A government of, by, and for the people…
The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it had reached what it called the largest settlement in Canada’s history, paying $31.5 billion to fix the nation’s discriminatory child welfare system and compensate the Indigenous people harmed by it.
- Canada Pledges $31.5 Billion to Settle Fight Over Indigenous Child Welfare System, NY Times
The bill banning conversion therapy in Canada received royal assent on Wednesday, making it into law.
Bill C-4 makes providing, promoting or advertising conversion therapy a criminal offence.
The bill defines conversion therapy as the “practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, or to change a person’s gender identity to cisgender.”
- Conversion therapy ban receives royal assent, now law in Canada, Global News
By Gregg Wall (1-22-2022)
Close your eyes and imagine a government of, by, and for the people. Imagine, if you will, a democracy that actually functions… that delivers for its citizens and protects them, not only from pandemic but economic deprivation. A government that respects not only the liberties of conservative Christians, but the freedoms surrounding bodily autonomy, personal identity within the LGBTQ community, and reproductive rights & health care for women. Imagine a multiparty system that gives voters a wide range of choices and a parliamentary democracy that actually follows through - and delivers - upon the winning candidate’s mandate.
When I moved to Canada two years ago many Americans warned me about the pitfalls of socialized medicine, but I’ve encountered none of that. Canada has excellent health care system, with a per capita cost of approximately $7,000 (Canadian), versus $11,000 (U.S.). Factoring the exchange rate… that’s half the cost. Are my taxes higher in Canada? Absolutely, but when you load up my U.S. taxes with health care insurance, copays, deductibles, and ever skyrocketing pharmacy & medicine costs, Canada runs a healthier medical system at a fraction of the cost. Adjusted for health care expense, my Canadian tax rate is far lower than my U.S. tax rate… thanks again, to American health care monopolies & Big Pharma and their unseemly taxation.
Nor does the steady diet of libertarian & neoliberal claptrap, we are fed in America, play out. Socialized medicine and price controls are supposed to yield shortages of medical care and inferior medicine. But the only shortages I’ve witnessed, in Canada, is when the antivaxxer community insists upon their freedom to become ill, with self-inflicted COVID; and then, subsequently, clog up emergency rooms and ICUs (depriving children and patients – who took the vaccine - of the care they so richly deserve).
These privileges and rights Canadians enjoy are also very much desired by the American people… PM Trudeau, Liberals, and the NDP have passed gun control, and with the help of Canadian Conservatives, in December, gay conversion therapy/torture was made illegal. Yes, you read that correctly, with the help of Canadian Conservatives. In Canada, abortion isn’t subjected to the vagaries & whims of nine unelected, unaccountable politicians dressed up in black frocks, and installed by billionaires (as women’s health care is within the United States).
The American people are overwhelmingly supportive of all these things: Medicare for All; a woman’s right to choose her own reproductive destiny; responsible caps on price gouging from Big Pharma monopolies; a fifteen dollar minimum wage; cannabis legalization; and substantive gun control laws. And yet, the U.S. congress run by a failed duopoly - controlled by billionaires and multinationals – consistently defies the will of the American people and fails to deliver. To such an extent, that what we call American democracy is clearly little more than kleptocracy, oligarchy, and day traders engaged in role play. And as an art form, American politicians suck at it.
What a shock to the senses to watch the American experiment break down into petty squabbling, while the connected and the powerful buy the Congress and loot the Federal government. Fiscally, the United States is in free fall, with thirty trillion in national debt. While Canada -- what the American GOP would call a socialist state -- is thriving, with a national debt to GDP ratio that is the envy of the West.
So yes, I thank my Goddess that I live north of the 49th parallel.
None of this is to say, Canada is perfect, but it’s continually advancing, w/ the government solving problems that the private sector simply is not equipped to, or would rather not, solve. Take for instance, $10 a day childcare or stepping up on reparations for First Nation’s children.
The U.S. cannot even pass -- wildly popular -- simple economic & social backstops for the American people and positive green legislation, under BBB… let alone legislate protective democratic safeguards. And yet, Wall Street needs another bailout, America needs endless war funding… and the two parties swing into bipartisan action & comity, but only after realigning their stock portfolios.
Canada presents us with a working example of an exceptional democracy & hope, America… but first we need to pry away the wealthy’s stranglehold over the U.S. economy and government and introduce more political parties. And the structural economic and political defects must be addressed, like eliminating the Senate. In Canada, the Senate is the upper house, and they serve merely, in an advisory capacity. A lesson for the U.S.?
Why not take a page from private equity: save some money, downsize, eliminate the U.S. Senate, and go unicameral? And offload this failed body, the U.S. Senate. Good luck finding a buyer.
I share these things with all who care to read them, not to gloat; but to give thanks for a democracy that delivers, that actually governs.
A Canadian government, as Mr. Lincoln wished … of, by, and for the people.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2022
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