Happy New Year

I'm wishing you and yours health, happiness, and a very Happy New Year. Here's to truth and justice in 2006!

Canada - This Election Defines Us

I have been glued to blogs, talk radio shows, CPAC, poll results, etc in the last few weeks. My best friend says it is nerdy but she is glad that she has someone to fill her in on what's happening. I don't really enjoy politics in itself however I do consider it important in my country. In fact, this election will be the final defining moment in whether I will be proud and hopeful to be a Canadian. I am afraid that if the Liberals get in again, I will have lost hope for my country and, in conjunction, my fellow Canadians.

I have spent the last 12 years being disappointed when Chretien or Martin would pull the wool over the eyes of my country's citizens, make false promises, fear-monger, and state that I do not hold Canadian values. I have spent the last 12 years watching as the media promoted this agenda and this party. I have been disheartened by the fact that Canadians fell for this time and again.

This election, however, will show me what Canadians truly believe and value. For the first time, I feel the truth is finally out there. The scandals are front page news and due to blogs, I think the media (still with there bias intact and somewhat tilted) is forced to report the facts along with their bias. Canadians now have a good idea what the liberals' "vision" is for this country and I also believe that they have a good idea of Conservative policy and vision for the first time.

I guess what this all boils down to is that when Canadians choose this time, it will be with open eyes. Their choice this time won't be due to my original belief that they are, in general, good-hearted, trusting, somewhat gullible people. Their choice will reflect their decisions for the direction of this country. According to the polls, I am terrified. I am terrified that they truly believe that the liberals are the right government and correct choice for my Canada. It wasn't that they were trusting people; they acknowledge it and agree with it.

If this is the case, then I am past disappointment, disheartenment, and disillusionment. If the people choose this government to lead them, then this Canada is no longer my Canada. So, yes, I watch the news, read the blogs, scan the newspapers, and read the polls hoping that my Canada stands up for itself. The election defines us - with open eyes, you will make a choice. Your choice will tell me whether I have hope for a future in my country.... and whether I can hold my head up high and call it my Canada, my country.

I have also included a speech my father wrote as I feel it is important for Canadians to read. Although we sometimes argue over different issues, I agree with him on this. I pray other Canadians feel the same:

Recently I heard a spokesperson for the N.D.P. state that Canadians needed a sense of assistance. When does a sense of assistance become a state of dependence or a sense of entitlement? I believe that if we humans receive something for nothing long enough we begin to feel that it is due us and its’ value becomes blurred. Further if we feel we are entitled there is no need for gratefulness. Is this the direction that we want for Canada? Do we really want Canada to become a nation of dependent, entitled ingrates?

Paul Martin insists that Liberal values are Canadian values. Do we as a nation really value the goings-on in the ADSCAM Program, the huge over-runs in the Gun Registry Program and many other Federal Government programs. Do we value the state of affairs of our native populations that have been under a Liberal Federal Government 75% of the time over the last 100 years. Did we value the decrease in transfer payments in the 1990’s to the provinces while they made little effort to control their own spending. Do our values include keeping our promises 30% of the time.

There seems to be an attitude on the part of some Canadians that this election is a “ Ho - Hum” election and not really necessary. I would suggest to you the exact opposite. I would suggest to you that this is a defining point in Canadian history and that Canadians must choose between a socialist state program orientated dependent future for Canadians and Canada or a Canada that recognizes a baseline standard of performance and behavior that it will not slip beneath. A Canada that prides itself in principles of honesty, integrity, and accountability, a Canada that takes pride in its democratic process and respects the capabilities and judgments of its citizens to work hard, be responsible and accountable, and have compassion for the aged, the poor and the chronically ill.

Most Canadians don’t begrudge our tax dollars as long as there is accountability that we are getting value for our money. Suggestions are that 40 million dollars is not accounted for in the ADSCAM program. The gun registry runs a billion dollars over its projected budget. How many more billions of dollars of waist could be found if each federal government program was audited by Sheila Frazer?

