I’m almost Conservative. I want a government that is rational and pragmatic. While other parties bluster about, I want the adult party that gets on with the business of running a country. Alas, the Conservatives are not that party – they are not rational, they are ideological.

Harper Abdicates Power

Harper vows to not run a deficit even in a recession. If you can find an economist or an educated business person who thinks that is smart, you have earned a new job: find Bin Laden. The Globe & Mail’s Report on Business ran ‘The Depression’s History Lessons’, an article which includes: “Jeff Rubin, the chief economist of CIBC World Markets, thinks Canadian politicians have forgotten what governments are meant to do in a recession” and points out that even free-market ideologue Milton Friedman believes government should run deficits during recessions. (Why? Increased government spending makes up for decreased producer-and-consumer spending, and gets the economy out of recession sooner.)

Financial Market Fraud – It’s Not Illegal if there are no Laws!

Even free-market economists think the market needs government to set the rules so that the free market will work for good.

Harper, however, saw no problem in the conflict of interest that let credit-rating agencies profit from sales of investments it rated, which lead to the triple-A rating of an investment product (asset backed commercial paper, or ABCP) which American agencies like Standard & Poor’s refused to rate because the product contained a loophole wherein something that called itself a guarantee was not a guarantee. Indeed 4 of the 5 Canadian banks refused to honour the guarantee when the investments were wiped out in August 2007.

These were investors who had sought a safe investment (AAA-rating!), and were told these were as safe as GICs – some sellers’ literature even called ABCP safer than GICs.

To be fair, I am not sure Harper knew about these dangers. Perhaps that can be his defence.

A Green Shift is a Free Market Fan’s Dream Come True

Fans of the Free Market praise prices for containing [all] the information people need to make right choices. ‘You don’t need to know how pencils are made, you just need to know they cost 30 cents.’ The one major flaw they acknowledge is ‘externalities’ – costs and benefits that aren’t reflected by prices. These cause incentives to produce and consume more than the socially optimal amounts of some things, and less than the socially optimal amounts of others. They call these flaws ‘market failures’. So why are Conservatives opposing Green Shift plans? The Liberal and Green Party Green Shift plans bring prices to reflect true costs, while shifting taxes from the things we want (jobs) to things we don’t want (pollution).

Environment OR Economy?

The Conservative Party of Canada pits economy vs environment. When they aren’t saying we have to choose economy or environment, the best they offer is a lukewarm compromise. Nowhere in their platform or in speeches by Harper or his Ministers have we heard anything that suggests they even have the conceptual capacity to understand the ‘green’ argument: the economy and environment are not only intertwined, but ecological economies are the most efficient and productive economies – not to mention that they are also the most intelligent and healthy and enjoyable.

Frankly, I don’t think most Liberals or NDP candidates can see this truth either.

In a public forum on TVO’s The Agenda live from the Munk Centre, the Liberal panelist tried to sound reassuring by saying “we don’t need to change our way of life”, with no consciousness that becoming ecological can beget a richer life.

Most people know the basic level of this argument – if you bike instead of drive, and walk instead of watching TV, you will be physically and mentally healthier – but it’s much greater than that.

Becoming ecological, you develop the business skills of operations management as you become a channel for Creation, where everything you consume is directed towards growth – global growth. To instantly enrich your world and get out of your petty personal concerns, take ownership of the entire world – identify as the whole world.

Becoming ecological, you perceive and experience your house as a flowing system, within the larger flowing system of your personally inhabited world, within the larger flowing system of the globe (and any other level you wish to look at).

It’s more fun to create than consume; it’s more fun to make life than take life.

An ecological economy is not a no-growth economy. To put it simply, if you grow in quality, you grow in value.

Harper – Leftover Thoughts

I’m not impressed that Harper: - did not reveal his party’s platform until one week before the election.
- rarely makes himself available to answer reporters’ questions - tightly controls any meetings he does have with media - did not respond to “numerous requests for information from environmental organizations, including a request from 11 of Canada’s largest environmental organizations that garnered responses from each of the other major party leaders.”

The Answer?

CBC and CTV announce: The Green Party Won

I had been disappointed that Elizabeth May made the Green Party a left wing party. Previously it transcended the left-right spectrum. (Many left-right conflicts dissolve when you approach a problem with an ecological perspective.) Then came The Federal Leadership Debate.

On CBC’s The National with Peter Mansbridge, both Allan Gregg and Andrew Coyne (2 of the 3 members of the “At Issue” Panel) said Elizabeth May won. CTV’s Mike Duffy said the same thing. Indeed I was highly, deeply and thoroughly impressed.

Recently, May advised people that if they are in an electoral district where strategic voting could result in a Liberal or NDP or Green win instead of a Conservative win, the true Green vote may require sacrificing the Green Party to stop Harper. (On the other hand, every vote helps the Greens’ finances (Elections Canada pays $1.80 or so per vote), and every vote helps the Greens’ perceived viability as a winnable party, and the sooner Green replaces Liberal as the central party, the better.)

Is your riding one where you should vote strategically? You can see your riding’s polls – in many cases 4 per day for every day of the election campaign, by Decima, Leger, Ekos, Nanos, and other major pollsters – at www.VoteForEnvironment.ca. Just enter your postal code, or click on the map.

I like their motto: Vote Smart so the Majority Wins.

Are you as amazed by the numbers as I am?

In Ottawa South, if 550 of the 16000 voters who plan to vote NDP, Green or Other instead vote Liberal, the Liberals will win.

The website has spreadsheets showing which ridings could be most affected by split voting or strategic voting, and a brief editorial on each riding.

In Mississauga the 2nd place team (Liberals) need 1600 of the 12000 NDP and Green voters to vote strategically.

We have not yet attained proportional representation, but we don’t need to ‘unite the left’ and collapse into a 2-party system. The issues require more subtlety than a 2-tone debate, and as people become familiar with internet services like VoteForEnvironment.ca and the Vote Swapping Facebook group, we may attain a system that actually merits the name democracy.

Caregiving Policy

P.S. The website of the Canadian Caregiver Coalition presents a policy proposal to the political parties, but it does not compare the parties’ platforms or critique any single platform. It also does not rank parties or candidates in terms of who we should vote for if we want a parliament that cares about caregiving.

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Categories: Canadian Politics
Tags » democracy | environment | Politics

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