There is a poll out today by Forum Poll that actually has the Conservative Party of Canada ahead of the Trudeau Liberals - this despite the unknown entity of Andrew Scheer as the CPC leader.
It shows many Canadians moving back to the Conservatives. After the Stephen Harper debacle - that's not a desirable prospect.
The Trudeau Liberals are defining themselves as ultra-tolerant socially while moving themselves to fiscal conservatives with policies regarding trade deals, pipelines, and big (foreign) corporations. They have also taken a page out of Harper's book - by ignoring their promise to end the First Past the Post system.
This combination will probably fail in the next election if not corrected - quickly.
Canadians on majority are a very tolerant lot and we do live in a multi-cultural country. But there are feelings of angst within the population - and feelings that we are being too tolerant.
Some of this is coming from the diametrically opposed positions of protecting human rights socially - while continuing to deal with Saudi Arabia and other religious states for business purposes.
In Canada our government is not run on a religious platform. In fact Trudeau comes from a perspective that religion is a personal choice and is a freedom.
The story regarding Saudi Arabia funding schools in Canada though presents a real problem. It is a foreign government which is run on the basis that Sunni-Islam is the state religion. Their laws are dictated by religion. When money from that country is being used to expand and run an Islamic private school in Ottawa - people begin to question what the outcome of that may be. Schools in Canada should be funded within Canada.
There are already disputes in Canada regarding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the freedom of religious beliefs. For instance will Sharia Law be allowed in circumstances regarding that faith (marriage, divorce, ans infidelity as an example) and if that will replace in those circumstances Canadian Law. This is true of other religions as well.
Then there are situations like the one witnessed in Quebec where a woman was denied a day in court because she was wearing a Hijab. Although a Superior Court found the Judge erred - the Court would not grant that all cases would end up with the same result.
What of - equality for women? This becomes very complex even on the global level. In all cultures and most religions there is room for complaint regarding the inequality of women.
In Canada - Trudeau has made it a very public cause to ensure that women are equally represented in Parliament and all Canadian institutions - yet at the same time feeling very comfortable with religious leaders/heads of State who do not practice or believe in the same.
For as far back as history takes us - women defined by religions - have not been equal. The cause of equality for women has been and continues to be a struggle. The same is not true of men. Men are not fighting backwards all the time - religion always places them ahead of women in some way or another.
It used to be that Canada had ongoing debates on equalization, transfer payments to provinces, universal healthcare, democratic reform, debts and deficits, indigenous peoples, and the woes of Confederation. Nowadays much of parliament is tied up with the rights of one religious group or another, immigration from Muslim countries, the Hijab, freedom of speech versus what is hate, and how to balance the rights of women versus the cultural rights of women.
On the fiscal side - all is wide open. If it's good for Canadian business - we will deal, trade, and cooperate with countries that continue to execute based on sexual preference, countries that continue to treat women as property, countries that restrict freedom of speech and the press, countries that have and do fund terrorist organizations, and countries that continue to run under a dictatorship.
This is causing Canadians to rethink - this is driving Canadians back to an extreme on the social far-right.
We have just witnessed an insurgence of support for the extreme-right party in Germany and we all know what happened in the USA.
When Capitalist countries are attracted to wealth - and a dictatorship offers them an ability to increase wealth - potential social consequences may not be that attractive.
Canada is a tolerant nation - but now our people are worried that it might become intolerant if religious views and practices of other religious states become too influential in our society.
Pierre Trudeau once said:
‘There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation’
likewise
Religious states have no place in the Parliament of Canada.
The younger Trudeau must deal with this sooner rather than later. If not the next election may already be lost.
The younger Trudeau must focus on real democratic reform, a balanced economic agenda, equalization, healthcare for an aging population, federal/provincial relations, problems with trade deals that put corporations ahead of people, the environment, employment and manufacturing, and in Newfoundland and Labrador, Muskrat Falls, the fishery, Search and Rescue, and Federal jobs and establishing a Crown Corporation in our province.
Democracy is about what people want - what they want their country to be - priorities regarding social programs and economic development - advancing human rights - and positively reinforcing democratic principles and enhancing them. It is not about the promotion of any religion, the contortions required to being seen as tolerant (we are tolerant), the hypocritical business dealings with countries that are not democratic and do not protect basic human rights, the attraction of bloodsucking multinational companies at all costs and not about the personal agendas of politicians.
The fact that any scientific poll puts Andrew Scheer and the CPC close - let alone ahead of the Liberals is something that should open some Parliamentarian eyes. Please reflect and do not place us right back with Stephen Harper and his buddies.
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