The Crisis of Canadian Liberal Homelessness

 

The first Canadian Prime Minister I Remember

I am a liberal. What concerns me most is protecting our basic freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, democratic rights, and so on. The issues stated most famously in the American Declaration of Independence and the American Bill of Rights; but also the fundamental premise for all government in the liberal democracies. These are the sine qua non. Without them, we can achieve nothing else. And they are always under threat. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” 

It occurs to me that this underlying concern explains my vote in every Canadian election, and my preferences before that, since my earliest memories.

Diefenbaker-Pearson: Pearson was okay, but Diefenbaker was the liberal. He introduced the Bill of Rights. He fought apartheid in South Africa. His government was shambolic, but I had to love him.

Trudeau-Stanfield: Trudeau seemed initially the liberal standard bearer: “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” Stanfield was a Red Tory, which really means an autocratic conservative. So I was with Trudeau and the Liberals. 

But Trudeau turned tyrant with his hate laws and his War Measures Act. The NDP was the only party that opposed it, and, even better, under David Lewis, fought corporate welfare. So I was an NDPer. 

Then Mulroney pushed for Free Trade with the US. Free Trade, the old Laurier reciprocity platform, was the classic liberal position. It assumes human equality and promotes freedom. And the Liberals and NDP opposed it. It was then I was fully convinced tht the Canadian Liberal party was not liberal in principle. So I had to go to the PCs. Even though Mulroney was a Red Tory otherwise.

But Mulroney gravely violated democratic rights with Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord. He was going to change the constitution with no public consultation and then freeze it, beyond the reach of the popular will. Worse, all parties supported this--except Reform. So I had to go Reform, although it was mostly a Western rights party. 

During the later Chretien years, it was a problem that Canada had no effective opposition. And I thought Chretien was undemocratically trashing the Westminster system by giving himself, and other party leaders, the power to approve or veto all local candidates. This made Canada in effect an elected dictatorship.

Then Paul Martin tried to undemocratically push through the Kelowna Accords, again without public consultation, enshrining inequality of citizenship. The same sort of autocratic move as Mulroney with Meech Lake. So I had to go hard for Harper. 

The Liberal party has since become the international flagship of illiberalism. They have become systematic in their efforts to limit or end human rights; and the NDP has been in lock step. The frivolous declaration of the Emergencies Act, and freezing of people’s bank accounts, was unforgivable. The growing censorship and media control is unforgivable. 

Yet, frighteningly, the average Canadian does not even seem to care.