Wednesday, January 25, 2006
One ticket to New Zealand please.
Ladies and Gentlemen, (members of the jury), I’m back to B.I.R. after a bit of a hiatus. I’ve been wandering about parts unknown for a few months, and I’ve only just got back into it. It’s been good. Swinging from vines in South America, and running from state police from time to time. And what a time to be back, considering that last night Canadians voted Stephen Harper and his god-fearing conservatives into a minority government.
This was a disgraceful election campaign all around. The conservatives, masters of coercion that they are, actually pulled off negative T.V. ads attacking the Liberals on the grounds that they might use negative ads themselves. Prime Minister Paul Martin looked tired throughout the fight; always on the defensive. The media, and occasionally the RCMP, did not give him or his cabinet an inch of leeway. Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois leader, came into this race half asleep. There was a lot of ground for the Bloc to take in Quebec, considering the full on disappointment with the liberals. Yet, Gilles teeter tottered between the Bloc being truly separatist, or just separatist when we feel like it. The biggest bummer came from the left-wing NDP party. Their leader Jack Layton spent a lot time reinforcing right-wing claims that there was corruption in the liberal party, and he did very little to present his party as capable of acting as leader or opposition.
In many ways this last election was the text-book definition of manufacturing consent. The conservatives always couch their ruthless neo-con economic platforms in the language of heritage, family values, and other such rhetoric. The result is that church-going farmers, ones who have nearly been run off of their land through corporate aggression in agriculture that promotes vertical integration and economies of scale, give their votes to Conservatives because they show good morals. This is the same program of morals that adheres to vertically integrating the family farm into corporate frameworks, which sends young generations of farmers into the cities to make a living. All opposition parties did a dreadful job in highlighting some of the potentially lethal conservative platforms, such as healthcare reform.
Conservatives have ensured Canadians that a second tier healthcare system is possible; one that is to the likes of Germany or Switzerland. The problem, boys and girls, is that we don’t have a NAFTA trade deal with the EU. But we have one with the U.S. that clearly states that U.S. HMOs, service providers, and hospitals would have dibs on contract bidding in the Canadian system if our system is anything less than 100% publicly funded. A few hip replacement surgeries and lobbyists captured our media’s attention with this issue, saying that wait times are the big problem in Canadian healthcare. In-depth commissions, public health experts and epidemiologists be damned. The florid testimony of the op-ed writer wins in the end. While wait times may be inconvenient, the corporate path is not the way to go, as many studies have concluded, among many other pitfalls, that morbidity rates in private hospitals is always higher.
The corporate sector, the conservative right, the theological right, and U.S. interests have creamed themselves with delight knowing that Harper will run the show for the next while. Harper’s crew is in love with the idea of getting closer to the U.S.; yes the most unsustainable, financially volatile, war driven country in the world is something that they want to get snugly with. Our only fighting chance is that this government is a minority, and we may be able to ward off some of the agenda, catch a second wind, and put the conservatives back in their place. Until then, I will continue to ask, “Rage against the machine, where are you now when we need you the most?”
This was a disgraceful election campaign all around. The conservatives, masters of coercion that they are, actually pulled off negative T.V. ads attacking the Liberals on the grounds that they might use negative ads themselves. Prime Minister Paul Martin looked tired throughout the fight; always on the defensive. The media, and occasionally the RCMP, did not give him or his cabinet an inch of leeway. Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois leader, came into this race half asleep. There was a lot of ground for the Bloc to take in Quebec, considering the full on disappointment with the liberals. Yet, Gilles teeter tottered between the Bloc being truly separatist, or just separatist when we feel like it. The biggest bummer came from the left-wing NDP party. Their leader Jack Layton spent a lot time reinforcing right-wing claims that there was corruption in the liberal party, and he did very little to present his party as capable of acting as leader or opposition.
In many ways this last election was the text-book definition of manufacturing consent. The conservatives always couch their ruthless neo-con economic platforms in the language of heritage, family values, and other such rhetoric. The result is that church-going farmers, ones who have nearly been run off of their land through corporate aggression in agriculture that promotes vertical integration and economies of scale, give their votes to Conservatives because they show good morals. This is the same program of morals that adheres to vertically integrating the family farm into corporate frameworks, which sends young generations of farmers into the cities to make a living. All opposition parties did a dreadful job in highlighting some of the potentially lethal conservative platforms, such as healthcare reform.
Conservatives have ensured Canadians that a second tier healthcare system is possible; one that is to the likes of Germany or Switzerland. The problem, boys and girls, is that we don’t have a NAFTA trade deal with the EU. But we have one with the U.S. that clearly states that U.S. HMOs, service providers, and hospitals would have dibs on contract bidding in the Canadian system if our system is anything less than 100% publicly funded. A few hip replacement surgeries and lobbyists captured our media’s attention with this issue, saying that wait times are the big problem in Canadian healthcare. In-depth commissions, public health experts and epidemiologists be damned. The florid testimony of the op-ed writer wins in the end. While wait times may be inconvenient, the corporate path is not the way to go, as many studies have concluded, among many other pitfalls, that morbidity rates in private hospitals is always higher.
The corporate sector, the conservative right, the theological right, and U.S. interests have creamed themselves with delight knowing that Harper will run the show for the next while. Harper’s crew is in love with the idea of getting closer to the U.S.; yes the most unsustainable, financially volatile, war driven country in the world is something that they want to get snugly with. Our only fighting chance is that this government is a minority, and we may be able to ward off some of the agenda, catch a second wind, and put the conservatives back in their place. Until then, I will continue to ask, “Rage against the machine, where are you now when we need you the most?”
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