This sign stands in an empty spring LTC flowerbed.
Field of text made up of a recurring list of front line workers, in differeny colours and sizes of text, including:
“Police, Health Care Workers, Nurses, Manufacturing, Pharmacists, Trades Workers, PSWs, Paramedics, Nurses, Hospital Staff, Firefighters, Day Care Workers, Paramedics, Truck Drivers, Gas Station Attendants, Long Term Care, Postal Delivery, Paramedics, Doctors, Couriers, Grocery Store Staff.
"In the centre is the outline of a maple leaf holding text that reads: To everyone making a difference… Thank You.
”#FLATTENTHECURVE #STOPTHESPREAD"
I took the photo because Grocery Store Staff was listed prominently, and as I’ve been working as a grocery store cashier, I appreciated it.
But looking more closely at the text for the purposes of this post, I became disturbed by the frequency of the word “police.”
Yes, police are front line workers, but bloated police budgets not only deprive valuable social services of funding, the stories of police behaving badly, abusing their power, have not abated despite the pandemic.
So I wouldn’t have this sign on my lawn if you paid me.
Every billionaire is a policy failure. Nearly every millionaire is a policy failure (selling a million books is not a policy failure). Every casino industry millionaire, though?
Definitely a policy failure.
Take Rodney Baker, who made $10.6m in 2019 as the CEO of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, a national racetrack and casino operator. Baker resigned on Sunday, because he did something despicable even by the standards of the casino industry.
Baker and his wife, the actor Ekaterina Baker, chartered a small plane and flew to Beaver Creek, a tiny First Nations community, where they defrauded their way into getting covid vaccinations intended for elders in the White River First Nation.
The Bakers did not quarantine on arrival. Rather, they presented themselves at the remote Yukon community - a community whose isolation has offered some protection from the pandemic - as workers at a local motel. In so doing, they recklessly endangered the whole community.
Then they asked for a ride to the airport, which tipped off clinic workers. Officials caught them in Whitehorse and charged them under the Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act. They were fined $1150 each.
The White River First Nation has asked Yukon authorities to “pursue a more just punishment” (the Act provides for prison sentences of up to six months for violations); they fear that without meaningful penalties, other wealthy sociopaths will follow the Bakers’ example.
I’ve been thinking about this all day, looking for a bright side. There is none. These millionaires will not go to jail. They won’t face social sanction. They’ll be invited to private islands and exclusive parties, wooed by charities and flattered by university fundraisers.
They are part of a long Canadian tradition of depraved, inhuman conduct towards First Nations people. The nation’s money is slathered in pictures of people who did far worse, after all.
These evil, irredeemable people were just upholding a long Canadian tradition.
Canada doesn’t have to be like this.
Vote. But don’t vote “strategically” for what someone else wants.
Vote for what you want.
What I want is Proportional Representation. People think this isn’t a “sexy” thing to be concerned about. I disagree. It will be the change that allows real Real Change to happen.
Greens are the only party I trust to bring it about. And they have policy I can get behind.
And Greens have the best policy on every issue I care about…
Universal Guaranteed Livable Income.
Universal Pharmacare and Healthcare above the neck.
An end to student debt and Post Secondary Education for every student who wants it Gratis.
An end to homelessness and affordable housing for all.
Repudiation of the racist Doctrine of Discovery and decolonization.
And of course the best Climate Action plan.
Because I think this all is necessary, I don’t just vote, I work to help get candidates I want elected. You can too.
Because the voting system Mr Trudeau promised to replace with a system that makes votes count never happened. Mr Trudeau chose the status quo that gave him majority power with a minority of the vote.
Which means the system is still stacked against fairness. So we have to work harder. I’m sick to death of terrible problems like this that will never change if we keep empowering the status quo by alternately giving Liberals and Conservatives a blank cheque.
The pandemic has left many people with time on their hands. This is s great chance to find out what we could do and do it.
Don’t take my word for who to vote for— find out about the different political parties so you can at least cast an informed vote. And did you know: more eligible Canadian voters don’t vote than vote for our faux majority governments?
Decide for yourself how to vote.
Then do it. Vote for what *you* want.
Because things can change. But only if we make it happen.
