Please Justin, just shut up and listen. The other day, you told Campion-Smith of the Toronto Star’s Ottawa Bureau that the economy will decide the next election. You had better hope not. You have absolutely no credibility in that subject and the majority of the voters could care less. Stephen Harper even studied economics and look at the trouble it has got him into.
Your strength buddy is empathy. You obviously care. Stick to what you are good at.
You need to take a page from Jean Chrétien’s approach to the job of Prime Minister. In ten years as Prime Minister, Mr. Chrétien knew to let Paul Martin take the blame for the hard economic decisions. Of course it helped destroy Paul when he finally got to sit in the Prime Minister’s Office. Paul chose to ignore us left wing Liberals who told him he was a heartless bastard. Guess who ignored Paul when the voters ignored him.
As a politician Justin, you do not work for the banks, for business or for any one province. Nor is it your responsibility to proselytize for any particular religion, economic policy or dress code. Your job is to care. And there is much to care about.
Things have slipped badly in the past ten years in our country. Canada’s international reputation is in the crapper. It has to be repaired. We have to work hard with our friends and even harder with our enemies. We also have to find better ways to encourage our businesses to show better citizenship in all the countries where they do business. If they wear the Canadian flag, we want them to wear it proudly.
As a country, we have to do better by our first nations, our veterans, our seniors, our sex workers, our sick, our students, our medical workers, our researchers and the list goes on. And do not dare to forget affordable daycare!
And please stop saying you are not going to raise taxes. As long as there is a single child in Canada going to bed without a proper supper, we have to be open to fixing the problem. If it means we are all going to pay a bit more in taxes, so be it. Just make sure it is fair.
What this election desperately needs is a new vision of our country. Not the mean, selfish, narrow vision of the conservative right but the caring, promise of a strong future with a liberal interpretation of freedom, life and reform in an open society.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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