Friday, October 17, 2008
The Liberal's Home Base Is?
The Just Society of the liberal party has got lost in the last 2 decades. Through out the 20th century the liberal Party readily took social polices under its wing and made them part of the Canadian social fabric. King brought in UIC, Family Allowance, and pensions. then Pearson brought in universal heath care and public housing and Trudeau a women's right to chose and the Charter of Rights. The party in the 90's became very fiscally conservative to bring back the needed fiscal responsibility. The result was a number of essential social programmes were cut or gutted or underfunded and we got use to an idea that smaller government assistance to the less able was alright. This allowed the public to support a hard line conservatism and legitimised Harperism.
In the past we took good CCF/NDP ideas and adopted them. This allowed the Liberals to maintain a centrist position keeping the left in a more fringe position. As the Liberals moved more right we have lost the centre left support in regions with a high social consciousness, such as, Sask, Man. and BC. The party needs to take the progressive centre left view with regards to the environment because the is obviously a strong public sentiment there. At the same time we need to be more socially conscientious continuing with things like universal daycare, a catastrophic drug plan, social housing,court challenges programme, literacy and a high minimum wage.
In the past we took good CCF/NDP ideas and adopted them. This allowed the Liberals to maintain a centrist position keeping the left in a more fringe position. As the Liberals moved more right we have lost the centre left support in regions with a high social consciousness, such as, Sask, Man. and BC. The party needs to take the progressive centre left view with regards to the environment because the is obviously a strong public sentiment there. At the same time we need to be more socially conscientious continuing with things like universal daycare, a catastrophic drug plan, social housing,court challenges programme, literacy and a high minimum wage.
# posted by Nobleton Clear @ 12:58 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
Very true. Until today, I had not watched Sicko, the Michael Moore movie. Now there's a movie every citizen should watch. I began to think about how, under McGuinty, Ontarians are not allowed access to PET scans (even though we have the machines) and that getting an MRI is nearly impossible. Also I began to think about my local hospital continually shutting down the emergency dept. due to not having enough beds. They have the room and the beds, but just can't afford to staff them. The riding with that particular hospital in it was recently lost to Conservative vote. It has been Liberal for nearly 15 years.
After the election, in which I voted Liberal, despite not being able to stand Layton, I began to think.....can I really support the Liberal party? Are they really representative of what I define as being Canadian? The answer is no, no they're not, and they haven't been for some time. But the Conservatives are worse. The NDP, with Layton/Chow at the helm, are highly dislikeable, but next time, if things don't greatly improve within the Liberal party, I will vote NDP. And I hate it but something has to wake up the big parties of Liberal and Conservative. I'm tired of what they're doing to Canada and most especially tired of their infighting and backdoor shenanigans to vote for Libs or Cons until they wake up.
After the election, in which I voted Liberal, despite not being able to stand Layton, I began to think.....can I really support the Liberal party? Are they really representative of what I define as being Canadian? The answer is no, no they're not, and they haven't been for some time. But the Conservatives are worse. The NDP, with Layton/Chow at the helm, are highly dislikeable, but next time, if things don't greatly improve within the Liberal party, I will vote NDP. And I hate it but something has to wake up the big parties of Liberal and Conservative. I'm tired of what they're doing to Canada and most especially tired of their infighting and backdoor shenanigans to vote for Libs or Cons until they wake up.
Carrie: you will be welcomed by the party. I am sorry you don't like Jack and Olivia but the party is far more than one couple (even if he is the leader). I have been saying for some time that the problem with the LPC is that they have no real foundation, no real ideology. They steal ideas from the NDP, the greens and the Cons. They water down the NDP and Green ideas to the point that they are useless (ex. McGuinty's not implementing $10 min wage immediately. By the time that the min wage reaches $10 inflation will have made the gains pointless). My grandfather was a LPC MP and his party is not the current LPC which only seems to care about gaining power but not doing anything progressive once they get it.
I think you misunderstand the reasons for the troubles in the west, the votes didnt bleed to the NDP, they have gone to the Conservatives.
Post a Comment
<< Home
