Conservatives driving us into ruin
Posted on February 7, 2011 in Governance Debates
Source: Toronto Star — Authors: G. W. Markle
TheStar.com – opinion/letters
Published On Sun Feb 06 2011. G. W. Markle
Finance Minister James Flaherty pegs our national debt at $56 billion. It’s probably much higher than that, but it’s hard to know with a Conservative government. And now it seems the Conservative mandate is to create as large a national debt as they possibly can. The push to spend billions of dollars to purchase high-tech warplanes is a perfect example of this.
As Prime Minister Steven Harper’s government creates a larger and larger debt load, they do so knowing full well that eventually they’ll be pressured to bring the debt into line. Debt is a very effective leverage tool, and if you can straddle a country with enough debt, its government becomes very pliable.
We’ve seen the effect of this on a global scale recently. The global financial crisis was no accident, it was intentional. Call it an adjustment, if you like, a crisis deliberately created in an effort to depress markets, enabling somebody to buy up resources at a discount, and create cheap labour. An effective way to buy up entire countries at bargain prices. By the way: Who owns Iceland now?
At this point, there is no distinction between the goals and objectives of the corporate sector and those of the Conservative Party of Canada. The Conservatives, along with their business partners, will use debt as a ploy, an excuse to sell off (and buy up) our resources at a fraction of their value. They will push to privatize more government services, our healthcare, our prison system, law enforcement and security agencies, and anything else the Corporation feels it can make a profit from.
They will gut all social programs to maximize profit, and do it without any consciousness as to the detriment of our society. In the process they will effectively destroy the chance of any democratic involvement of the public in any decisions.
Rather than protect us, the debt created by military spending puts this country in a very vulnerable position.
G. W. Markle, Brampton
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Tags: budget, economy, standard of living, tax
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2 Responses to “Conservatives driving us into ruin”
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The Tory Budget:
The Conservatives like to boast about the crumbs offered in their budget, but anyone who has taken a deeper look at what’s being presented in that budget will clearly see that the effects of the Conservative financial agenda is something that is truly frightening.
For instance: The Tory tough on crime agenda, and mandatory minimum sentences. This has nothing to do with justice or getting tough on crime. It’s just the tip of the Conservative’s “prisons for profit” scheme. The more prisoners there are in the system, the greater the profit. Get Steven Harper to explain that one.
And what about those un-necessary warplanes, another military money pit. Are the Conservatives looking towards a future of war? Shouldn’t we instead, be putting our minds and resources towards threat reduction? Diplomacy: The engagement of intelligent minds, seeking peaceful solutions, rather than military options.
Their budget will increase this country’s national debt up into the hundreds of billions of dollars in short order. The Conservative goal is to create a “perpetual debt”, the new currency of the global economy. Their financial policies will result in the gutting of our social net, and regardless of their present rhetoric, when the time is right, they will push to privatize and destroy our public healthcare system. Their policies will create more poverty, more oppression, result in the loss of our resources, our sovereignty and our democracy.
Steven Harper has forced this country into an election by presenting a budget that he knew was unacceptable. His real goal here is to polarize the political scene in Canada. He wants the opposing parties to form coalition, a clearly defined opponent, an enemy, and a sharp dividing line between “us” and “them”. He seeks division, power, and the limitation of our democratic choices. What he fails to realize is that we choose democracy because it’s supposed to be the shared experience of creating good governance. There’s no place for a dictator.
And as far as the long-gun registry is concerned: The National Rifle Association of America and American arms dealers are just itching to do business here, and the Conservatives are all too eager to accommodate them. I wonder why?
G. W. Markle
why doesn’t the gov’t use the power it has with THE BANK OF CANADA to print our own DEBT-FREE MONIES to be dispersed to the provinces and territories to spend into the economy? we did this up until the early 70’s….. we need to do it again and break the hold of the CENTRAL BANKS issuing and printing of our money and then LOANING it back to us AT INTEREST!!!!!