (enviro issues) into smaller bite-size pieces. Deal with them, then move on.
Trying to take on the whole of Canada as a single entity is a recipie for failure, as has been evidenced time and again.
G West
5 years ago
murdock
gotta admire your perseverance - your determination to destroy this country is bizarre in my view; but I can't deny you pursue it with a single-minded dedication that one doesn't often find outside of religious fundamentalist circles - I've begun to think you may be part of that phenomenon too.
Birch
5 years ago
The "think globally, act locally" mantra is not necessarily out of line here, as Murdoch points out. Better to pick an issue on which you can win because it's small enough and obvious enough to those nearby who will be needed to act on it, than to pick an issue that is so huge that no one's immediate action can be seen to make a difference.
That being said, broad-based principles can sometimes be upheld best by a strong central authority (Medicare comes to mind). There would be nothing wrong with proper standards for water purity, automobile emissions, insulation of buildings, and so on.
Further, there would be nothing wrong with various levels of the business community capitalizing on addressing these needs. The trouble with our democracies, however, is that they've been too easily bought and paid for by corporate interests who have a vested interest in keeping things done the way that continues to make money for them. Witness the oil and coal industries, for example.
It's not easy to hold out much hope that the government under Stephen Harper will offer much in the way of action to address cliimate change, or very many other environmental issues, either.
The author's comments on re-visioning the political left are astute and worth noting. The old 'hammer and sickle' paradigm of the working man has been slipping out of date for decades. The left should be appealing to broad-based egalitarian values as those most appropriate for a healthy, civil community. The laugh-out-loud positioning of the political right with Christian groups merely shows the stupidity of the majority of evangelical Christians who, if they understand Christ's teachings at all, should realize they have little if anything to do with the bellicose actions of G.W. Bush and his supporters (like Harper).
Coyote
5 years ago
Which is the beauty of this Tyee site really, as much as these wingnut shitts can be trying. They are such mindless fuks by and large. For it makes clear to everyone who reads here, with scarcely a word needing to be said very often, how much these people really hate their own country, except to the extent it serves their precious Amerikkka.
That said, is why we have to be here as a counter to them, to make clear that is not the only vision available for the country-, as a buttwipe for The Empire. It's a matter of choice we make. They've made theirs, now the rest of us have to decide if that's the toilet hole down which we want to flush this country of ours.
They are pathetic and traitorous sons of mangy dogs, to quote I Am Clueless, but they're also aligned behind the government in power as well being a Fifth Column for the real major external threat this country faces, coming from the south of us, the great majority of them. So to assume they pose no serious threat, is the same assumption many progressive folks made in depression era Germany about the Nazis at one time. It was assumed no one would really take them seriously.
Ahhh, but the ruling class of Germany did, a parallel one as does that traitorous element of ours that identifies its interests with the US Empire. And their prize is obscene wealth, wealth and more wealth, regardless of its consequence to the envirnment-, and their delusions of a shared continental power with the US ruling class interest.
They really do want to destroy this country as we know it. Divide it, play east against west, whites against natives, French against English, break it up piecemeal, make it unworkable for the mass of Canadians, break them down and weary them so that they will lie down and spread their cheeks for Washington, who has a quite other solution.
It really is that simple. They win, or we do. They win with their vision of the nation as an add-on, appendage, bootlick to the Amerikkkans. Or the Left wins with a new vision of an independant, self-sufficient state and economy, a democracy expanded into the economic institutions of the nation, and new forms of democracy developed into the political structures as well, which circumscribe priveleged power and raise up a new power of the people, increasing the opportunities for diversity of ideas, popular participation and control over decision making, and a military that is beholden only to our country, without its divided loyalties of the present that reduce it more to an instrument of foreign power, to the continental and global interests of The US Empire.
That vision is one which opens up new avenues and possibilities for not only truly building the nation and its underpinning economic institutions and sectors, AND doing it in a way, with population levels and demands upon the environment, as Fait says, the real source of all present and future wealth, that will allow us to husband it-, rather than see it as a mere pit from which we draw stuff to ship and feed the diversified economies of others.
One is a vision for a foreign raised US, Project for A New American Century (PNAC), in which we are reduced to but another mere raw material input, while the other is a vision to serve the interests of and develop this country-, sustainably.
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Sounds like harper's forestry "new deal" is a ass-kiss to bush while selling our own industry down the river.
