I’ve often said that people in Canada are getting more and more hilariously left-wing—so much so, now, that they don’t even have a concept of it anymore. They’re so liberal they no longer even know it or even recognize it. Even Canada’s fledgling Conservative Party, once a potentially good alternative, is moving further and further left (they wink and call it being “moderate” or being a “big tent” party—it’s actually “liberal”. Again: “liberal”).
Canada’s liberal-left compares Harper and the Conservative Party to George Bush—making me laugh every time I hear it—when in fact Harper and the Conservatives would make Ted Kennedy seem like a right-wing radical if they set up shop down there. The Democratic Party is most assuredly right of Harper and Canada’s Conservative Party. And way, way left of me.
People like Ujjal Dosanjh would rightly be cast as a “communist” in most western countries outside of Canada—perhaps even eastern and second-world countries—and indeed, he sounds very much like a communist to me.
Anyway, avid visitor Ross M. (hat tip) sent me this link to a National Post editorial which I think is worth reading if you’re a liberal. Well, worth reading if supplemented by a lightening bolt up the kazoo followed by a huge cup of strong coffee and a stick of dynamite once again up the kazoo. Perhaps with a yellow sticky on the forehead reading “Wake Up, Look Around”.
It’s time for a global perspective
I’m a Canadian. I was born in Canada, schooled in Canada, and went to university in Canada. But I haven’t lived in Canada for nearly 20 years. Though my wife and I have regularly brought our children (now 10 and 12) back to Ontario for summer visits with grandparents and family, we never stayed for an extended period until last year, when we all came back for six months—the second half of 2004.
[…] When I raised this point during my time back in Canada—that any well-functioning democracy needs the voters to kick parties out of power on a fairly regular basis—I was met every time with this reply: “But Harper and the Tories are so right wing. We agree in theory, but really, no one could vote for them.”
The same sort of message could be heard implicitly on CBC radio and in most of the mainstream media.
But here’s the odd thing. In global terms, it’s simply not true. Take today’s Tories and Stephen Harper out of Canada and plunk them in New Zealand and they would be to the left of Helen Clark’s Labour government. Down in New Zealand, there is a two-tier health system; there are civil unions but no gay marriage; the economy is far less heavily regulated in terms of labour laws, tax policy and tariffs than anything Harper is proposing.
The same goes for Australia. Compare the policies of the left-wing Labour Party there (on defence, immigration, the environment, health, education, you name it) to Canadian Tories’ policies and Harper consistently stands to the left of Australian Labour, not the right.
And this is the same Tory party that is demonized in Canada for being “too right wing.” Frankly, it was disorienting to return to Canada and to be met, continually, with this total lack of global perspective.
All I can say to that is that people down in Australia and New Zealand, even in the U.K., must be made of sterner stuff. They would never rejoice in such self-emasculation. […]
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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