If you see the "hand of Rod Love all over him", you should be very reassured. Rod has been very effective with Klein in stifling anything that stands in the way of electablilty. I defy anyone to identify an ideological bone in Ralph's body, now that Rod has had 20 years to work him over.
Day's social policy scares you? What social policy? The platform looks a hell of a lot like the status quo. What about social policy in Alberta under Klein, even with Day as a senior cabinet minister? Looks a hell of a lot like the Toronto status quo -- just that the people aren't necessarily as happy about it. Day might have made 'notwithstanding' noises around Vriend, but Love made short work of that.
Look, bottom line. Rod Love wouldn't be involved with someone he didn't think could win. Rod knows that social conservatism is electoral death. Ergo, Rod won't allow Stock to initiate thing one, regardless of whatever Stock's convictions tell him. Maybe it's a deal with the devil from Stock's perspective, but he's made it.
There are several posters here who have made the point, emphatically, that they'll vote for whatever other perdition might face Canada if individual liberties are threatened in any way. Fair enough -- it's not for me to gainsay your priorities, or whatever experiences have brought you to those priorities. But an Alliance government would not threaten those liberties!
What's at stake in this election? These people have taken your tax dollars and used them for their own private purposes. They have treated the government of Canada as their own private posession, and your role is to shut up and pay your taxes. If you do not agree with the Liberal platform, or whatever policy happens to flit through the PM's head at that moment, you are a BAD CANADIAN. And you probably practice the goosestep when you think no one is looking. There is no longer room for dissent. You are BAD. But you can move to the United States if you don't like it.
Think for a second about the fountain in Shawinigan. What did taxpayers put into it -- $500,000? Now, how much personal income tax will you pay during your entire lifetime? I'm paying about $20,000 a year. So that's about 25 years of my taxes, or maybe 3/4 of all the taxes I'm going to pay during my lifetime. Is that how you want your lifetime's contributions spent?
Any time you question the Liberal's spending, they say, oh, you want to eliminate Old Age Security, or you want to do away with health care. The fact of the matter is, your tax dollars are going to Ottawa to keep the Liberals in power. Your tax dollars are going to where they think they can make the biggest splash, and buy voters. They have no interest in funding ongoing, accepted constitutional responsibilites, if they can't get electoral credit. Health care? Ya, it made a big splash for Pearson, but what has it done for me lately. Defense spending? Sure, it worked for Mackenzie King, but what has it done for me lately. The RCMP? We'll fund it enough so that we can use it as our own security force, and keep demonstrators away from us and any friends we don't want embarrassed. But we certainly can't have a credible, independant police force that might check our closets.
(It's not just the feds who are doing this. Klein won't commit to higher permanent funding for health care or education. Oh, they're pumping big dollars in, but only on a [perpetual] one-time basis, so they can issue press releases and be heros.)
What message do we send our children if we give the Liberals another majority? The message is that anything goes. Once you're in, you've got it made. Put your pals in the Senate, buy whatever votes you need. Newfoundland had Smallwood, and now a generation of Newfoundlanders is ashamed. Well, the rest of us can get used to it, 'cause that's the way we're going.
I'm sorry to have gone on so long. If there's anyone who has read this far, let me make just one more point. I'm not supporting the Alliance only because I hate the Liberals. I'm supporting them because their philosophy is closely in accord with my own. I hope they will have the courage to build the kind of Canada I want my kids to inherit. |
