Quebec Student Protests are an Example of the Purest Form of Democracy

Warren Kinsella has already mentioned this over at his website but I thought I would throw in my two cents.

I have read several pundits and commentators over the last few days that have been quite critical of the student protests claiming that they are undermining our democracy.

Hell, Macleans even infers that the students have become the new "ruling class" in Quebec.  We could only wish there was some truth to that assertion.

It is no coincidence that the most critical pundits are those that are on the conservative side of the political spectrum.  In a previous post on this blog I mentioned that the balance of influence between corporations and individuals has been badly skewed in favour of corporations.  For conservatives they believe that is how it should be and any movement that might bring that balance of influence on to a more even keel is considered a threat. 

I would like to say that calling these demonstrations a threat to democracy is just a political tactic but my experience debating with conservatives indicates to me that a sizable number of them actually believe what the say.  They actually believe that ordinary citizens expressing their displeasure towards a government policy or just a government is somehow undemocratic.  Most of the time it is the organized fashion of the protests that they get hung up on.  Someone writing a letter to the editor or to their Member of Parliament is democratic but a group of people with the same goals organizing to push for the realization of those goals is not. 

As I have stated before I believe North America needs more examples of the type of democracy the students in Quebec have been engaged in.  Whether you agree with their demands or not they are demonstrating that ordinary citizens with a little organization and alot of committment can tip the balance of influence back towards ordinary citizens (at least for a little while) and remind the real ruling class on this continent that their grip on power is not as firm as they would like to believe. 

The Assault on EI Begins

Earlier in the week it was reported that the Conservative government is proposing changes to EI, which will make it more difficult for people to get EI and once they do get it make it more difficult to keep receiving benefits.  And in a particular case of nastiness they will make it really difficult for people who need EI more than once. 

Today, in both the Ottawa Citizen and the National Post we see stories about how EI is damaging Canda, particularly in the Maritimes and Quebec.

Coincidence? 

The government's proposed changes to EI and the defence of those changes by the two newspapers I mentioned is just typical of the conservative mindset.

For conservatives, people are not people, they are not even citizens.  They are just economic entities moving within the economy and they are to be handled in such a way as to make that economy as efficient as possible.  It would never occur to conservatives that those individuals who might not want to move from a high unemployment part of Canada to a lower unemployment part of Canada are people who have set down roots in their current communities.  They have family and friends, their families have their own roots and to throw that all away to move to another part of the country would be difficult, emotionally and logistically.  As well, many Canadians have bought into the conservative mantra that "jobs for life" no longer exist so they are hesitant to move because they may just have to do it all over again when the economic winds shift, as they always do. 

Conservatives also realize that people are also voters and they can vote against them if they pursue polices people do not want or agree with.  (The inconsiderate pricks, don't they know that conservatives and their corporate enablers have their best interests at heart.)  Again the conservative mindset is not to think of voters as people but they think of them as political entities to be manipulated, hence today's stories trashing EI.

Today was just the opening salvo of the assault on EI and I am certain we will see more of it in the coming weeks and month.  I will leave it up to others to discuss whether the Conservative government and their allies will succeed and whether they will suffer for it politically.

Quebec Student Strikes

One thing I have always admired about Quebecers is their lack of tolerance of their governments giving them what they perceive to be a bad deal.  It does not matter what group it is or the political stripe of the government that is committing the perceived wrong, they make it very difficult for any government to do so without consequences.

We are seeing that this mind set runs deep and it runs thoughtout the province, including in the youth.  I say good on them. 

On the merits of their case I cannot say that I blame the students for their actions.  They enjoy the lowest tuition rates in the country and they would like to keep it that way.  As well, they know that the proposed tuition hikes are only the beginning.  Once they start they will not stop.  They only need to look at all of the other provinces in Canada where governments have been raising tuitions for the last 20+ years.  The reason why they are doing so is the wet noodle reaction of student organizations to the proposed hikes.  The student organizations make all sorts of noise about "access to education being a right" but they never really took action to back up their words.

I daresay that this might not be a problem in Quebec.  The current proposal will be enacted because for the Charest government to back down now would be a political disaster but the events of the last four months will probably give future Quebec governments pause before proposing more tuition increases in the future.

