Tuesday, October 29, 2024

"The Evil that Men Do"


While it can be convincingly argued that Justin Trudeau has done many good things during his tenure as prime minister, it is usually the shortcomings of leaders that are remembered. The following letter attests to that fact:

Trudeau has earned his political enemies

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Current polling indicates Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is nosediving the Liberal party toward a devastating defeat in the coming election, possibly to third party status. Trudeau’s long record of loose promises — his admitted duplicity on proportional representation elections in 2015, his refusal to tax the financial and market assets of the wealthy the way Canadian homes are taxed, his refusal to redirect $18 billion per year in oil and gas subsidies into clean energy, his anemic energy transition support for ordinary Canadians, his willingness to see average Canadians crushed by dizzying interest rate hikes “to fight inflation” rather than regulate the price-gouging corporate executives whose record profits are actually driving the inflation — have all earned him a united front of enemies from across the political spectrum.

It’s telling that Trudeau still refuses the one thing in his power that would prevent a Conservative majority from sweeping in this coming election: enacting Proportional Representation elections (equal representation for every vote, with no vote splitting). Trudeau would rather let Poilievre win absolute control of government with only 40 per cent of the votes, than give up Liberal/Conservative disproportionate control of the political system . It is well past due for the Liberals to call an emergency leadership review and replace Trudeau and his luggage with a progressive team player, like MP Nathaniel Erskine Smith, for 2025. The coming months will tell where the Liberals’ real priorities lie — with the corporate aristocracy, or with the rest of us. 

D’Arcy McLenaghen, Toronto 

2 comments:

  1. Most destructive of all has been his appeasement strategy toward the climate emergency. We have frittered away another 10 years on incrementalism and missed climate targets. Extreme situations have abounded, and been ignored. Wildfires, atmospheric rivers washing away homes with people in them, heat domes killing more than 650, billions of dollars in damages, and all we see is a pipeline encouraging more ghg production and a gas tax that does not provide alternate options for transportation. We were all so hopeful, and now see that he is as much a leader as a rubber duck.
    LM

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    1. A stinging but accurate assessment, LM. Unfortunately, rather than treating it like the existential threat it is, our so-called leaders can only see it as a political issue. For example, here in Ontario as he anticipates an early election, Doug Ford will be raising the speed limit to 120kph on the 400 Hwy series, which will only mean more greenhouse gas emissions.

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