LETTER

“The Liberals” and real change

 

It’s not often that Steve d’Eça and I agree on anything, but I do share his disdain for the present Liberal government, albeit for different reasons.  No one should be surprised by the Liberals’ inaction of flip-flopping on numerous issues. It has often been said that The Liberals campaign from the left and govern from the right. From my own experience, there has always been little difference between the Tories and the Grits when it comes to economic and environmental issues.

As Mr. d’Eça points out, while the Liberals talk a great deal about the need to address climate change, they have simply adopted the inadequate plans of their predecessors (although it is wrong (for him) to say that there hasn’t been a “negative peep anywhere” -- the Ottawa Citizen has already published an editorial lambasting the Liberals over their hypocrisy). The Liberals have voiced support for things like the Transpacific Partnership and the expansion of the tar sands and pipeline network that are counterproductive to fighting climate change. And the Liberals not only allowed the Conservatives’ unethical sale of military vehicles to a ruthless dictatorship (Saudi Arabia) to proceed, but they have now passed legislation that will allow arms companies to do business with whomever they wish.

Some Liberals critics might point at the Liberals’ deficit spending as a primary difference between them and the Conservatives, but I would argue that they are two sides of the same lame response that governments around the world have chosen after allowing the biggest scam in human history to proceed over the last four decades: the constant lowering or even elimination of taxes for corporations and the super-rich. Having allowed these entities to eschew responsibility for their fair share of the tax burden, governments now have a choice between raising taxes for the poor and middle class (political suicide), austerity programs (again aimed at the poor and middle class, but for some reason more acceptable to many), or deficit spending.

I wanted real change this past election, which is why I didn’t vote for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.

David Desjardins
Aylmer