The election is
only a couple of days away and as we have been reminded time and again, it has
been the longest election campaign in modern Canadian history. There has been plenty of time for the polls
to predict everyone except an alien as our next Prime Minister. Time for every political pundit to have their
say, and then some. So are you confused
yet? It was thrilling to watch the early
polls predict an NDP win but now those hopes seem to be sagging; the media has
done its job in putting fear in everyone so the question will be, which “same
old, same old” are we going to end up with?
Here’s what I
would like to suggest for people to take a look at before they make their final
decision on October 19th. I’d
like them to take a look at the past records of both the Conservative and the
Liberal parties. Trudeau stealing the
change slogan and calling a Liberal win “Real Change” is dubious at best. The fact is both of these parties continue to
get their major funding by the big corporations and the banks.
Here are a few
things to think about
·
Why are our current labour laws allowing
businesses such as
Walmart, Safeway, Sobey’s, Superstore and McDonalds to employ the majority of their staff for less than full time? If you take a look at who is employed in
these jobs you will see that the majority of staff are adults, not
students. These people deserve a
regular, full time job with full benefits.
You don’t think these businesses can pay their staff full time
salaries? Walmart’s owners are in the
top 100 wealthiest FAMILIES in the world.
·
What do you expect to “get” for your tax
dollars? It is reasonable to expect a government to be
able to maintain roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure
with tax dollars. It is not reasonable
to expect governments to bail out corporations when they get into trouble when
these same corporations continue to give out million dollar bonuses to their
executives (why should they get a bonus when they’ve gotten themselves into enough
trouble to need a bail out). In the same
line of thought, business that have been built up by governments (e.g. Air Canada, Alberta Government Telephone,
Manitoba Telephone System, Coop Electric Systems, etc.) should not be sold to
private enterprise for pennies on the dollar.
·
Should government use student loans as
revenue? Anyone who has had to borrow money to send
their children to university or college knows how outrageous the interest rate
is on these loans. Students are in debt
for decades after graduation. The
difference in the cost of education from 1970 to 2015 is out of all reason to
the rate of inflation.
·
What things do you consider essential
service and what do you consider “entitlement”?
As a healthy, hard working Canadian I consider I have paid enough health
care premiums, EI, CPP, property taxes, income taxes and other hidden taxes
over my 40 plus years to feel that I should be able to go to the doctor for any
health concerns that I have now that I am “aging”. I should expect my pension(s) to be able to
ADEQUATELY see me through my old age.
What is ADEQUATE . . . it means having 3 square meals a day, a roof over
my head (affordable housing for those who were not able to own their own home
--- remember, those living on Walmart wages are never going to own their own
home) and the essentials of life – heat and electricity being key.
·
Entitlement and entitlement.
Let’s consider how Mr. Harper and his ilk have spoken of Canadians’ idea
of “entitlement” when they went on strike . . . and then let’s take a look at
that (expletive curbed) Senate. Need
I say more?
·
Health care, education, infrastructure,
senior care – these are
just some of the things that have been steadily dropping off the plates of
Conservative and Liberal governments. I
haven’t even mentioned some of the other things that are important to us as
Canadians, environment, immigration, foreign policy (peacekeeping vs war) to
name a few.
·
Real change . . . THINK ABOUT THAT.
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