Wait, he's getting lot's of vocal support from disgraceful toadie and fellow corporate jail-house jenny, gordon "shaken-not-stirred" campbell! (gordo already sold us out with his corporate hand-over of our forest policy so heh, why not?)
Gee I wonder if gordo and drooling puppet-masters are waiting for a certain off-shore oil moratorium to be lifted by the federal goverment. (In the age of "pre-emtive" conflict protests against the offshore oil project should begin organizing right now!!)
As for the environment in general god help us all!!
The current race to the finish line between planetary ecosystem collapse versus global warming is heating up man!!
sdgreen
5 years ago
Coyote, I truly admire your writing, albeit, do disagree with your conclusions; but this from your note above:
.... is indeed a classic, which also works in reverse.
The critical issue here is, I think, that we all... right, center and left... want the best for our society.
We do need to attract the best of us to build a strong economy, positive renumeration for our citizens, appropriate services in support of all, and indeed freedoms as expected.
The question is how do we get to that goal?
The author above provokes some interesting questions. There is no doubt in my mind that the movements as promoted by the NDP and the various Unions is stuck in the mud with archaic dreams and rusty ideals. That is not a surprise given their roots. However, it is true that some of the ideals promoted by the latter have added to our wellness.
The Liberals in the last 50 years or so have had only but one leader of any note and the authour is completely correct in identifying PETrudeau as that individual. The Conservatives until this point, has had but two leaders with vision in my mind... Joe Clark, and potentially Stephen Harper. The NDP has been effective second force, but in reality only two leaders have any note; Ed Broadbent of recent times and Tommy Douglas of former times. The Liberals in my view really have not given any vision to what Canada ought to be for a significant number of decades.
The 'new' Conservative Party is open to new themes and ideas, much more so than what they are given credit for. For them to work for us, all of us need to tell them what we want.
Given that we do live in a 'global' community we cannot isolate ourselves, but we do need to balance our collective needs as Canadians. Our main trade partner is the United States and not withstanding 'Bush and company', we must look beyond and work with them.
On environmental issues, Kyoto in my mind is significantly flawed and we do need to establish a 'made in Canada solution' but we do need to tell our politicians what that ought to be. Our future is bright and we all need to work together on this.
Coyote, you do inspire at times!!!!!
murdock
5 years ago
Coyote writes:
I agree with the general view of USA as the new Roman Empire, therefore Canada can only be seen in that paradigm as the new Gaul.
You present the argument as only us or them, winning all. With only that view it makes discussion impossible as the potentials are left out of the equation, since you see the other possibilites as part of 'them'.
I ask, for you, who is 'us'?
If only the LIEberal Party of Canada or the NDP can satisfy your definition of us, or the side that you can support then you are lost already, as there are innumerable youth that will not embrace either of those parties for the future of Canada.
The 'left/right' only argument does not work any more.
Given that the nature of enviro issues is always local; trying to 'tie' together regions is crazy in this context.
Yes the 'general' issues such as emissions guidelines or water quality are fine and dandy from the 'core' of Ottawa, but what good are they if they have no penalty to those whom do not follow them? Who will know that such things have gone wrong, until folks start dieing (like in Walkerton), unless there are watchdogs that are looking out for the local interest?
Continued reliance on large nation-based central authorities will never solve these problems as they, the large nation-based central authority have no motivation to solve these problems. Trying to say that voter anything will have power to motivate them any more is a lie. Youth who have seen the antics of Stronach and Emerson KNOW this now.
They know better than to trust any politico.
The real power is in the consumers choice.
Stop buying what they are selling and the product will have to change.
murdock
5 years ago
Coyote also wrote:
What is this country as we know it?
Toronto and the 'golden triangle' of southern ontario was a manufacturing hub that is now being superceeded by China.
Alberta (Oilberta to some) is coming on strong, with more value being seen all the time in the oilsands, something that has long been chatted about, but oil was always below the $70-$80/barrel level back then. Now with another energy program looming, will those Albertans who survived the last one stand for it to be done to them again? BOHICA - I think not.
Quebec has long had an internal view that the 'Plains of Abraham' are a tie and that one more go-round needs to be done. There are Catholic families in PQ that detest english canada with such a passion that they are willing to arm themselves to see a free Quebec live. This is not a delusion, they really are ready, some are still planning for it.
The maritimes are not happy about the general situation, where they have given over all their natural resources to the betterment of the 'golden triangle' and now wonder why.
