hockey sticks

When you can't go to Canadian Tire and buy your kid a hockey stick that was made in Canada, but only ones made in China line the walls, then it it is time to take back our jobs, our economy, our identity, our self worth and the respect of the next generation.

We can mill our logs into lumber here.

We can refine our crude oil here'

We can make our clothes here.

We can grow our food here.

We can build our planes, trains, ships and automobiles here.

We can bloody well make 'our' hockey sticks here.

It's our game, let 'us' play it.

NDP and economics

Thanks Murray for making this the challenge for the NDP in gaining federal governing status in Canada.

I am grateful to Ed Seedhouse for providing the links above. I found a direct link to Steve Keen's interview on BBC's HardTalk November 2011 which I suggest readers view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGkmgnprrIU

Dr Keen

...debunks neoclassical economics, with which I agree.

But likewise, thinking economics (his or some other rendition) is going to solve our human woes is one assumption that needs to be removed from his own thinking as well.

He suggests, as has occurred in different nations historically, writing off all debt since our economic crisis is one of debt. Of course the utilitarian view is this is best for society on the whole despite punishing those without debt -- those who have lived within their means or 'stolen' enough wealth along the way.

So then what? What about a redistribution of wealth afterwards? What economic pseudo-capitalist model does he want to put in its place?

The problem I foresee is a return to the same misplaced thinking, where human self-realization is the supreme principle of ethics despite us living collectively and being reliant upon one another, socially, to survive.

We have real human problems, not simply ones explained on the balance by mathematically formulated models or theories.

I TOLD You So...

The ND party should have had a huge 'I told you so' moment when the financial crash of 2007 took place... but they failed miserably to take advantage of those events.

Now, it's the OWS movement, not the socialists that are taking the fore to point out the abject failure of neo-liberal economics.

Moving to the right like the Liberal party did would be a huge strategic blunder - abandoning their superior political economic model - a regulated, mixed (private/public) economy and a progressive tax system at the exact moment its merits become incontrovertible.

very disappointing -

- that the NDP, or Murray, do not seem to be getting any brighter about the root of the problems here - who controls 'our' money. If you don't tackle this, anything else is just, as the saying goes, dicking around with the deck chairs. If they (NWO, new feudalists, call em what you will) control the money, they control everything else. Even a kid knows that. If anyone from any wouldbe NDP leader is reading this, get educated here - What Happened http://www.rudemacedon.ca/what-happened.html . Your economic promises are completely pointless if you don't understand the money situation first. As more people are starting to understand.

NDP, if elected, will move slowly

The frustration of commenters here is obvious and, in many cases, on target. Some solutions presented are better than others.

Cynic makes a great point about economic policy, Ed S. is correct about neo liberal economics, Ron W. about value added products and outsourcing, and more from others.

But it took well over 30 years of neo-liberal policy and propaganda to get us to where we are now.

Unless we can accept some type of revolution, something I don't think most Canadians would go for, the process of reverting to a different, but more equitable, just and sustainable system will take many years, if at all, given the opposition.

janetvickers is lucid on this point, to follow the correct course immediately at this time would be political suicide. It will take years to get us where we want to go, step by incremental step.

Lula's success in Brazil has taken a long time and is by no means complete, but consider where their dictatorial government was in the 1980s and 90s. By comparison, Hugo Chavez has had limited success and has drawn considerable ire in Venezuela.

The NDP, even if they don't want to shift to the middle, must draw in centrist voters to have any hope of forming government, or that far right cabal, masking themselves as centre right, will continue to rule.

If the NDP can show themselves as a capable and compassionate government, only then will they be able to introduce progressive bills into law, and that, with great difficulty, given the right blind side mainstream media and trans national influences, including NAFTA and such trade agreements.

To expect any government to make large rapid changes in its first mandate is surely naive, better then that unlikely rebellion.

But an electoral voting change may be a good start.

Keep polishing that turd, OwlRol

Surely by now you can grasp that the needed reform is NOT coming through through the ballot box. Your thinking is ultimately stone-walled with self-censorship, so you remain faithful to the idea that changing the crew has hope.

This might have been the reasonable approach 25-odd years ago, particularly when there was no BigOil campaign to capture the minds of the public and pit them against scientific consensus; or before the fall of the Soviet Union opened the gates to American Imperial ambition on an epic scale.

In short it is our politics that need addressing, not the politicians. We are governed, whether you want to accept this fact or not, by a corporatocracy owned by the elite plutocrats. It is riddled with so much conflict of interest (GE as mainstream propagandist and war profiteer, but one example), we are only flooded with stories bettering its bottom line. And these stories are not in the interests of the people because the media is no longer a watchdog. Those days are long gone. This is now a world lead by the Military-Industrial-Media complex.

The very fact that you can see that the political route 'will take many years', and will likely be an unsuccessful one 'given the opposition' because the necessary and proper conduct is 'political suicide', surely it tells you the dilemma we find ourselves in is beyond the political machinations of our times.

And despite all this, you turn away from taking the next logical step and, instead, you continue to support the corruption of state through the voting process. Talk about dissonance.

Forget the politics. Forget voting. It's like kicking the car tires hoping it'll get the vehicle fired up. Not only won't it start the car but, even if it did, the car is a write-off and up-side down in the ditch.

The 'let's vote' suggestion is exactly the type of contrived thinking the establishment is relying upon. Like the watch-dog media, today's democratic vote for substantive change is no more. We change our thinking or we die, suffering gravely on the way out.

Either folks understand the issues you pointed out (as you clearly do), and then follow them to their obvious conclusion (which you clearly do not), or they remain intellectually captured by the imperialism of their cultural traditions and continue marching to their own demise.

I just wonder why you are so afraid to take the next step and call for revolution?

My vote goes to the guy with the turban

Sorry; I don't know his name, but he sounded like a determined leader. Like Jack himself in fact. The NDP needs a no-nonsense bulldog to bite through the Harper bullsh*t and take a bite out of his arse. No philosophers need apply.

By the way, where is Michael Ignatieff now, and who cares?

Economy

The cruel hard truth is, that what is good for the economy is not necessarily good for the people. The economy has been booming, while the standard of living has been steadily eroded, starting with the onset of trickle down economics.
Peggy Nash has her facts straight. She is my choice for leader of the NDP, smart, financial experience, parliamentary experience, rooted in social justice.

Chop, chop!

"She (Nash) also calls for formal co-operation between government, business, labour and universities to guide a return to a comprehensive industrial policy -- pointing to Finland, Korea, Brazil, ..."

The Brazilian Senate has approved controversial legislation that reforms rules on the amount of land farmers must preserve as forest.

Dec.7.2011 BBC
"This is the first time we're ending the monopoly, that we're ending the environmental dictatorship where half a dozen [non-governmental organisations] controlled the environment ministry," said Sen Katia Abreu, president of Brazil's National Agriculture and Livestock Association (CNA).

Greenpeace Amazon spokesman Marcio Astrini told the Associated Press news agency that the new code would reduce the area required for conservation, so allowing new deforestation. "

That's what they call, "a comprehensive industrial policy".