LETTER

Canada’s problems, America’s answers 

I think that many conservatives (Canadian and American) over the last decade or so have veered sharply rightward  – so they perceive the rest of the world as moving to their left.  From what I see and read in the news, most of the headline action has been on the right:  the attacks on democracy and on the free press and many other democratic institutions, etc. Of course, Trump colours the whole conservative movement.  What I see, the left has been putting forth the same policies, some just liberal and some genuinely progressive, that it has been putting forth for many years.  Nothing anti-democratic or particularly peculiar happening on that side as far as I can tell.  

If it wasn’t for Warren, Sanders, and younger activists  in the USA bringing topics like the dangerous differences in wealth up for discussion, we would never make any progress.  America’s insatiable appetite for the world’s resources (and markets) is leading us all towards more conflict, and more extremes,  But income inequality is the big elephant in the room, especially when we have so many people who are unable to meet their basic needs.  If everyone keeps chipping away at this, eventually others will be forced to deal with issues. We can’t depend on a media controlled by those very interests, even our own CBC with its US foreign policy playlist. And social media just creates so much “noise” that no one is able to think clearly about these questions.  (Social media does not contribute to building consensus; it does the very opposite, in fact.)  

You might say these are America’s problems, not ours, but from another perspective, the view of most of the world, there’s hardly any difference in our nations’ actions.

D. Coubet, 

Aylmer