Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dismantling Canada's social safety net, one tax cut at a time....

Health care, CPP, education, programs for the needy and disenfranchised.

Canada has for a long time maintained an enviable position in the eyes of the world based on how we look after the most vulnerable and poorest members of our society.  The strength of a chain is measured by looking at the weakest links, not the strongest.  Likewise a nation should be judged by the wealth of its poorest citizens, not the richest.

Are we perfect?  No, of course not.  There never has been and likely never will be enough money available to solve all of Canada's social failings.  But we try, and more often than not, we succeed.  Or at least we have until now.

The Conservative governments of Stephen Harper have done yeoman's work in chipping away at the fringes of Canadian identity, looking to mimic the neo-conservative views of their American cousins.  And with a massive deficit we'll be paying more and more for debt servicing with less and less available for things like health care. 

While the overall size of government has been growing during the Harper regime, tax revenues have been declining thanks to big tax cuts to our wealthiest citizens and businesses.  And Harper and his crew just keep running up the Visa bill...ensuring that more and more of the tax dollars they do collect will be thrown down a black hole of interest payments. 

Already those unable to afford access to the courts have had their standing in Canada's democracy weakened.

Your rights are being trampled?  Ahhhh, that's too bad, hope you have the cash to be able to afford some justice.

We'll find out if the slick advertising on the veneer of Conservative economic mismanagement will be enough to garner Harper a majority government and the ability to pursue his Libertarian agenda and to make his old bosses with the National Citizens Coalition very very happy.



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