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Many political observers and bloggers, including me, have lamented the fact that outside of style, little separates the policies of either the NDP or the Liberals from those of the Harper regime. Given their timidity when it comes to policy proclamations, the biggest clue to their abandonment of a progressive vision for the country lies in their use of language.
The following succinct letter from a Star reader speaks directly to that fact as it pertains to Mr. Trudeau's leadership, but of course is equally applicable to Mr. Mulcair:
Young Mr. Trudeau continually makes reference to the middle class when pronouncing his grand scheme of things. When did the term working class become derogatory?
The political magicians have used their smoke and mirrors to convince ordinary Canadians that everyone can climb through the glass ceiling into the world of the corporate elite. No one wants to label himself as a worker; it has become something very undesirable.
There is nothing wrong with honest work and getting one’s hands dirty; it is time we all pulled together so that no one needs to be without adequate food, clothing or shelter. Social democracy is not a dirty concept nor something to be feared. It is the way of the future.
Larry Rendall, Grimsby
Put another way, as John Kenneth Galbraith once said, Though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