Newfoundland, now with potential for oil and gas developing are less and less likely to accept any dictates from Ottawa that sees their share of the potential profits diluted or 'given away' to others in 'the canada'.
British Columbia was annexed into Canada in 1871, ignoring what was then called a 'minority' report. With only 1 commisioner of 3 agreeing to join canada, 1 sick and the third advising against. The deal for getting BC into confederation has been broken, in my view, with the railways collapsing. Goods were never properly exchanged and value always flowed east. Now with the golden triangle in trouble they are trying to obtain any value from the 'gateway' project that they can. Once again value flowing east.
Where, exactly, do you see Canada NOT divided?
IAMC
5 years ago
I don't think Canada or Kanada as the mangy dog proclaims, is dysfunctional.
Steven Harper worked towards power and now he has it.
I like his outlook and I am hopeful he will will be fair and balanced about driving Canada in an effective direction.
I guess I am still giddy about the fact this guy has prevailed, and is a leader.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
I AM Clueless:
A quick question. How is it possible, in a democracy, to drive a country in a fair and balanced way?
You definitely are giddy!
IAMC
5 years ago
Well Alcibiades
We all have a biased opinion, so I guess I have to say that my opinion is equally as biased as your defeatist, anti-American, left wing rant. Oh, excuse me
For you to proclaim that democracy is not fair is worthy of more discussion.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
I AM Clueless:
A democracy, by definition, is a society based on consent and the active participation of its citizens. The word drive implies coercion and force - the irony of your post lies in the fact that you are so clueless you don't know how ridiculous you are.
In fact, Harper’s dictatorial and coercive tendencies are the most worrying features of his incipient megalomania...it is exactly his desire to drive this country that is so troublesome to anyone with a clue.
jesterjogger
5 years ago
IAMC
Wow what a man of integrity that harper is!
Righteous heat flows from outraged military families after harpers latest ILL-CONCEIVED bushism and already he's cowering behind a fallguy er I mean fallgal, I mean cowgirl!!
Atleast have the guts to face up to your own mistakes!! Otherwise you're not even a man.
Furthermore after weeks/months/years of repeated confirmation of harpers domineering, complete control-freak, dictatorial, megolamania we're supposed to now beleive that some minor i.e. expendable peon was responsible for something as controversial (and now politically damaging) as the military media ban and flag lowering reversal?!?!
You right-wing hacks have a lot of gaul.
jesterjogger
5 years ago
Two futher points:
1)Alcibiades - I borrowed some of your adjectives, cheques in the mail!
2)harper wouldn't know what do do with a cowgirl. (unless fumbling, sputtering and turning red count)
Josephine
5 years ago
What a terrific article. I'll read the book in its entirety. Thank you.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
jj
use 'em in good health; there'll always be, alas, lots of targets for those suckers! No charge - I'm a firm believer in free fair use regulations.
The brain
5 years ago
Its hard to believe that anyone could have their brain so thoroughly washed as to think that Harper is good for this country. If we want Canada to be just another U.S. state, or balkanize the country to "become better environmentalists"... if thats what we really want, then I'd say that some of you are pretty stunned.
Harper has assumed power for a couple of months and already, he has cost us 1.1 billion outright with softwood, and a further loss of 1.5 billion from differences in currency exchanges and industry setbacks. Thats right. 1.5 billion. All told, the unfair tariffs that the U.S. has put on softwood has damaged our industry, sending it back 5 to 10 years, and cost us a whopping 2.5 billion in what should have never have been up for negotiation to begin with.
In short, we got screwed. If you U.S. lovers read the U.S. news, you'd agree. They violated their own rules to save a couple of billion and negotiate with a weak, minority government puppet U.S. government plant leader and some of you bozos are too slow to see it.
Since Harpers 3 months in power, we've seen a miserably failed softwood agreement that, if any of you slow poke Harper fans haven't picked up on, Emerson negotiated, the same former CEO of Canfor Emerson who doled out some 8.6 million shares to himself and his directors at a share value (in 1999 to 2001) averaging over 9 dollars per share. Thats over 80 million dollars in share value (at that time) issued to Emerson and his directors at Canfor. Who benefits most from this agreement? Canfor. Canfor gets 280 million of this 4 billion that the U.S. stole from us. The question you Con loving dummies should be asking, is... how many Canfor shares does Emerson still own (or steal with government intelligence fastracking him to such a position of corruption)? Have you checked out how Canfor is doing in the markets since this agreement?
