sup

🇨🇦 A 1st world country requires certain things to be worthy of the name. Universal health care. Public radio. National postal service. Public education. Highways. Rail. I’d like to add internet access but that’s still a work in progress. Expecting these things to be profit-driven or even revenue-neutral makes no sense. That’s not what they’re for. They exist to support us and keep us connected. They don’t COST money–they are necessary infrastructure for us to MAKE money. If you were designing your own country and drew up a checklist, those things would be at the top. Plus maybe nice beaches. Crippling Canada Post is a terrible idea. Pursuing efficiency is great, but be very careful about the cost.

Let me be crystal clear: when the chair of the FCC criticizes a late night talk show host, and the network responds by pulling the show to avoid upsetting the government further, that’s the literal definition of fascism.

UPDATE: Kimmel is back. Disney and ABC reversed course, Nexstar and Sinclair completely caved. Public protest works. The trump regime continues its assault on free speech (and on many other fronts) but this battle was a vital and resounding victory for freedom in America.

A 30-yr old male drove his SUV into the crowd at the Filipino Lapu Lapu street festival in Vancouver on Saturday, killing 11 (some reports say 9) and injuring dozens. Something made him think this was the right thing to do. Conservatives online were quick to say “this is why we need Poilievre” and this, for me, is the problem.

Two parties in Canada right now are working hard to sow discord and division, mistrust, resentment, fear, and outright hate. The Conservative Party and the People’s Party both want you to believe that the problem is The Other, and that your vote can fix it.

It is a cruel lie, and almost half the country is eager to believe.

I would love to know how a conservative government (Conservative or PPC) could have saved those 11 lives. More police? More militarization of the police? Put that driver behind bars after his first infraction and keep him there? Privatize the prisons?

All tempting, I’m sure. I mean, none of that has ever worked anywhere else, and it all ends up costing way way more (someone has to pay for the added police and retail prisons), but maybe it would be different here?

That’s the thing. All those fear-based solutions have been tried. They don’t work. They don’t reduce recidivism. They erode trust in the police. They increase fear. And they actively draw money away from longer-term solutions that DO work.

If you want a healthy society with less crime, you have to invest in it. Free, robust, abundant public education for all. Free healthcare for all. Livable wages for all. According to all the evidence, that’s it. That’s what works. Because healthy, educated, employed people commit less crime – and they contribute to the economy.

Fear-based thinking claims that this means less for you. Facts show that it means more for everybody. It’s the definition of a thriving economy.

In a society that works for everybody, maybe that driver would not have slipped through the cracks. Maybe he would have received the care he needs long before he reached this crisis.

A few things are certain: Putting him in prison won’t bring anyone back, it won’t fix him, and keeping him there will be expensive. Killing him would make us killers.

So, no, a conservative government will never be the answer. I’m all for curbing wasteful spending, but you can’t rely on short term fear-based thinking to define “wasteful”. The question is: do we want to live in fear, or do we have the will to invest in a better future for all of us?

We vote on Monday.