Dead Wild Roses

Canadians finally have decided that being in the vanguard of international Neo-liberal community isn’t so shit hot after all.  The whole free markety/trickle-downy charade was looking dilapidated and tired; the fear-stick had been applied to the public, with such magnitude and frequency, that suddenly Conservative ideology seemed retrograde even quaint.  How engaging are the grand policy strategies of “GWB-lite” after ten years of living the Conservative dream?

We should give the Harper government full marks for stretching those ideological skid-marks of neo-liberal ideology out as far as (they) he did.   The hard sell on Neo-liberalism had to go, and off it went, with Canadians giving the Liberal party of Canada a firm mandate and majority to… well…  not be the Conservatives.

This is what worries me the most.  Like the two business class parties in the US, the federal PC’s and Liberals in Canada both offer oligarchy approved governance styles.  The main difference is that the Liberals like to use lube while buggering the public trust, while the Conservatives use a handful of sand.  Our social system was savaged by the Liberal government of the 90’s under false pretenses – this same government also approved NAFTA – the free investors agreement – that has been savaging our domestic economy since its inception.  Is being sold down the river wistfully by a hand-wringing government ‘forced to make the tough decisions’ any different than one that outfits the public with lead boots and kick off the docks?

Comparing the election wins of Obama and Trudeau reveals similarities that, for progressive voters, ought to inspire some trepidation.   Hope and Change may inspire the imagination, but implementing actual societal change is *hard* and given the political realities of the situation.  I really want to believe Justin Trudeau when he says, “the old Canada we knew and loved, is back”.

When he gets us out of the Trans Pacific Partnership – the latest free investor agreement and curb stomp to the domestic economy – I might start to believe him.