And don't give me some dumbass bull about Emersons negotiating for his own best interest is in everyones best interest, because its not. His money could have been tied up for more years, waiting for the Liberals to deal with it. Now, Emerson can unload his shares. Its why he jumped to become a conservative. He was a dirty Liberal then, he's a dirty Con now, and this man of vision, Harper, the one that puts his arm around Emerson can't see it? One and the same, folks.
The Hypocracy of Harper makes me laugh. A more open Canada. Too bad about the soldiers coming home in coffins that we aren't allowed to see, dying, the reasons hidden, cause the U.S. wants to establish world markets in IRAQ and IRAN so the empire can buy them out as they did with us. We're peacekeeping over there? Tell that to the moms and dads with our nations sons and daughters coming home in a box. Were kissing Bush's ass, dying for globalization and this is what some of you call "vision"? How many straight rights must a heavyweight feed me to think so slow as some of you dopes...
We so easily forget the 11.7 billion we spent in '91', wiping George seniors ass with Iraqs war under Mulroney. I guess we'll just as easily forget where Harper came from... the Reforms and the NCC, both heavily funded by U.S. oil corps. Some of you glue sniffers better wake up.
The brain
5 years ago
Capitalism, the U.S. Empires playbook, isn't exactly a friend to the environment. The Fraser Institute doesn't exactly consider "depletion" of resources in its numbers. Free trade isn't fair trade. Banking deregulations have already sewered us without knowing it (thanks again, to Mulroney and his deficits). Individual ownership of resources (capitalism) isn't working (thanks to our own individual failed principles). Google Earth and take a good long look at BC's cutblocks. Its not working, slowpokes. We need something better than "CAPITALISM FORVEVER" cause its a lie. Capitalism is finite and just like any other territory that has to many animals with too few resources, we'll be fighting for the scraps soon enough.
G West, Birch, Coyote, Jesterjogger, Alcibiades... you're all up to speed. The rest of the righties, brainwashed by their own herd support yes men, cannot see the crumblings of their own empire. Its as if, for some reason, righties thought that the model of Capitalism is the sole property of the U.S. to franchise out and control. Last I looked, communist China has markets. Whatever the government, it doesn't matter as long as there is a global market that allows the U.S. investor to own what it wants. Capitalism will fail us. Its called individual greed played out at a devastating cost to our environments and ecosystems. The notion that Harper could have any kind of vision with the environment knowing that he's already sold his soul to the U.S. is, well... disturbing.
There's a reason why the U.S. recommends that fishers don't eat fish below the 49th parellel. They made the water that way (with some of us being dumb enough to celebrate a "new market emerging"). The Americans can only live on bully greed and credit cards for so long... not exactly a country I'd be doing major business with, or modelling my social life after, as Harper does. Anyone with common sense knows that Harper cashed in his citizenship for a southern version 20 years ago.
The U.S. health system currently ranks 22nd and our vision by Campbell and Harper is to model our system after their, you know, corporate, private ways that leave 15% of their population fully uncovered and another 30% partially uncovered... like as if non-profit universality in healthcare, banks and insurance isn't already the way to go in these sectors as we already know in Canada with healthcare that it works, and works very well compared to the failings of privatization.
To bad its not a righty or capitalist view. And it sure isn't Harpers. But that leftist view will get smeared, to be sure by the rich and elite who's piggy appetite is unsatiable, calling lefties commie and red and socialist and who knows what else, all in the name of profits for a few at the cost to many. Left, Right, Center, democracy, commune, theocracy, socialist, dictatorship, it doesn't matter what the system. Ideology and practice are two separate things. Its human nature and Greed that will get us in the end.
Should I have hope? Faith? Love? Can't flaunt it today with the neo con ding nuts out there continually reassuring me of how stupid and easily duped some of us really are.
G West
5 years ago
The brain
Did you ever figure out where I was sending you a week or so ago?
RickW
5 years ago
Canada doesn't need to be divvied up into "manageable" parts. Canada needs to be connected, through a national transportation and communication network, so east can meet west, can meet north, and movement within this country can become a matter of course, instead of the result of economic desparation. Seems we laboured mightily some 130 years ago to produce a cutting edge railway link, then did a Rip van Winkle, fluttering briefly in the 50's with A.V. Roe, then falling into perpetual sleep mode.......