Indeed, if the PQ Party has any political smarts left they should be planning on promising to roll back any tuition hikes in the coming election in an effort to take political advantage of a suddenly energized youth vote.

It is good to see that there is still one last jurisdiction on the continent where the people of that place are unwilling to let their government give them the shaft without putting up one hell of a fight.  Now if only the rest of the continent would follow their example.

Ah, so that's what it takes

I have always wondered what it would take to make the Harper government change its mind on one of its "signature" initiatives and now I know.

It takes a political two by four.  I had a feeling.

Canada needs to replace its F-18s.  No industrialized country can do without a fully capable air force.  I have no problem with the government's desire to buy new fighter/strike aircraft.  My problem is we can only do so once every 30 years or so.  As a result, it is imperative that we get it right otherwise we will be stuck with the wrong aircraft for a very long time.  That means the process should be designed to identify the operational needs of the Canadian airforce and then go out and find the aircraft that best meets those needs.

Although it is naive to believe some politics will not seep into such a process a government that lets politics take over the process is doing Canada a great disservice.

Now we get to see how this government reacts to this situation.  Will it react like the Chretien government did or will it do the right thing?

After the Chretien government cancelled the EH-101 contract it did its best to disqualify that helicopter from the running to replace the Sea Kings because they believed they would look like idiots to cancel a signed contract only to sign another one for the same aircraft a few years later.  (They would have been right.)  The only problem was the EH-101 met Canada's needs so they could not really disqualify it without cranking the process, which lead to lawsuits, which lead to so many delays in buying new helicopters we still have not replaced the Sea Kings.

So now we get to see what this government does.

Considering this government has proven it places political considerations above all else I think it is pretty safe to say that we are witnessing the beginning of the 'Sea King' saga all over again and that it will be another decade or so before the Canadian Airforce sees new figher/strike aircraft.

The Calgary School must be fuming

So after reading the budget put forward by the current federal government I am left with the impression that Stephen Harper's mentors in Calgary are probably wondering what it is going to take to have their ideas implemented by a Canadian government.

This first budget from the majority Conservative government was probably the only real chance for them to implement some of the policies that they fought for during their time in Opposition.  They had an opportunity to radically remake the Canadian government as they stated they wanted to do many times during the late '90s and the early '00s, while still having plenty of time to recover from any political fallout that might have occured. 

They did none of that.  Instead they crafted a budget that would have passed a minority parliament if it were necessary. 

The structure of the government that existed on March 29 still exists today.  True it is less well funded but otherwise it has not changed.  Any succeeding government to this one will not need to rebuild the government infrastructure if they want to improve existing programmes.  They will only need to increase the funding.

Even the reduction in the number of federal public servants is small when you compare it to the overall size of the Canadian federal bureaucracy.  As some media commentators pointed out the government did not even reduce the public service to pre-2006 levels.  That is, they did not get rid of all of the public servants that were hired under their watch. 

So, this budget is a rather mundane document, with two exceptions.

The first one being the reduction in the budget for the Canada Food Inspection Agency.  What is it with Conservative governments reducing budgets of agencies charged with protecting our food and water supplies?  The Harris government's decision to reduce the number of water inspectors in Ontario lead directly to the Walkerton tragedy according the judicial inquiry that was called to investigate that event.  That event was also a great contributor to the bath the PCPO took in the subsequent election.  You would think that the Harper government would have taken a lesson from that, particularly since that government contains so many former Harris cabinet ministers.

The second exception is the favourtism in this budget to the oil and mining industries over the manufacturing industries.  Resource extraction is not the answer to long-term economic health in this country.  Over 150 years of history should prove that.  They are too prone to boom and bust cycles and the Canadian economy needs a robust manufacturing sector to help mitigate the damage to the economy a resource bust will have.  Like governments that came before this one the current government has failed to realize that reality.  It will come back to haunt them and to haunt Canadians.

I do not know why the current government did not take a bolder approach in this budget and I can only imagine that many in the Calgary school are just as stumped as I am.

The Canadian Right's desire to copy the American Right

One of the features of the contemporary Canadian right that I have always found interesting is their desire to copy the issues and policies that are put forward by the right in the United States, particularly those issues and policies put forward by the far right in that country.

