Post-election Canada and the New Liberal Government
By
William Doyle-Marshall
Tears of joy and disappointment have been wiped off many faces.
Lawn signs and other campaign material are being removed to be stored up for
another run at this four-year game. Yes, that’s what veterans do because
election campaigns cost lots of money and we finance the undertaking in the
hope that next time things will be better.
While Stephen Harper goes
off and do whatever he wishes in his retirement members of the new parliament
would have to fix everything he broke and that starts with a lot of things that
are non-partisan, Elizabeth May, the lone Green Party Member in parliament, says.
They would have to think of repairing the damage and rebuilding the kind of
country they want, starting with cooperation in the parliament, May believes.
This chore is now in the hands of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal team; the
Conservatives without Harper; Thomas Mulcair and his reduced New Democratic Party
line-up and the one-woman Green Party of Elizabeth May.
Anxious Canadians listen to promises!!!! |
Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi and Frances Littman |
As far as Elizabeth May is
concerned it’s time for all Canadians to make sure they are thinking about the
collective well-being of the country as a whole not the middleclass versus the
billionaires class, versus the poor. Simply put, it is time to pull together. “So
in that spirit we are advocating something that I think is a brilliant notion: the Council of Canadian Governments,” May contends. It exists in Australia that is a lot
like Canada – Commonwealth country with divisions between the State governments and federal government.
The Green Party Leader
visualizes federal, provincial and local government around the same table to
serve all the big goals. Canada currently has no energy policy, no
transportation policy, no education policy, no cultural policy, no housing
policy, no manufacturing policy. “We have adhocary with each level of
government pulling in different directions. No wonder people think: how come I
am paying taxes municipally, provincially, federally and those levels of
government don’t seem to be willing to work together,” she observes.
The Council of Canadian Governments would be
all about pulling together: federal government, provincial, territorial,
representation from municipal government, not every Mayor in Canada but a good
representation at a seat at the table for First Nations, Metis and Inuit
leadership looking at all big picture questions. Then when we establish a goal,
we are all pulling in the same direction.
“It doesn’t need to open the constitution to
do this, it just needs to say that maybe the constitution as devised in 1867
doesn’t work all that well in 2015. So we think our ideas are good ones. We
hope and actually I am quite certain other parties will follow and pick up on
these ideas.
The Green Party’s platform
in regards to short term and long term on refugees and immigrants: calls for an
overhaul of Canada’s policy. There are 50 streams to be able to come into
Canada and we need to be able to help to streamline policies when we have
refugees and when we have immigrants so that the process for them to become
citizens, there needs to be a way, says Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, the unsuccessful candidate
for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. She insists there is a need to ensure that the
skills and the education that immigrants and refugees are bringing are
recognized quicker. Trudeau said unequivocally since his election, his
government plans to welcome 25,000 refugees by next year. But May would prefer
40,000.
“We have always been a
country of humanitarian and helpers,” Hunt-Jinnouchi contends. She told a
Victoria gathering she needs only to put herself in the situation of the women
and grand ma’s running with their children, running from the war and having
bombs and shellfire on them. She regrets Canada was part of starting that. “We
dropped four air strikes so we can’t be involved in war and not expect people
are going to try to find peace and shelter. So it’s very mixed messaging and
like no other time our Prime Minister is putting that fear mongering with smoke
screens about niqab and whatever to get people afraid,” Hunt-Jinnouchi
continues.
October
22, 2015
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