Canada is not the best country

By: Nguyen

I have written a lot about our neighbour from the south, but now lets be real! Canada isn’t the best country in the world, we are just mediocre.  Yes, we are “better off” than the U.S, but why do we need to compare to them? Why don’t we compare ourselves to Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Austria?

For the past 30+ years, there was a political shift or ideology in the Liberal party of Canada (same goes with the US) in the form of Neo-liberalism.

Neo-liberalism defines as “relating to a modified form of liberalism tending to favor free-market capitalism”.

There is a comparison being made between Justin Trudeau and Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is a well-known “Democrat” president. Bill Clinton’s policies and actions are what Republicans (Ronald Regan) always dream of doing, but can’t (e.g., NAFTA, Welfare “Reform”, Crime Bill).

The 30 years of neo-liberalism failed the poor and middle-class families around the world. Yet, it is still growing from Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Thatcher, Brian Mulroney, Barack Obama, and Justin Trudeau.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Canada’s Conservative party since they have not helped the poor and middle-class families (studies have shown there is a major inequality between the wealthy and the poor for many years now).

Unfortunately, the Liberal party is moving to the right, but in a “smooth/sneaky” way. Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party did something “good” such as welcoming Syrian immigrants to Canada, re-establishing long-form consensus, trying to legalize Marijuana, but hiding/covering the terrible actions such as opposing Electoral reform, tweaking Harper’s Bill C-51, pro-Dakota Access pipeline and keystone pipeline, selling arms to Saudi Arabia, still relying fossil fuel extraction to grow our economy, and not respecting indigenous rights…. you know the “little” terrible things.

Justin Trudeau is very similar to ex-President Obama as well. They are well-liked by the mainstream media and their constituent/citizens compared to their predecessors (e.g., Stephen Harper, George Bush). They both have charisma and personality which cover-up their conservative/neo-liberal actions. It’s very scary to see people voting for “personality” and not politician’s platform/policies.

I hope liberal/progressive voters are waking up and recognizing this facade of progressivism. Stop neo-liberalism…(sadly it’s a global thing :/)

So, what is the solution? Populism is the neoliberal’s nemesis. We need to have a progressive political candidate in Canada that recognize and support the concerns of ordinary people. I’m not talking about “fake” populism like Trump and O’Leary.

Please comment below and let me know if you have a problem with my point of view. I like to know your thoughts!