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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. ESR

Mark Wegierski is a Canadian writer and historical researcher.

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