We as Canadians do not identify with these failures and mismanagement. I as a Canadian am insulted by the very suggestion that I should embrace the Liberal Governments’ failures and their direction of my life.

At the very least Canadians expect the federal liberals to learn from their mistakes. During the tough financial times of the early 1990’s the federal liberal government drastically cut transfer payment to the provinces for health care, all the while proclaiming themselves the saviors of health care. During their administration we have fewer physicians per capita, waiting times have doubled, and our health care system as rated by the United Nations has dropped drastically, in spite of the federal liberal government wallowing in money from over taxation and benefits from the Tories’ Free Trade agreement. In spite of this disastrous showing in the health care area, Paul Martin states he will set up a child care system akin to Medicare. This in their mind is the best they can do. Keep in mind at the other end of the spectrum is the job they have done in supervising and administering programs pertaining to our native peoples. God help us and our children! What will happen to their child care program and further happen to health care if there is a downturn in the economy?

I sometimes wonder if Canadians are suffering to some degree from the Stockholm Syndrome. We have for years been told by the Federal Liberals that in spite of their many transgressions all the alternatives are scary and we are safer with them--- a process that takes away all options and creates total dependence on our “captors”. The farther we go down this road as a people and a nation. Now tell Canadians again why this isn’t a defining election in Canada’s history.

The biggest “boogy man” to keep Canadians captive has been the fear of loss of our Publicly Funded Health Care system by a parallel Privately Funded Health Care System. The fear mongers say physicians presently in the Public system would go to the Private system. Why would they do that. Why wouldn’t they work in both systems? At present most surgeons want more operating room time but the public system does not provide it.

Perhaps if Canada offered some alternative ways of practicing many thousands of our estranged doctors and nurses would return to Canada. Think of what could happen if the present health care system was unburdened by 20 to 30 percent of Canadians that could afford to carry additional insurance but the existing health care budget went in to caring for the chronically ill, the poor and needy, and the frail elderly. Waiting lists would drop drastically and there would be resurgence in the numbers of doctors and nurses in Canada. So what is to fear? Perhaps government funding cutbacks as a percentage of the G.D.P. and a fabricated idea of somebody getting something that someone cannot.

I suggest to you, my fellow Canadians, that this election is pivotal for Canada and Canadians. We can move forward with the confidence of Canadians that founded this great country and the knowledge that we the people of Canada will determine our values, our priorities and our dreams or we can get further embroiled in the Federal Liberal agenda for us which plainly is designed to take away our self determination. We can focus our compassion on the chronically ill, the poor, the misfortunate, and the frail elderly or we can squander our tax money and revenue from non-renewable resources on non-sustainable, non-accountable Liberal programs that attempt the “one size fits all” Liberal agenda that is regressive and demoralizing. We, the people of Canada, demand a federal government that has integrity and accountability. We, the people of Canada demand a federal government that focuses on the needs of the people of Canada without confiscating our right to self determination and the freedoms of choice and opportunity. We, the people of Canada will accept nothing less.

Ouch!

My father pulverized me in racquetball yesterday. I can barely lift my cup of coffee. I guess I won't be able to have a glass of champagne on New Years - he made sure of that!

The guy at the courts (strange man) always tells me to take it easy on my old man whenever I arrive at the courts. Yah, right.

Foray into Cyberworld

After creating this blog, I find that I don't have much to say initially. I will be blogging about politics, life in general, my view of the world, technology, etc.

Suffice it to say that I am a softy at heart but am a bulldog when it comes to what I see as injustices and lack of ethics. You liberals out there are thinking: "Ahhhh... one of us". You are wrong. Liberals talk about injustices and ethics but their view of the world is unrealistic and often causes the injustices in this world. Fanatics are unethical no matter what their persuasion and I find that most liberals are fanatics. Socialists/communists talk of the betterment of humankind however have no notion of true fairness and equality. They stand by the group over an individual and the end justifies the means. This goes completely against my very core. When un-volunteered sacrifices are involved, there is evil afoot.

And so goes my first post...