The Canadian right cleaves to the ideas of the American right on economic and fiscal policies, which is not surprising.  However, on such issues as abortion, same sex marriage, capital punishment, gun control, health care and other social issues the Canadian right tends to fall into step with the ideas put forward by the far right in the United States as well.  This is unique to the Canadian political right.  No other right wing party or government in the industrialized world makes any of these social issues a priority.  They tend to mimic the US economic and fiscal policy to a certain extent but they do not bother with the social issues.

Why is the Canadian right so enamoured with the ideas of the American right?

To a certain extent I can understand their desire to mimic the economic and fiscal policies of the American right.  Despite its troubles the United States still has one of the most dynamic economies in the world.  The Canadian right believes that such dynamism is the result of the low taxes and regulations on business in the United States.  So their argument goes that if Canada can set up a similar tax and regulation regime the Canadian economy will take off like the US economy.

On the surface this argument might have some merit but if you dig a little deeper it is patently false.  The US economy has been the driving force in the world economy for decades because innovation is the watchword for that economy.  Innovation in products, innovation in processes, and not being afraid to take risks is the reason for the dynamism of the US economy.  That was true during the height of the welfare state US economy of the '50 and '60 and it is true of the current Darwinian economic model in the US.

If Canada wants to have an economy like the Unites States the players in the Canadian economy will need to adopt such an approach to economic activity.  Canadian companies and government will need to be as innovative and as willing to take risks as those in the United States.

That's not going to happen.  Canadian companies and government do not take these kinds of risks.  They do not engage in that kind of innovation.  You just need to look at the history of Canada's economic activity, as I pointed out in my previous post, to see that. 

So Canada's right is barking up the wrong tree on the economic front.  Until there is a sea change in how business and governments approach economic activity in this country no amount of copying the US policies will create an economy as dynamic as the US economy.

On social issues I do not understand the Canadian right's desire to copy the American right.  Virtually all of the social policies that the American right pursues in the United States tend to resonate with a sufficient number of Americans to make it worthwhile to pursue. 

The same in not true in Canada.  None of those issues are front and centre in mainstream Canadian thought.  In fact, with the exception of health care most Canadian are quite content not to rock the boat by bringing up those other social issues that the right is so enamoured with.  As well, whenever these issues do break through the consciousness of Canadians their opinions tend to be different from those of the Canadian right.

Canada has unique issues that need to be dealt with in both the economic and social realm of Canadian society.  Perhaps, the Canadian right could use their energies to come up with original thoughts on how to deal with those issues instead of just regurgitating the thoughts and policies of their cousins to the south.

Canada, a country of losers?

For most of its existance Canada has been beholden to greater powers for any advantages that it has enjoyed.  This country has never really stood on its own two feet.

Since before Confederation Canada has always been dependent on other countries.  It was the British from before Confederation until the Second World War and it was the United States from the end of the Second World War to the present.

It is well known that for virtually all of its existence Canada's main source of economic activity is the extraction of resources and being a branch plant economy for the big US multinationals.  I could understand that this was probably necessary when our country was just starting out but you would think we would have moved on to something much greater as our country matured into an independent nation.

Of course that is not the case.  Our country enjoys the advantages of having a well educated population, and a modern, industrialized economy.  We should be making alot more noise on the international scene and on the world economy.  Instead we have not really progressed much farther than where we were in 1867.

We are still extracting and selling our resources to other countries to be processed, instead of processing them ourselves.  Very few of the companies that are doing this extracting are actually Canadian, which is no different that in 1867, except the companies doing the extracting are no longer British, they are American, Chinese and Brazilian.

Our biggest industrial companies are still subsidiaries of large American Corporations.  Whenever a Canadian company does rise to prominence within the Canadian economy it tends not to last long.  Nortel and JDS Uniphase are examples of that and RIM will soon be another example as it will either go bankrupt or be bought out by Apple or Microsoft in the near future.

Hell, we are seeing this everywhere.  I read yesterday of a Canadian company based out of Saskatchewan, called Viterra, which was just sold to a foreign company.  Viterra owned a sizable chunk of the grain elevators in the Prairies, as will as, port facilities in Thunder Bay and BC.  They sold the lot to a company based in Holland, a country justifiably well known for its vast tracks of rolling wheat fields.

