Dispatches from Frontlines

Just some random thoughts on politics in the past few weeks...

I was doing some volunteering at the St. Paul's by-election the past few weeks. I came across a rather peculiar flyer from the Libertarian Party of Canada. The gentleman (name now forgotten) was running in this by-election for the Libertarian Party in order to 'stop Big Brother' so to speak. I havne't had too much experience with the ideology of Libertarianism, but have met quite a few in my travels and activism. They say the difference between a Libertarian and an Anarchist is this: Libertarians have money.

The guy's flyer admitted that it is probably futile to run (something you never admit in a campaign no matter what) and that he was running for his grandson. He then describes how he's going to cut taxes (which he considers theft more or less) in every aspect, while dreaming of good schools and such. The only place government should spend money, in his opinion, is in police services. So, more or less I got this from it. Cut, cut, cut, don't tax anybody, cut back all public services but fund police to deal with the long-term consequences of cutting up public services.

So, kids are born into poverty? You can't go to a good school or get healthcare more or less. It sounds like he is running for his grandson, born with a silver-spoon in his mouth, at the expense of most other people's grandsons. This underlines the perile, selfish motive of the Libertarian. A Libertarian may see No Smoking By-Laws in Public Places as an infrginement of rights, uncaring if your child has asthma and is brought to an early death. Libertarians go against human social instincts and are ideologically quite dangerous in my opinion.

On another note, to broadly sweep another party into a category, I was flyering for the NDP at York. I approached a kind young woman who waved her hands when I approached and said "Nope, I'm Liberal!" as if it was an established and unchangeable fact. She had me thinking at that moment that she was some active member of the party or something. So I proceeded to ask if she really thought Michael Ignatieff was a good leader to which she replied: "Who's that?"

Most Liberals, now this is my personal opinion and experiences, are merely Liberal out of convenience. Liberals are the I-POD of Canadian Politics, shiny and trendy, but nothing in substance, made to be merely consumed. Most so-called Liberals when pressed as to why they are Liberals, simply do not know why. It is the party of political apathy and complacency, with a complete lack of the in-depth.

Now, the big issue this past by-election was on HST, the Harmonized Sales Tax, which will be detrimental, particularly to working people in this province and country. It is ironic that the NDP is always being demonized by media and nutjobs (sometimes both at once) for being all about making new taxes or increasing taxes. Here we have a new tax being promoted by both the provincial Ontario Liberals and the Federal Conservatives. Oh, and GST? Not our idea either. Truly ironic their doublespeak when they try to turn it on us.

Just some random thoughts from the frontlines...