Getting Topical

I received a politically oriented forward in my Inbox today. I guess the election campaign really is in full-swing. It was in the form of a chain letter meant to promote Stephen Harper as the next best option to be Prime Minister of Canada. I'm not sure who actually wrote the original letter, and that's really not terribly important. What is important, however, is that it's yet another level of Conservative smear campaigning, meant to influence the under-educated into swinging their votes to the Big Blue Machine.

So for giggles, let's take a look at some of this guy's principle points. My responses will be in Italics.

Since 1993:

(1) My taxes have increased.

Okay genius, that's 12 years. It's called inflation. There isn't a damn thing that HAS remained the same in the past 12 years. The cost of maintaining and/or improving services is going to go up. Hell, look at how much university tuition has gone up in the province of Ontario since 1993. When I started at Western, my tuition for the Faculty of Science was around $2600. Now the Faculty of Arts charges over $5000 for a full year. And no one can tell me that Arts requires as much upkeep as the Science faculty. Who was responsible for this little mess in Ontario? Mike Harris and the Conservatives who tried to clean up the mess made by Bob Rae and the NDP. So keep it in perspective.

(2) My family's share of the national debt has increased.

Gee, y'think? I will concede a part of this point here because, in reality, the snowballing of the debt did occur during the administration of Trudeau. They made some miscalculations that sent us skyrocketing into greater debt. However, I'm also of the belief that Conservative policies (most notably the North American Free Trade Agreement) have done more to cripple this country and make us subservient to the Americans than anything else. The debt is now at a point where we can't even pay off the interest accruing in the average year, so it really doesn't matter which party is in power, the debtload will increase. However, no one has asked any of us to open up our personal chequebooks to fork over our share. If anyone actually expected a country to pay back its debt, the Americans would be on their knees right now. So really, this is a non-point. Next.

(3) My personal expenses have increased.

So now we're back on this merry-go-round, huh? See my rebuttal for point number one. Inflation. I'm sorry that we can't all live frozen in 1955. Really, I am. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the author of this little opus has likely received at least 1 salary performance increase from his job since 1993. If not, then he should look inward on that one and not try and pin the responsibility on the current government.

(4) My waiting time to see a doctor has increased.

I'm guessing our esteemed author has never heard of the North American brain drain phenomenon, eh? The bottomline is that the American's privatized healthcare system is extraordinarily lucrative for physicians. If you had the choice between making $100,000 per year and making $300-500,000 (and these are just arbitrary figures, I have no clue what they really make), then chances are good you're going to go where the money is. That's just reality. If we want to entice our healthcare professionals to stay, then something will have to be done to change our universal healthcare package. This will likely mean that if you have money, then you'll get faster service. Since our dear friend is so hardpressed with his finances already, I believe he will be waiting even longer for service than he was before!

(5) My concerns for my family's safety have increased.

What we have here is a combination of mistrust in a sensationalist media and confusion with provincial jurisdictions. The provinces are responsible for their own law enforcement. And if you feel you're unprotected in your area, it's likely that you've been spending too much time watching your US news affiliates, which are aimed at presenting the most exciting stories (and therefore selling more advertising airtime) than actually airing what's going on in the community. There's a specific formula that the broadcasters use to keep the audience interested. Look into it. It'll be pretty revealing. I live within walking distance of downtown Montreal. I've walked down the infamous "St Catherine" street at well after midnight. No one has even said hello to me, let alone threaten me. Be smart about things and safety won't be an issue.

(6) My costs to educate my children have increased.

Is anyone else here sensing a theme? I've already covered this point pretty thoroughly, but for the sake of fairness, I'll say it again. If tuition costs have gone up, it's because the provincial governments have decided to let this occur. Yes, there is a Federal transfer for education, but the provinces have discretion as to how and where they spend it. Blame your own Conservative government for allowing this to come to pass. They've placed their priorities elsewhere.

(7) Government interference in my life has increased.

Ah yes. How silly of me to have overlooked the Special Projects division of the RCMP and its sister department, CSIS. Its mandate? Make life as inconvenient as possible for this particular author. Their mission since the last election was to aggravate and harass this poor fellow to the point of tears. Grow up.

(8) My personal debt has increased.
(9) My income has stayed more or less the same.
(10) My savings have decreased.

Your personal debt has increased? Try to pay off your credit cards on a monthly basis. Those 18% annual rates will kill you. And, for the record, the only reason that they're THAT low is because of government regulations. Private Label cards have the option of charging as much as 60% per annum.

Your income has stayed more or less the same? Ask for a raise. The government has no control over what your employer decides your job is worth. Or maybe you're just incompetent and not deserving of an increase.

Your savings have decreased? That's because the banks have radically increased the charges for services within their institutions and not raised the interest rates to allow your money to grow. You can't have it both ways, though. Either your mortgage rate stays low and you get paid crap interest, or you let them go hog-wild and you get an extra few pennies per month in your savings account. Suck it up. The government has no impact on any of these areas except at setting the Bank of Canada's lending rate and, guess what! It's been pretty damn low since 9/11.

(11) The buying power of my dollar in Canada has decreased.
Right. Sure, it has. How many different ways can this guy restate the same general problem? Companies have the right, in a capitalist system, to charge what they want for their goods and services. If you've got caviar tastes, but a McDonald's income, you're out of luck, cowboy.

(12) The value of my dollar, in the US, has decreased.
Actually, no. It hasn't. The dollar is worth significantly more now than it was in 1993. Besides, the author claims to be from Edmonton, so somehow I don't think that weekend shopping sprees in Montana are too frequent. Besides, isn't he already tapped out because of his increased debtload and miniscule savings? Next.

(13) My trust in elected officials has decreased.
(14) My trust in the Justice System as decreased.
(15) My hope that a Liberal won't waste my tax dollar has decreased.
(16) My dreams for a better future for my kids, in Canada, have disappeared.

The Federal representatives in Alberta, aside from a few pockets, have been largely Conservative. If he feels he's not being well-represented, then that's really something he should take up with his M.P. Obviously they're not doing their jobs. The other points have just been lumped in for good measure. They're all subjective points, so they can't really be refuted.

There's more to the chain letter, of course, but I'm not going to go any further with my rebuttal for the moment. I think I've made my point pretty clearly as it is. In the end, we're in a semi-democracy, so people will have to make up their own minds. But let's try not to be swayed by some nonsense that someone sends in a SPAM chain letter. Heck, let's try not to be swayed unnecessarily by some guy in Montreal who had a bit of time on his hands, so decided to write this commentary on his Blog! Do your own research and make your own, informed, decision.