The Road We'll Travel

Shame on us, my fellow Canadians. Shame on us for failing to live up to our own much loved reputation as Canada the fair, Canada the helpful, Canada the global leader. Perhaps this election is telling us something of our selves. Perhaps we don’t want to be the globally minded, progressive country that we’ve so loudly touted ourselves as in the past. We treasure our so-called Canadian Identity dearly, yet when the time comes to make a decision about our future; we falter, frantically pat our pockets for our wallets, and throw our values to the wind in exchange for a short-term sense of comfort and familiarity (as if robots were somehow comforting). I’d challenge anyone to make the argument that Mr. Harper and his government will do anything other than break promises, slash programs and continue to toe the line drawn by our neighbors to the south (who, I will remind you, are the creators of our current financial mess). What troubles me the most about all this is not the result of the election its self, but the greater and worsening trend that it points to about the state of our collective moral center. When viewed as a litmus test of Canada’s prevailing principals, this election is an utter disaster.

First off we have the glaring and embarrassingly obvious prejudice towards a Francophone who is arguably more Canadian than many of us. As Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, he fought valiantly and successfully to keep our country whole, even in the face of ostracization by his fellow Quebecers. He should be a hero for this, but instead many Canadians bought into the Tory attempt to paint Dion as a “geek who can’t speak English”. This kind of underhanded and slanderous behavior is reminiscent of past U.S. elections, and yet with the first ever African-American vying for the White House, not even they are willing to start slinging that kind of bird shit. Clearly however, many Canadians were willing to open up and swallow it without complaint.

Another trend the results of last Tuesday point to is that Canadians care more about their wallets than they do about the environment. There’s no question that the Tories are not and have never been the environment party. Until recently Mr. Harper was in outright denial of global warming, and even now only pays it enough lip service to keep his advisors happy. We were presented with a number of approaches to dealing with climate change, one in particular, which, despite its many critics, can only be hailed as incredibly brave. I am not arguing that I think Mr. Dion’s Green Shift is (or I guess was) perfect, but it did show quite clearly that his party is at least thinking in the right direction. We cannot continue with our current consumption habits, this is (to some people) abundantly clear. We need a shift in paradigm, in not only our actions but also our thinking. Every other party in this election put forth a plan do change things; the Tories promised to change nothing, and we rewarded them for it. Canada went from being on of the leading advocates of seriously combating climate change, to tossing the entire idea into the rubbish bin in favor of protecting our economy (not that it matters now anyway). I fear that, given the way we voted, this trend will only get worse.

This leads me to my last point; that Canadians also value their wallets above our other, more traditionally “Canadian” concerns. We have prided ourselves on being a globally active helper, a friend to lean on in times of crisis. Well, there is no shortage of crises at the moment, and we are ignoring all but one of them. Last spring, the global food shortage was making headlines across the world. The world reacted, promising $22 billion (U.S.) in food and other related aid. So far only $2.2 billion has actually been delivered (according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization). The same is true of money and actions promised in the Kyoto accord and other environmental agreements, in the fight against AIDS and to help countries left stricken in the wake of ever increasing natural disasters. Hardly any of these promises have been acted upon (and those that have constitute pretty paltry actions), and yet many trillions of dollars to bail out the financial system (that itself had a hand in these other crises) has not only been promised, but actually delivered, and literally overnight. OVERNIGHT! Just think of how many lives could be saved in Africa with even a tiny portion of that money. Think how much closer we could be to environmentally neutral cars and power, or how many of the starving millions could be fed for a fraction of the cost of propping up our broken financial system. That makes the West’s (and Canada’s) motives pretty clear. Canada itself promised to increase its funding for international aid by $50 million last year, but so far has done nothing of the sort, and with Harper now contemplating spending cuts to avoid the dreaded “D” word, international aid is one of the first items on the chopping blocks, followed closely by social support programs like the child welfare allowance, funding for sports, health care and many other things that Canadians often take for granted. Many other leaders of the G8, such as France’s Nichola Sarkozy, are calling for a complete re-writing of the financial order, saying that things will only get worse if we continue with unfettered, free market capitalism, yet we re-elected a man who holds the ideals of the free market most dear.

And so it is that I say shame on my fellow Canadians, both for a wasted election, and for the troubling road we seem to be heading down. If we keep this up, it won’t be long before Canada is no longer synonymous with good will, good friends and good times, but is instead seen not only south of the boarder but around the world as nothing more than the 51st State.