Oh Canada!

I live in a fine country and I am happy to be Canadian. I'd rather live here than in many other places around the world. We have a high quality of life, as the United Nations has recognized.
But ... there are serious problems and there is no guarantee that we will remain as we are. Agentina was one of the wealthiest countries early in the twentieth century until bad economic policy brought them down.

I first composed and posted this in a blog six years ago in the midst of a provincial election and on the cusp of a federal election. The blog is still out there in the blogosphere, but I cannot access it due to neglect. Most of what I then wrote is still relevant. And so I shall repost it in this newer blog.

Many of the arguments I will state on these pages can be found in my own personal political philosophy which is contained within my own website, Life in Progress. (www.geocities.com/lesliebarclay/)

I have chosen to call this blog "Canada Rant" because on these pages, I will rant about the things that make me want to rant. The idiocy. The corruption. The injustice.

The political and economic elites in this fine nation would love us to succumb to complacency and the "I'm all right, Jack" attitude as it serves to entrench their own power and privilege. When it comes to democratic elections, they attempt to frighten us away from change. But we need change.


Our Canadian society, which is so often held internationally as a model, is in fact rife with injustice and this is the greatest barrier to enabling greater happiness. While we are certainly more just than the typical African or Middle Easern nation, we still have a lot to do. Consider this. Is it just that:

* pornography and in particular child pornography flourishes?
* physical, sexual and mental abuse of children and adults (primarily women) flourishes?
* criminals repeatedly are released from prison only to commit crimes (often murder and rape) again?
* youth and native suicide rates have skyrocketed in recent years? * innocent and helpless unborn babies are murdered in the womb in growing numbers with almost no one to defend them?
* there are many people who would like a job that challenges them and values their education, experience and skills, but are relegated to unemployment, underemployment or demeaning employment?
* the average taxpayer must work on average half the year to pay all the taxes from various levels of government?
* native Canadians in large numbers should live in poverty and dependency mired in alcohol and abuse?
* family breakup and the resultant mental pain suffered by the children is so common?
* half of older teenagers should suffer from an STD because they engage in casual sex?
* drug and alcohol abuse is rampant in society and that drug gangs increasingly stir up trouble for the police and society in general?
* various minority groups continue to be unfairly discriminated against?
* tax dollars should be wasted and corruption go unpunished?
* poverty in Canada seems to become increasingly entrenched with the comcomitant homelessness and hunger?
* gambling is the latest addiction to inflict the masses, increasingly to the benefit of government general revenue coffers?
* there are many sick people in Canada who cannot get the healing they need, but are denied the freedom to go outside the government system for the treatment they require?

There is more and all this is only Canada. Expand the perspective to the whole world and it is even scarier. But, lets not fall prey to the holier than thou attitude when there remains so much injustice in Canada even now. Lets focus on the root causes of all this misery in view of eliminating them and establishing the rules and institutions that will not give rise to further injustice. A just society can be created by establishing just institutions and just social and economic practices. The failure of social justice, on the other hand, is a disease that affects not only those in poverty, but all of us.