Even in culture we are well behind the rest of the world.  Canada has a culture and has a tool to promote and highlight it in the CBC.  Canada in one of only a handful of countries that have a national broadcaster.  We could be using that to a great advantage but the opposite is true.  The fate of the CBC is actually unknown but there is a good chance that it will be privatized or it will just disappear into nothingness.

How can we as citizens of this great country allow this to happen?  Why are we standing by and watching it happening instead of putting a stop to it?  Why are we not demanding that Canadian resources be processed in Canada instead of just being dug out of the ground and shipped elsewhere as raw materials?  Why are we allowing successful Canadian companies to either disappear or be bought by companies from other countries?

Considering the wealth of human and natural resources this country enjoys Canada should be one of the movers and shakers in the global economy.  The fact that we are not is a sad testament to the collective failure of our society to leverage those resources to the greatest advanage of all Canadians.  Or to put it another way, just by taking the path of least resistance we have managed to grow an economy that is in the top ten in the world in size.  Just imagine what we could do if we actually took control of our economy and began making it work for Canadians.

Full circle in Afghanistan

A couple of weeks ago a US soldier went on a rampage in an Afghan village killing many civilians.  This was a tragedy and the reactions of the Afghan authorities was predictable.

What I found more surprising was the Western media reaction to it.  Not too many years in the past they would have acknowledged the tragedy of the event but they would have downplayed the significance of it on the broader implications for the war.  That was not the case this time.  I was surprised at how many media commentators, in the US and in Canada, who are staunch supporters of the war, who stated that this presented President Obama with an excuse to pull US troops out to Afghanistan (with NATO right behind it) and who stated that he should take the opportunity.

I believe that the media have finally acknowledged to themselves that this war is unwinnable.  I would have preferred if they would have come to this conclusion six or seven years ago when that fact first became apparent but I guess better late than never.

It did not have to be this way of course.  It became very obvious to anybody who could look at the situation on the ground with any degree of objectivity that the Taliban was not going to go away after its ouster as the Afghan government. 

The West should have acknowledged that fact and reached out to the more moderate elements of the Taliban to invite them into the new government of the country.  People do not want to lead that country for the good of its people they want to lead it so that they can have a share of the spoils of the rampant corruption of the government.  If the West would have offered a share of those spoils to moderates in the Taliban they would have probably accepted.  That would probably have had the advantage making the last few years alot less bloody for Western forces and it might have had the added advantage of splitting the Taliban, perhaps weakening the hardliners enough to push them to the fringes.

Instead of course, George Bush decided to try to destroy the Taliban, a task that is as impossible as any effort to destroy the Democratic Party.  The result was over a decade of war and the radicalization of the Taliban.  If there are any moderates left in the Taliban they have no power or influence and they will not be able to stop the civil war that will erupt in Afghanistan after the West finally withdraws.  A civil war the Taliban has a very good chance of winning by the way.

We all know that George Bush and his band of neo-cons had a very simplistic view of the world and they bear a great deal of the responsibility of the ongoing tradegy that is that war.  However, the allies that joined Mr. Bush in this ill starred endeavour should have known better.  Although it probably would have fallen on deaf ears they could have attempted to convince the Bush Administration to take a different tack.  Instead they did nothing and in some cases actually enabled the Bush Administration strategy, the actions and rhetoric of the Canadian, British and French governments being particularly noticable in this regard.

So now we have come full circle.  The Taliban won a civil war to rule that country after the departure of the Soviet Union and it is poised to do the same thing again after the departure of Western forces.

Rogue

My two cents on the Robocall troubles that have hit the Conservatives in the last couple of days.

The fact that Stephen Harper had to answer questions about the actions of the Conservatives the day after the story broke and the fact that records show that his personal campaign paid money to Racknine is cause for concern for the Conservatives.  When PMs become personally involved in potential scandals it usually is not a good thing for the party at large.

Considering these robocalls occured in up to 27 ridings it is very implausible that a single campaign working, working on a local campaign, could have found the time and the resources to pull this off by himself.  Anybody with any knowledge of how the nitty gritty of electoral politics in the country works would know this.

I include the media in that group so I wonder if they will pursue the truth of this scheme with as much vim and vigour as they pursued the truth in past Liberal government scandal?  I am not holding my breath.