IAMC
5 years ago
The Brain, Susan Sarandon loves you for trying to tell us that the USA is 22nd in some kind of hair brained survey of medical systems. I ask you, if you were really really sick, where would you feel the most confidence in solving the problem ? Wouldn't it be the USA ?
Maybe Alberta will shine shortly, because of the resources they have put into medical research.
RickW
5 years ago
IAMC:
Actually, for about the same price charged in the US, you can get a REALLY GOOD procedure in India, plus the 1st class plane flight to get there and back, plus, recuperation time in a 1st class resort.............
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=11856
kootowl
5 years ago
Thanks for the link, RickW. It's the writing on the wall for this province, if the private-public parallel system espoused by the politicos here continues to diverge. I've seen the two tier system in Thailand, too, where tourists fly in for "medical holidays" which include 3 days of scanning, testing, etc. in "5 star" hospitals that function like futuristic spas of science. The locals get stuck in rooms in the local public hospitals, which bear an uncanny resemblance to Thai prisons.
IAMC, where we might feel the most confidence in "solving the problem" may have little to do with the reality of actually acquiring the means to treatment...especially in the Excited States of Hysterica.
Rick W, I think Canada does need to be divvied up into manageable parts AND connected. I might be wrong, but I suspect this might be what Murdock is getting at. Decentralizing power is the key, and even the provinces as we currently know them, are vast areas with differing priorities in terms of environmental issues, cultural issues, etc. I don't believe that the US government is at the root of this, either, although it is easy to see how domestic strife in Canada plays into the hands of the USA powers...or, more accurately, a corporate global agenda, based on the fallacies of modern economic theory.
So, what's to do? It would seem that a complete revamp of the electoral system is in order, although Campbell has decreed that this will not even be voted on (irony, anyone?) in B.C. until 2013. Smaller regional governments that take their marching orders from the people seems the only way to actually have a governing body that is truly accountable to the people. Balkanization? Maybe. But how else is it possible to let people take more responsibility for the environment they live in? When there is no intention on the part of the people/government to create a system of diversity and interdependence, balkanization will divide and conquer. However, if there is an over-arching unity, a sense of interdependence with the other regions of Canada, then the shared values might enable us to uphold the "broad-based principles" referred to in Birch's posting.
RickW
5 years ago
kootowl:
Absolutely!
But not to stop at the provincial level, as it only serves to (continue to) screw Canada's hinterland by the more heavily populated (generally) southern regions. We need more of a Confederacy of Canada, composed of (for want of another reference point) the boundaries of the present-day municipalities, which in turn elect representatives to a national district that represents the confederacy to the world.
A confederacy implies equality:
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2083&dekey=C0303000&curtab=2083_1&linktext=confederacy
Remember Bobby Jimby? http://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_gimby.html
RickW
5 years ago
However, getting back to Harper, should he be true to his (implied) philosophy, he should be devolving power from Ottawa as one of his first acts. I suspect though, now that he has "tasted power", he shan't be doing that anytime soon. And if and when he does, that particular apple won't fall too far from the tree.......
Fish-counter
5 years ago
North American culture is interesting. While eager to embrace anything that is "new" especially if it has lots of bells and whistles, we are collectively resistant to simple "common sense". We jump all over anything that has to do with computers, but still don't understand the value of good plumbing.
We live in a province where the capital city has no proper sewage treatment facility, yet we want to "market" ourselves as an eco-tourist destination. One of our "icon" species, the Orca, is the most polluted mammal on Earth.
We claim to want innovative transportation, but our cities continue to be designed around gasoline-powered cars, some of which are getting lower mileage than ever and selling very well.
Canadians claim to support the Kyoto Accord, but our record on CO2 emissions is "twice as bad" as the U.S. according to Brian Mulroney. That may be the only thing he ever said, which is believable.
I see nothing in this new rhetoric that is likely to change the situation. I think the environmentalists just have to wait until the impact of climate change is so bad that disaster movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" come true.
North America is embroiled in a war, with no apparent end in sight. War is the ultimate folly, and this one more than most. It shows how people wil compete for the last drop of oil, the last drop of fresh water and the last gasp of air. Wildlife issues haven't got a hope in Hades of making the radar screen.
At such times in the past, it has been dangerous to talk of peace, let alone the environment. I may have missed it, but I see no reference to war in this column, but it is the greatest environmental threat we face. "Nuff said.