May Day 2018 – In search of an
independent left and right (Part Two)
By Mark Wegierski
web posted May 7, 2018
Lower immigration and fiscal
probity are not necessarily solely right-wing policies. One might well ask why
there must be such an extensive vacuum on the spectrum (in Canada, for
instance) between the generally publicly acceptable and prevalent liberal and
left-liberal views, and the tiny, allegedly neo-Nazi groupuscules, who have
sometimes been credited with a much exaggerated power and influence by the mass
media? Are there no basically decent
Canadians, who could organize themselves in the direction (for example) of
tempering Canada’s high immigration policies (Canada's immigration rate is three times as large per capita than
that of the United States, and is likely to remain at a comparable level for
many years to come). Even at the height of the alleged "boom" taking
place in the late-1990s, Canada by some measures was still manifestly in the
midst of a continuing economic crisis, with over a million persons unemployed,
in a country with a total population of about (at that time) 30 million. It
would be the height of myopia to assert -- as various government and academic
pontificators, secure in their cushy positions, tell us to believe -- that
burgeoning immigration numbers do not significantly increase Canada’s economic
stresses and strains. The conventional view – that high immigration is Canada’s
engine of economic growth – seems palpably absurd. It is certainly interesting
that Canada’s highest-immigration province, Ontario, long-renowned for its
prosperity, has now slipped into “have-not” status in regard to federal
equalization payments (meaning that it now qualifies for equalization funding),
whereas Newfoundland and Labrador (the perennial “have not” province) – which
has had a long time outflow of population and near-zero immigration from abroad
-- will now not be receiving federal equalization payments, as it has finally
achieved success on its own. The equalization payment program is a
redistributive scheme where the so-called “have-not” provinces receive special
funding from the federal government.
Government reports of some years
ago had uncovered all manner of grotesque fraud in the Province of Ontario's
health-care and workplace injury-compensation systems, to the tune of
one-and-a-half billion dollars (Canadian) per year. The generous Canadian
health-care system (envied by many Americans) is simply being run into the
ground because of the refusal to enact even the slightest stringencies against fraudulent abuse of the system, some
kind of public insurance payments, or small user-fees -- presumably out of a
distaste for the tiniest modicum of social discipline or self-sacrifice. The
result is that the system almost literally equalizes misery for all of its
users – and hence the sacred principle of equality is preserved. And when the
provincial Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty introduced a significant
healthcare levy on middle to higher income earners in Ontario, the medical
system appeared to have gulped down all the money with very little improvement
in healthcare provision. Meanwhile, the Canadian media has typically whipped up
public fury for weeks on end over such comparatively insignificant government
expenditures as the sale of the ex-Prime Minister's personal furniture to the
state, or about the ubiquitous jet-trips by politicians.
Canada today is under the regime
of a “politically correct” administration, which is an extension of what some
have called the “Trudeaupia”. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister
from 1968-1984 (except for nine months in 1979-1980), imposed highly
transformational change on Canada. It is today a paradise for social liberals
-- for example, the current Minister of Immigration originally came to Canada
as a sixteen-year-old Somali refugee. Canada has had same-sex marriage since
2003. There have been no restrictions on abortion in Canada since 1988.
Marijuana legalization is around the corner, and euthanasia (called “assisted
death”) has also been legalized. Pierre’s son, Justin, is the current Prime
Minister. Canada is spiralling into massive deficits, while the government is
obsessed with fighting climate change with a huge carbon tax. The regime is
upheld by (among other factors) the policing of free speech and freedom of
religion by human rights commissions/tribunals, existing at the federal and provincial
levels. At the same time, the regime deploys a hard capitalist edge against
wide swaths of the population, who are unemployed or underemployed in what for
them is a “hyper-competitive” environment. The real unemployment rate is
probably close to fifteen percent.
To be continued. 
Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher.